The Cozy Mystery List Blog

I have been a little distracted the past two weeks. It seems that when I am really enjoying reading my Cozy Mystery book, I am content to simply read. But when I find myself struggling to like an author, then I find other things to occupy me while on my Kindle.

I made the mistake of buying a few games for my Kindle, thinking they would come in handy on trips. When I bought them, I had no idea that I would find myself playing them in lieu of reading! Well, maybe I thought I would occasionally, but certainly I had no idea that when I didn’t quite care for an author, I would find myself so easily distracted. (These distractions mean that it sometimes takes me a rather long time to get to my 50-page-rule cut-off!)

My very favorite distraction is Mahjong Solitaire. I  don’t play regular Mahjong, but I have a feeling that this version is very different than the “real Mahjong” game. This is more of a matching game, in which you try to beat your best time. (I have actually been able to succeed “solving” the matching in a little over three minutes, but that has only happened one time.) It’s a pretty mindless game, but I enjoy it… a lot. (Not at all anything like the games either of my computer savvy children would have ever liked!)

My other game is Sudoku Works. This is just like the “real Sudoku” that you can find in most major newspapers. It’s another game that doesn’t require a lot of brain power, but I am really enjoy it, also. (There are a lot worse things to be addicted to!)

Do you have distractions that you find yourself doing when you sit down to read your mysteries? Does it matter whether you really like the author or are you like me, easily distracted when you aren’t particularly enjoying an author?

When I organize my monthly Mystery Book New Releases pages, I go through a list of seven books that were slated as being published some time in the past, but that haven’t seen the light of day yet. For some reason or another, the books simply didn’t get published when they were due to be released.

My list of “CHECK FOR THESE BOOKS“:

Madelyn Alt: In Charm’s Way

Jill Churchill: Smoke Gets in Your Eyes

Nancy Fairbanks (aka Nancy Herndon): Blood Pudding

Jerrilyn Farmer: Desperately Seeking Sushi

Alice Kimberly: The Ghost and the Bogus Bestseller

Diana Orgain: Nursing a Grudge  – I’m happy to say that as I am editing this blog entry, Diana Orgain is writing up a storm!

Melinda Wells (aka Linda Palmer): Seven-Layer Death – This news is very sad, but  Lynn S just showed us Linda Palmer’s obituary.

I occasionally hear from Cozy Mystery readers who ask about the release dates of the above seven books. My responses back to them say (essentially) “I don’t know.” I know they are disappointed by not getting a letter back saying “That book will be out next month.” It’s always a disappointment for a fan of an author to find out the long-awaited book won’t be published quite yet or worse, ever.

So each month I’ll continue to check for these mysteries. And hopefully, one of these days, I will get the very happy news that our wait is over.

*** *** Here’s part of an update that I received from Janet, a very, very helpful librarian:

Madelyn Alt: In Charm’s Way – currently scheduled for publication November 11, 2013

Nancy Fairbanks (aka Nancy Herndon): Blood Pudding – it says November 11, 2013, but it looks kind of iffy.

Alice Kimberly: The Ghost and the Bogus Bestseller – currently scheduled for publication December 30, 2013

Thanks, Janet! (As you can see, I didn’t post the ones you weren’t quite sure of.)

I have mentioned that I took down our bird feeders (except for the Hummingbird feeder) because they were attracting so many squirrels to our yard. The squirrels proved to be very costly for us. One time they bore a hole into our attic, which meant I had to have a roofer and a plumber out to fix our house. The second instance of our squirrels’ mischief was when they ate a hole into the base of our chimney. A different roofing company took care of our house that time. (The previous roofer was in jail!)

The third (and hopefully final!) squirrel event was when they bore a hole into the side of our house. Apparently the seeds the birds dropped were only an appetizer for our squirrels. They were more interested in our wood and shingles!

Anyway – to get back to my initial reason for writing this entry:

My husband and I really missed seeing all of the birds (not squirrels!) that used to frequent our back yard. So much so that we finally broke down and got a Goldfinch bird feeder.

Have any of you seen these sweet, little birds? They are tiny! We have one Hummingbird (a real bully!) who is almost as big as our Goldfinches. I’m not sure what the Goldfinches sound like, because I don’t think I’ve ever heard them.  They are a very docile type of bird. There isn’t a lot of aggressive chatter that goes on out there.

It has been a slow process for these tiny birds to feel comfortable enough to come to our back yard to feed. Every once in a while the sparrows insist on trying to use the Goldfinch feeder, which in turn scares the little guys away. I feel bad for the sparrows, since I know their beaks are too big to get any seeds from the tiny openings in the Goldfinch feeder, which of course means no seeds below to attract squirrels. However, when I see the sparrows bully the Goldfinches I don’t feel bad enough to put up our old bird feeders again.

Twenty years ago, when our children were both little, I never would have envisioned my husband and I watching the birds in our back yard. Perhaps this is why they call this stage in our lives the Empty Nest syndrome!