by jphilo | Nov 6, 2025 | Daily Life, Family
I choose writing over crafting and decorating almost every time. Except for when my grandkids request a crafternoon or remind me that __________________________ (fill in the upcoming holiday here) is coming and we need to decorate.
Then off I go to Hobby Lobby or Michael’s in search of craft projects that are 1) simple, 2) related to the upcoming holiday, and 3) don’t use glitter. Before each shopping trip I ask Hiram to get down the box(es) of decorations related to the holiday, if such a box exists. That’s a big if.*
My pre-Thanksgiving 2025 foray to Hobby Lobby hit the motherlode, which consisted of 2 crafts that met all three of my requirements. I brought home the loot, dropped it off with Hiram and the grands, and left on a final errand. By the time I got back the pumpkin project––which everyone agreed was hardly a craft at all as it consisted slotting together each pumpkin’s 2 pieces without cutting or gluing them––and were finishing the last of 6 turkey puppets. The first 4 puppets the kids made came out like this:
At that point their interest waned, they tossed out the instructions and made these:••
Then they turned the remaining feathers into this:***
Today, after spending 6 days recovering from the energy I had expended to avoid doing the actual crafts, I decorated the living and dining rooms for Thanksgiving with the fruits of their labors. Now I’m going to bed to rest. It will take from now until the Sunday after Thanksgiving for me to build up enough energy to shop for Christmas crafts and decorate the tree, not to mention determining why my grandchildren enjoy doing both.
Sometimes I wonder if their DNA contains any of mine.
*As of this writing, we have 1 small box containing Halloween and Thanksgiving decorations, many boxes of Christmas decorations, and no others. Like the title of this post states, decorating is not my thing.
••I just realized that the puppet on the right is upside down. That’s what comes of using feet for eyes, kids!
***Is it just me or does it look like a weird cyclops flower to you as well?
by jphilo | Oct 23, 2025 | Book Updates, West River Mystery Series
DIY sausage, dachshunds, head healing, and chocolate cake. What in the world are they doing in the same title? Perhaps nothing in your world, but they’ve been main events in the Philo family’s world since Hiram and I returned from vacation a couple weeks ago.
Upon arriving home, we became aware that while we were out galavanting, the family at home had been doing stuff.
As in facilitating the imminent arrival of Long John, the dachshund pictured above. (If you’re interested, the slipper behind the dog belongs to our son-in-law. If you’re not interested, you’ll want to skip this parenthetical explanation.) My daughter and her family lost their dog to old age not long ago and planned to wait a few months before getting another one. But then they saw an ad for Long John, a 3-year-old rescue dog up for adoption in the next town over. They went to meet him and changed their minds. He’s been here for a week now. As of this writing, he is joined to my daughter at the hip. Both the grandkids are convinced the dog’s devotion is in the process of transferring to them any minute.
Hiram and I have been doing stuff as well.
The most challenging stuff required patience rather than conscious effort as we waited for our bodies to heal––me from a split chin and him from a tooth extraction. I’m pleased to report that my stitches are out and I’m doing fine. Hiram’s glad to be past the first step in the several month process of getting a dental implant. Until that’s done, the dentist created a sort of false tooth retainer for him to wear. It makes Hiram feel like he’s in junior high again––self-conscious about how it looks and worried about tossing it in the garbage after school hot lunch.
Writing stuff is taking a big bite out of my time these days too.
I’m almost halfway through the first revision of the See Jane Stop, Drop, and Roll! manuscript. In other words, I’m almost halfway through the “this-is-absolute-trash-and-anyone-who-starts-to-read-it-will-stop-after-the-first-page-it’s-so-bad” phase of writing. Every session of revising leads to me craving sour cream chocolate cake. You’ll have to read the book to find out why.
In other stuff, I decided to take a big leap and make my own sausage seasoning.
The idea’s been banging around in my head for a while, and it surfaces whenever Hiram and I use our Kitchenaid food grinder to turn pork loins and/or pork butt roasts into ground pork. (It’s a good substitute for expensive ground beef.) Since ground pork + seasonings = sausage, I took the metaphorical pig by the snout and gave this recipe for sage sausage a try. It went over well with everyone, so next week I’ll try out a recipe for Italian sausage seasoning. I thought about hiring Long John to be my taste tester as a ploy to gaining his devotion, but fear the grandkids might resent me for that.
DIY sausage, dachshunds, head healing, and chocolate cake are things I can handle. Ripping a happy family apart by bribing a dachshund? Well, that’s the kind of stuff I wouldn’t touch with a Long John sized pole.
by jphilo | Oct 9, 2025 | See Jane Dance!, South Dakota, West River Mystery Series
I’m homesick for South Dakota. Had our last visit been a while ago, the feeling would be understandable. But we just got home 3 days ago, so the homesickness is puzzling. The best explanation is how absolutely perfect our trip was (a week in Spearfish and a week on our friends’ ranch in Harding County), with a couple notable imperfections. You’ll soon see why, even with the imperfections, I’m homesick for South Dakota.
The Many Perfect Bits
- Participating in the South Dakota Book Festival in Spearfish was a dream come true! The workshop I presented was well-attended. So was being part of a diverse panel of mystery writers. Nat Cassidy represented horror Shannon Baker. represented adventure, and I represented cozy mysteries. We had so much fun talking about our craft and answering questions posed by the moderator and audience members.
- At the Festival, I met one of my favorite mystery authors, William Kent Krueger. He endorsed See Jane Dance!, and I may or may not have cried while thanking him for his kindness. Hiram took a picture of us while I fan girled.
- The weather was gorgeous in Spearfish and Harding County. The leaves were beginning to turn in both places. We took in the colors on a drive through Spearfish Canyon. A week later we did the same thing in the Cave Hills located in northern Harding County. On our last night there 1.5 inches of rain fell overnight. Rain is a blessing in semi-arid Harding Country whenever it falls. Local ranchers consider 1.5 inches in October to be perfect weather, and we do too.
- The West River Cousins Reunion organized by one of my two West River cousins. We three cousins and our three patient spouses gathered for lunch one day and talked for five hours straight. Then we had an impromptu boat ride at Lake Sheridan in the Black Hills on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. What a blessing to be together and remember our parents, grandparents, and our large extended family!
- Hiram and I saw many old friends at the Camp Crook Volunteer Fire Department BBQ near the end of our stay in Harding County. Several of them recounted hunting stories from the 1970s and 80s. Some of their hunting tales will make their way in the seventh book in the West River Mystery Series. Whether they do or not, listening to what people said will add depth and color to Book #7. Being with our friends was wonderful. Saying good-bye to them was hard. They are the main reason I’m homesick for South Dakota already.
- Thanks to many hours driving across South Dakota and down time built into our trip, I was able to approve the final proofreading edits to the See Jane Ride! manuscript and send it to the publisher for type setting. Arriving home without that deadline looming was a great stress reliever.
The Imperfect Bits
- Hiram’s 50-year-old root canal gave up the ghost a couple days before we drove home. The tooth split, but didn’t come out and it wasn’t painful. Setting up appointments for fixing it seems to be a full time job!
- We were about to head out on the final leg of the trip home on Monday when I tripped and split my chin open on the asphalt. Hiram bandaged it up, I called our local doctor, and was in his office getting three stitches an hour after we drove into town.
Not only did I bring home a scar for a souvenir, the experience could show up in a future See Jane book. What more could I ask for?
by jphilo | Aug 7, 2025 | See Jane Ride!, Sturgis rally
Hiram and I returned from vacation a week ago. Since then the mountains of laundry have been scaled, the mail and bills are under control, and I found time to reflect on the summer of 2025’s top ten greatest hits. You’ll find the bare bones of the list below. To read the fleshed out version click on the link to my August newsletter over on Substack. Now on to the bare bones of the summer of 2025’s top ten greatest hits:
#10: Our Little Lime Punch Hydrangea
#9: The Joni & Friends Retreat in Lexington, Nebraska.
#8: Back-To-School Shopping Stocking Stuffer Shopping
#7: July Rains
#6: The Gracie Allen
#5: Arthritis Relief
#4: Colorado Peaches
#3: Sweet Corn!
#2: BLTs
#1: We Missed the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally
Along with fleshing out the summer of 2025’s top ten greatest hits, the newsletter will fill you in on what’s happening during the rest of the summer and in early fall. If you like leave a comment about what you consider to be the summer of 2025’s top ten greatest hits for you and your family.
by jphilo | Jun 11, 2025 | See Jane Dig!, West River Mystery Series
The 2025 South Dakota Festival of Books will be seeing Jane and me this September in Spearfish. Word came in late May that my workshop proposal was accepted, and I couldn’t be more pleased. Here are a few reasons why:
- Our son was born at the Spearfish hospital in May of 1982, a day my husband and I will never forget.
- Before our baby was born we loved to camp at the Spearfish City Campground. After he was born, we didn’t. Now that he’s grown we stay there when we pass through because it is a beautiful place. We’ve already reserved our campsite for during the Festival.
- Spearfish is located on the northern edge of the Black Hills, which means the city is West River, as in The West River Mysteries. What could be finer than to be smack dab in the middle of the series’ target audience?
- The city is ninety miles from Camp Crook, where we lived from 1978-1985. After the Festival we’ll head up there to visit friends for a week. (Don’t tell anybody, but that’s the reason we love best.)
Here’s what I know so far about the Festival:
- It will be held September 26-28 at a variety of venues throughout the town.
- There will be well-known authors and lesser known ones (like me) doing workshops, but all of them have South Dakota, Midwestern, or Western roots.
- Most of the events are free, and there will be many, many books available for purchase.
- Henry’s Books, my favorite Spearfish bookstore, will be handling the See Jane book sales and my book signing. Wahoo!
- My confirmed workshop is called Building a Book from the Bones of Your Life. It uses See Jane Dig! to demonstrate how to use life events as a springboard for a story, as well as how to augment it through creative research.
- There’s a good chance I’ll present another workshop and participate in an author panel.
More details will be passed along at a later date. For now feast your eyes on this photo of the Spearfish City Campground. Yes, it really is this beautiful!
