The Secrets of Demystifying the Beats: Whittle Suspects
We have a new How-to book out on how to write satisfying mysteries. Learn more about the "whittle suspects" beat this this week's blog.
I Love Graveyards…and Genealogy
Labor Day Saturday, we drove up to my mother-in-law’s hometown in northeastern New Mexico because she wanted to lay flowers on her mother’s and her husband’s mother’s graves. Since it meant visiting graveyards, I was in, because I absolutely love to visit graveyards, even if I don’t know anyone present. Ask my kids and husband. And wait for their eye rolls. This is my husband’s side of the family, who have been in New Mexico since the Spanish first arrived and before from their Indigenous genetics. I’ve actually been able to follow their lineage back to the late 1700s. Any …
Signed book? Come to COAS! I’d love to see you.
For anyone in Las Cruces and surrounds, I will be selling and signing books at COAS Downtown bookstore on October 22nd, starting at 10:00 o'clock.
Exciting events in September … I’d love to see you!
I have a number of happenings in September, and I hope you can join me for them!
Krypton, Kryptonite, and the Periodic Table of Death
Krypton (Kr) is colorless, odorless, tasteless (Hey. Like iocaine powder) except it is chemically inert, which means it really doesn’t react with anything (1). It is essentially harmless. Or is it? All the noble gases can asphyxiate if you visit a small unventilated space that is full of Kr and not full of enough oxygen or have friends in low places because Kr is five times heavier than air. The only upside is that Kr has a whole-body narcotic effect, so death is relatively painless. There is a radioactive version, Kr-85, that is highly toxic (2) and can cause all …
Nitrogen and the Periodic Table of DEATH
N2 gas literally bathes us inside and out because air is 78% N2 (5). Wait. Isn’t the air we breathe oxygen? Around 21% of it is, just like your middle school science teacher told you. And though we breathe N2 in, we don’t need it and exhale it out unchanged. But N can be chemically modified with both positive and deadly consequences.