My mom called me this afternoon, all excited.
"I was reading those one-line things that go across my computer? And I saw one that said, 'St. Louis Women's Mystery Writing Group, A Sisterhood in Crime!' I don't know if you can find it, but it's about half the page down on my Yahoo! page that I read my one-line things on."
Mom knows that I know of some women in St. Louis who know how to write. And they have a writing group. I was sure that was what she was getting at. Why else would she call me all breathless with the news? "Well, I don't know if any of my gals write mystery. At least enough to be in a mystery-writer's group."
"Oh, I just thought you might want to hear about this."
"Did you read the article?"
"Read it? No."
"Then why would you call all excited about it? Just because you thought I might know somebody in it?"
"Well, it said, 'A SISTERHOOD IN CRIME!'"
"Wait. Did you think they were going out and committing crimes and then writing about it?"
"Uh...yes. That's the first thing I thought of."
"Mom. It just means they all write about crime. That's their connection."
"Oh. I'll let you go. I just thought you might want to read it."
I kind of forgot about the whole thing until that darn article popped up on Google News. I didn't even have to search through those one-line things on Yahoo! Of course I clicked on it to see what the hubbub was all about. I called Mom back this evening to update her.
"I don't know any of the writers mentioned in that article. But you'll be relieved to know that they don't go out and commit crimes. They get ideas from places they visit and things they read and guest speakers that come to talk to their group. You don't have to worry about them committing crimes."
"All right. Maybe I'll try to find that again and read it."
"Yeah. You always did like Jessica Fletcher."
I wouldn't call off the hounds so quickly.
ReplyDeleteI went to a couple of those meetings. One of the women was elderly and looked sweet. She even brought her husband to the meeting and made him sit away from the group, crammed up next to the wall.
The next meeting--no husband. What had happened to him?
I wonder...I think she offed him, and then started writing a novel about the horrendous crime she had committed.
In my opinion, your mother stumbled onto the truth--and the truth is as obvious as an elderly man lying on the floor, no longer breathing, a man who insists on wearing white socks with sandals and his shorts hiked up to his armpits.
Jessica Fletcher these dames ain't...more like Jesse James than Jessica Fletcher...
This sounds like an interesting group.
ReplyDeleteSioux,
ReplyDeleteWhat? That woman made her husband sit crammed up next to the wall? The NERVE of her! Everybody knows the husband should be left in the car. I'm sure that's where he was at the next meeting. She couldn't do away with him, because then she is stuck with only ONE plot. If she keeps him around, she has all those rich fantasies about how he might meet his demise, and the ensuing coverup.
Wood chipper, Madam?
*********
Stephen,
Apparently, the St. Louis Post Dispatch thought so, too.