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Mystery: August 31, 2022 Issue [#11537]




 This week: Mysterious settings
  Edited by: eyestar~* Author IconMail Icon
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Table of Contents

1. About this Newsletter
2. A Word from our Sponsor
3. Letter from the Editor
4. Editor's Picks
5. A Word from Writing.Com
6. Ask & Answer
7. Removal instructions

About This Newsletter

*Magnify* Hi readers! I am happy to be here as your guest editor.

“Places are never just places in a piece of writing. If they are, the author has failed. Setting is not inert. It is activated by point of view.”
― Carmen Maria Machado, In the Dream House



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Letter from the editor

*Magnify* We humans are by nature curious. Mysteries attract us as we love to ask questions, solve problems and get to an end!! I know I get frustrated when I can't know something for sure! I recall reading a book called "Chariots of the Gods" many years ago. It gave some cool ideas on how certain glyphs and symbols on the earth, which could not be seen on earth but from above. They were created in times before we even had aircraft! It was fascinating and raised more questions about the nature of weird things on the earth. How will we ever know for sure? There are so many archeological mysteries. For example, How did people back then lift those massive Easter Island Statues? There is one cool idea about using sound frequency to lift and move rocks.

*Smile* I really enjoy mysteries set in mysterious places or around mysterious ideas like Dan Brown's "Da Vinci Code" where we trek through a vast scape of holy places and symbolism seeking the illusive holy grail! Or Indiana Jones on his archeological quests. Even Poirot went to Egypt and dealt with a mummy's curse!

I have often read about natural mysteries and pondered. As we evolve we may find the answers. Diving into a few of the natural wonders now I think that some of the places or facts could be potential for mystery tales.

*Questiony* Would it be cool to use the Singing Sands from one of 35 deserts as a site! Characters could be researchers and perhaps see something going on that they shouldn't see! No one knows how these sands hum like bees or sound like Gregorian Chant. {which I love hearing). Perhaps the size of grains or the speed at which they whistle through the air creates it. *Think* In Prince Edward Island there is another beach where the sand sings due to the high silica content. I have walked on it and indeed a tone with every step!



Or about a supernatural mystery tale set in the Crooked Forest of West Pomerania, Poland where there are 400 oddly shaped pines, planted in the 1930's, that no one can explain! https://www.discovery.com/exploration/the-mystery-of-the-crooked-forest
Could it be wizardry?

*Bursty* What about a mystery set around the ancient Voynich Manuscript, written in the Renaissance in Northern Italy 600 years ago and even now interpreting the script remains a mystery. Many have tried to decode the mixture of handwritten Latin letters, Arabic numbers, and unknown characters. Recently there has been a little break through using Hebrew as a base for the language. The 240 page book is filled with words and images of plants, astrology signs, floating heads,, fantastic creatures (including dragons), castles, women bathing, etc. Researchers have broken sections in to different categories like biology, cosmology, pharmaceutical, and even recipes. The work goes on.

How about someone stealing the Voynich manuscript, thinking it has some magic power. The curator of the museum where it is held could be killed and the theft is just a red herring!

*Magnify* Other sites which involve the mystery of how stones were made and moved and their purpose are Easter Island and Stonehenge . How could those places be used as a site or background of a mystery? Even in Midsomer Murders the the crop circles were used as an important part of the story! *Wink* The Easter Island Heads even had bodies apparently! *Shock*

These authors write with an archeological background!

Elly Griffiths in the 'Stone Circle" has her hero find a dead child in a stone circle. Barbara Cleverly takes us to Crete to dig up the tomb of the king in "The Tomb of Zeus." Elizabeth Peters writes of Egypt digging up murder in the Pyramids in "The Last Camel Died at Noon."
Aaron Elkins wrote "Uneasy Relations" set in Gibraltar where part-Neanderthal part-human child remains were found and a murder interrupts his attending the conference.

*Questionr* Could you write a mystery in a mysterious place? *Smile* What fabulous place would you choose?
Do you have some favourite mysteries that take place is mystery or exotic places?

Mystery is everywhere so keep stirring that imagination and curiousity!

eyestar


https://bang2write.com/2020/10/top-5-mistakes-mystery-writers-make.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npJ8LecBrNo singing sands PEI
https://www.thetravel.com/strange-archeological-finds-unexplainable/
https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/archaeology-mystery


Editor's Picks

Our Writers Write!

  "OAK ORCHARD" Open in new Window. (18+)
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a Del Delaney, P.I. mystery...
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