  Mystery
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"If there were no mystery left to explore life would get rather dull, wouldn't it?"
Sidney Buchman
Welcome to this week's edition of the Mystery Newsletter. A mystery by nature is a question in search of an answer - a puzzle! And when we uncover the answer to the question, effectively solving the puzzle moments before the writer gives us the solution, follow clues tactile and cerebral, the momentary satisfaction is sublime!
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A different take on 'planting clues'
My rose bush is beginning her second bloom. She started as a $1.50 stick several years ago and is now about four feet tall, with branches and blooms that morph from the softest hint of pink to a vibrant heart
What turned this stick with a few potent thorns into a blooming bush of beauty – from ouch to oh, wow. Well, perhaps it’s watering, weeding, pruning, or, perhaps it’s what’s buried in the soil.
Now that’s a mystery, I did unearth a skeleton with my spade while digging the 12 inch hold to plant the stick, and a neighbor told me it was a ferret, then took the fleshless skeleton so his young son wouldn’t see it and think it was his missing cat; or so he said. But I wonder at the speed with which the stick became a fragrant blooming bush, if there is something else buried there, and why my neighbor was so quick to take the skeleton I dug up in the back yard.
All this is compost for a mystery ~ nature holds clues aplenty for the wordsmith to fashion into a mystery to entrance the reader as the bloom of a rose enraptures the senses. There is actually a sub-genre of mysteries devoted to gardening. Summertime, while we pull those pesky weeds to give breath to the prize tomato or pumpkin, prune back roses or lilac bushes, is the perfect time to observe the life that abounds in nature and weave a story of intrigue, mayhem, and mystery. The gardening mystery is generally soft-boiled, with attention to the characters and their interaction with each other as well as the surroundings. Perhaps a summer thunderstorm traps one in a mulberry patch, sheltered by surrounding oaks carved with hearts and names from centuries past. Maybe the nightshade is just so enticing that one doesn't realize it's growing around poison oak dripping dew into the gardener's morning coffee. The scenic descriptions, having your reader partake of the experience with all his/her senses is germane to the gardening mystery, as the setting is often a bed of clues (and perhaps a red herring (buried in compost, mayhap?).
If you enjoy flower or vegetable gardening (I call it playing in the dirt ~ hmmm, a clue perhaps there?), cultivate herbs, or simply appreciate and enjoy partaking of the splendor of a summer day in the garden or a field, add a bit of intrigue, fellow wordsleuth, and there's a mystery to delight your readers. To expand your technical knowledge and make your story believable and 'natural,' consider subscribing to an herbalist or gardening magazine (or check one out at the library). As well as cogent resources, such publications are potential markets for your story or poem of mystery and intrigue!
As the dog days of summer encroach on the northern hemisphere, delight in the long days and tend your garden of words ~ may your gardening mystery bloom resplendent |
Some intrigue and mystery from our fellow garden afficionados
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And perchance an intriguing challenge for the wordsmith's virtual 'gardening' gloves
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Thank you for welcoming me into your virtual home (air conditioned or not), and I invite you to share your favorite gardening or nature-related mystery.
Until we next meet,
Keep Writing!
Kate
Kate - Writing & Reading
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Mystery: July 23, 2008 Issue [#2519]
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