A Hog in a Log is about a young wild hog named Pog, who faces many obstacles while looking for a place to weather a bad storm that is approaching. This probably wouldn't bother most hogs but Pog is unique in the fact that he doesn't like to be cold or get wet.

Asked and Answered: Episode Three The Case of the Acrimonious Alliteration Nearly six years have gone by since a quartet of psychopaths were brought to justice. The crime-free years in Portsmouth brought Chief Wesley Frey high praise from the press and the citizenry alike, but his retirement banquet is planned. Who will be the new chief? Will it be someone promoted from the ranks or will the mayor and the city council bring in an out-of-town candidate? In either case, most thought it was t...

In William Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, a speaker, Marcellus, a guard, talks to his philosophical comrade, Horatio, saying, “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.” The reason of his saying this is just not that Denmark was facing dirt, but the situation in Denmark was similar to a fish that rots from head to tail, or in other words, it shows that everything was not good at the top of the political hierarchy. A similar situation is happening in Portsmouth as Chief Tim Slone is battlin...

Your author would like to make three points. First, he believes if he can visualize the exciting climax occurring in the last chapter of a book, he can write the chapters leading up to that ending. Not so with The Last House on the Left. You author thought that the title could lead to an exciting plot he started writing without an ending in sight—a different approach. We will let you decide if it worked. Second, the plot did develop. The series of murders occurred when the leader of a Russ...

If you haven’t read episode 7, The New Guy In Town, you should. Between 2001 and 2012, your author penned six mysteries using Portsmouth, New Hampshire, as the setting. The Portsmouth police force was very small—a chief, a lieutenant, two detectives, several other officers, and a dispatcher. They worked night and day, weekday and weekends, trying to solve a very compelling crime. The villains included two serial killers, a serial kidnapper, a pair of very wealthy sociopaths, a corrupt mayo...

Gone, but where? Episode Four Case of the Puzzling Similes Noble Alan Palmer was a resident of Portsmouth during the “asked and answered” serial murder case. He followed the case in the newspaper and on TV. He was envious of the notoriety that the media gave the killer. He wanted that fame for himself. But the thought of killing someone sickened him. He thought of his name, Noble Alan Palmer (NAP), then it hit him—Napper. He would become a serial kidnapper. He would be known as Nappy. When...

The Truth Book In 1995, the author was invited to attend the fiftieth reunion of the eighth grade class of School No. 54 Indianapolis, Indiana, located at Tenth and Dearborn streets. It was a marvelous evening filled with connecting name badges with faces (and bodies) that have changed greatly during that period of fifty years, remembering long, almost-forgotten experiences, laughter, and dancing, but all came to an end too quickly. The author, a writer of murder mysteries and is in need o...

It is predawn as a young boy and girl sit on a hillside, awaiting the sun’s first rays to expose an outcrop of granite that, from a distance, resembles the profile of a man. The outcrop has been called for centuries the Old Man of the Mountain, or the Great Stone Face. (Note: For centuries, it has been a prophecy by local Indian tribes that a great man would appear some day with the same profile.) The young girl, Becky, believes the prophecy to be that if a young girl first sees the profil...

WeWillFindYouaMatch.com, a computer romance, was written by your author when his son started looking for a mate and found a wife. As you might expect, computer dates often don’t work out. Your author thought it might be interesting if Angus Morgan, our computer dater, had five dates that were disasters before he found success. Their romance started in Oroville, California, and continued in the British Isles and, eventually, in Paris. In 1992, your author and his editor wife, Bobbi, spent t...

Penelope and Antigone Travails of a German Immigrant Family Years ago, the author was acting in a college play and mispronounced Penelope as Pene-lope. The cast chided then laughed. The author thought the mispronouncing was worth remembering. Years later, when studying Greek mythology, the author came across the character Antigone and realized that using Penelope and Antigone as characters might prove to be humorous. Twin sister, but what about a surname? Once again, the author goofed. Whe...

In this third and concluding installment to the Salinas trilogy, we follow the cancer diagnosis, treatment, and death of Nina's mother Linda-the effect of which jolts the fate and fortitude of her entire family, testing their very will go on. It is, however, Linda's legacy of her fascination with, and love for birds, most notably one special red-tailed hawk she calls Guerrero Místico, that points the way to collective strength, resiliency, and hope. Such hope is not just for the L...

In 1939, Agatha Christie wrote her most successful novel, one she said was the most difficult to write. It is the story of a madman who invited ten people to spend a holiday on an island off the Devon coast of England. They were lured by either a promise of employment or a chance to meet old friends. The madman’s real motive for the invitation was to have them murdered, which occurred. The title of Christie’s book was And Then There Were None. The author of The Blue of Portsmouth PD series...