CATCHING WINTER HERE AND THERE

Another melt is underway with the snow nearly gone. Colder temps are coming as the week progresses along with a few days of sunshine forecast. We’ll have to wait and see what happens.

UPDATE ON CALLING PAPERBACK VERSION

 

 

I promised I'd update you went the paperback version of Calling, my new mystery novel, was out. The paperback version is available for $14.99 from the following:

• Your local bookstore.  If it’s not in stock where you live, your local bookstore can order it from Ingrams and it’ll arrive in a few days.
• online bookseller:  barnesandnoble.com
• online bookseller:  bookshop.org
• online bookseller:  indiebound.org
• While Amazon shows the paperback version alongside the e-book, it is listed temporarily out of stock.  In fact, it has never been in stock at Amazon so I cannot recommend ordering there.  

Calling is still available in e-book format for $6.99 at Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Amazon, Smashwords, Kobo, and more.

In case you’ve forgotten what Calling is about: here’s the skinny:

• Two hunters gunned down at close range…
• Three Sandhill Cranes shot from the sky…
• What the hell is going on in this small farming community outside Traverse City, Michigan?
• Forensic Detective Quinn Macarthy had solved many crimes in her twenty-five-year law enforcement career, but this case stumped her.  There weren’t many leads.  Were the five shootings even related?  Where was the murder weapon?
• When  Quinn runs into newspaperman Ian Doyle, the puzzle begins to shift.  He’s researching mob presence in Northern Michigan, past and present.
• Then Quinn and Conversation Officer Patrick Elliot find a lost dog trapped in a culvert in the middle of a cornfield.  Was it really a culvert?  Or a gateway to a bygone era?
• When Quinn, Patrick, and Grand Traverse County Sheriff Gilda Hansen discover what’s behind the shootings, they set off to apprehend the killers.  Only to find out they aren’t the only ones in pursuit.

Thanks for your support and I hope you enjoy the book!  Karen

 

Ducks in the River

 

With the harshness of winter settling in, and the Boardman Lake nearly frozen, ducks are seeking the open waters of the river.  Near the Cass and Eighth Street bridge, I saw a large raft of mainly Redheads, but also some Scaup, Goldeneyes, Buffleheads, and a few Mergansers mixed in.  Looked cold to me.

HUNGRY BIRDS

The cold weather has brought all kinds of birds to my yard.  Some times the feeders are so busy, the birds wait in my spruce trees or on my deck posts for a turn at one of the three feeders.  When there’s such an eating frenzy going on, seed flies all over the place.  And guess who’s waiting to play clean-up.

WINTER GLOOM

 

I hadn’t been out since the weekend storm. Like a lotta folks, the snow warnings kept me indoors, safe and cozy. Finally, I headed out on Tuesday, hoping to capture some wintry scenes.  But the roads were punkier than I thought they’d be, and with the temperatures steady at twelve degrees, I stayed in town.  Boardman Lake was beginning to freeze, I saw a beautiful cardinal at Logan’s Landing, and the marina was completely empty, except a few gulls in the parking lot.  Turns out, it was the perfect day to capture winter’s gloom.  

THE FIRST WAVE

It started midweek, the heavy wet snow.  It was only 2-3 inches, but the first in a long while.  I took a drive on Thursday to see what was out there, thinking with the forecast for the weekend, I might not get out again for a few days.  I was right. 

LOOK OUT FOR EAGLES

 

 Before the snow arrived, I headed to farm country west of Kingsley where there’s a spot between a copse of trees and a field of corn dregs.  Birders have dubbed it the Roadkill Cafe because it’s where the road commission dumps deer that’ve been hit by cars.  The carrion draw bald eagles every winter to feed on the remains.  Already one adult eagle and a juvenile have arrived and are waiting for the cafe to be stocked.  But not all eagles are so lucky to have a protected area for feeding.  In the past ten days, two bald eagles have been hit by cars while they fed on roadside carrion.  Please, be alert especially as you drive the peninsulas because eagles perch near the shoreline where they can fish but also eat critters hit by cars, such as squirrels, birds, and rabbits.

RED SPIRES HAD PURPOSE

 

On the same sunny day I took the Empire sunset pictures, I wandered the Grand Traverse Commons.  So much about the former Northern Michigan Asylum is interesting.  The architecture in the grand Victorian-Italianate style.  That each patient room had a view of the outdoors with a supply of fresh air and light.  But it has always been the iconic red spires that’ve drawn me.  I thought they were just part of the design.  Turns out, the spires were a functional part of the ventilation system.  Large fans forced air through underground tunnels, into the basement, and then up flues in the building.  The air would exit the buildings through attic ducts via the “ventilators,” which were the spires.

WINTER BEACH

 

The sunny weather last Friday sent me to Empire for the sunset.  Many others had the same idea, but I was early enough to claim a perfect spot for the southerly setting sun.  While my eyes and camera were trained on the sunset, it was perfect for people watching too.  Couples taking selfies against the orange sky, a photographer capturing the event from the beach, and two men taking a polar plunge.  It could’ve been July.