Beth's Awesome Team

This year, my daughter Beth led her Terry Fox Team in raising $19,890 for cancer research. That brings her total over ten years to $109,375.

Also, in March family and friends donated roughly $5,000 to the cause in memory of my wife, Jane.

I will be forever grateful for all who supported Beth and Jane.

So what am I up to? Three projects… ‘Murder is One Option,’ is my stage play. ‘The Garnished Truth,’ is a revised edition of my anthology (with 6 new short stories). Then there is the prequel to my Jack Beer series (being curious as to what he was like as a young man). I’m halfway there to figuring this guy out.

The photo caught 2 of the TF runners.

Murder is One Option

Setting - McGregor Point, Bruce County, spring maybe 2002… Jane and I are birdwatching from the Ducks Unlimited Viewing Tower. Kind of romantic. No one else around, right?

Shoot but doesn’t an obnoxious know-it-all birder show up. His goals - to correct us (‘it was a flycatcher not a phoebe,’ he notes with distain.) And to creep us out (‘are you nervous out here on your own?’)

When we finally shook loose from the meddler, Jane sidled close and whispered, ‘That guy’s a serial killer.’ I laughed. She laughed. Still, it made one consider - what did he have in store for us? Nothing obviously.

But many years on, the memory of Jane’s wisecrack sent me down the path to ‘Murder is One Option,’ my stage play. I think it’s pretty darned good and so I pitched my play to Blyth Theatre a couple days ago.

This Muskoka photo, taken by our daughter Beth, looks a little like our Tower marsh.

Lost my Muse

I was damned lucky to get to spend fifty-two years with Jane. I really wanted more.

Some of the people who have read my Jack Beer mysteries have asked whether there is much of me in Jack or much of Jane in Sheila, his love-interest. I have always said, ‘just a little.’ But that isn’t true. The love between those two fictional characters is unwavering, which is way more than ‘just a little.’

Beth's Terry Fox Team

This September, our daughter’s Terry Fox team surpassed their $10,000 target. And after eight years of fund-raising, the team nudged past the $80,000 mark.

As a self-published writer, my sales are not huge but I am happy to report that my 2023 profits of $630 all went to the cause. My wife Jane rounded up our pledge to $1000.

Here are seven members of Beth’s team. (I’m the old guy.)

Readers Like ‘One Last Fix’

Writing is more fun than golf, which makes a lot of sense if you’ve seen me golf. It’s almost as much fun to hear comments like, ‘My kids are mad because I made them leave me alone until I finished.’ Another reader said, ‘That may be your best Jack Beer mystery yet.’ Then there was this one - ‘Jack Beer needs a TV serial.’ (Waiting for Hollywood to call. Thinking George Clooney. Watch for it.) Here I am at a reading. I also juggle.

Jack Beer fans

One Last Fix has been out for a few weeks and I’m hearing back from Jack Beer fans. For one thing, a couple readers enjoyed losing themselves in my convoluted plot lines… which is one measure of success.

One Last Fix

Jack Beer slipped into my brain 15 years ago and has lived there since, only to escape again onto the pages of my sixth mystery novel. As always, Jack investigates by tripping over false leads, chasing down red herrings and blaming the wrong suspects… though he’s not really to blame. This missing persons case is plagued by deep complications, conflicting storylines and a host of devious bad guys. Buy an ebook through my website here to see how he solves the case. Or email me for a paper copy at rickhundeymysteries@gmail.com.

Plunge or plan?

‘Faith is taking the first step when you can’t see the whole staircase.’  This quote belongs to Martin Luther King. And it got me thinking. Is that how I write my short stories?  A spark flares and I go with it… no plot outline, no end in sight. Do I step out in faith? Well, yeah. It’s true - I start typing. Sometimes the staircase ends, and my work plunges into nowhere. I like it better when faith rewards me.

Where did Jack Beer come from?

Looking back, I’m grateful for the way family history stirred my imagination when the thought of writing a mystery series was still wishful thinking. The name Jack Beer, for example, originates in the photo of my father’s WWII platoon: I ‘borrowed’ Private G. Beer’s name and then decided he would be Jack’s grandfather. This marked a jumping off point for Jack’s full biography. And there was a bonus - Jack’s grandfather became an important character in his own right, in part due to his heroics at the Dieppe disaster.