The Round-Up: November 2025
A monthly miscellany of interesting links and tidbits
A bit late with this, but today is the final day of my Black Friday weekend sales. All paperbacks in my online store are discounted, and the ebook editions of Bridge to Trouble, Outlaw Fever, and The Silver Shawl (Mrs. Meade Mysteries #1) are $0.99 at all retailers.
I also have some limited-edition paperback gift bundles available in my store until Christmas or while (limited) supplies last—if you have a bookworm on your shopping list who loves historical mysteries, Western short stories, or fairytale retellings, check them out!
From Arvind Ethan David at Literary Hub, an interesting article on similarities in the work of two very different authors, Raymond Chandler and P.G. Wodehouse, and the surprising thing they had in common that may account for it. (I can add something here: David states he is unaware whether the two writers were acquainted or aware of each other at all, but Wodehouse does briefly mention corresponding with Chandler in Performing Flea.)
Here’s a fascinating essay from Natalia Testa at The Passionate Intellect on references to the works of Lewis Carroll in Dorothy Sayers’ mysteries, particularly Gaudy Night.
An interesting post at The Bulwark from Hannah Long on the “Ranown Cycle” of Western films, directed by Budd Boetticher and starring Randolph Scott. I have to admit I’ve never found Scott very interesting as an actor, but Hannah’s thoughtful analysis of these movies makes me want to take another look at some of them.
Another one of Ryan B. Anderson’s splendid essays how the home is the true core of civilization, and how the positive influence that begins in a healthy home can spread outward through society (a much more eloquent statement of an idea that I toyed with in a post a couple of months ago).
I’m not a true-crime person in general, but you can tempt me with a real-life mystery that (a) takes place in one of my favorite historical eras, and (b) has local interest. Hence I spent several days this month reading and reviewing two different books on the unsolved Hazel Drew murder in West Sand Lake, New York in 1908: Who Killed Hazel Drew? and Hazel Was a Good Girl. A niche topic, perhaps, but I had many Thoughts and had to hash them out somewhere.
For those of you who enjoy crafts and making things, here’s two charming ideas for homemade Christmas garlands I’ve seen recently: origami and beads (from Amanda Barber), and knitted (I’ll bet you could copy this one in crochet too!).
I may or may not have uttered a small yelp of delight when I saw that my favorite band had just covered “Wildflowers,” a song I’ve liked since I discovered it a year or so ago. The first rendition I heard was a cover by the Wailin’ Jennys, and the Petersens put their own spin on it here with another similar yet different arrangement for a trio of female voices.
And finally, in case you missed it, this month’s bit of free flash fiction:
Vigil
She had sat and waited many times over the course of the lifetime that had turned her hair snow-white and her proud, chiseled face to wrinkled parchment. Waited for the birth of children, for casualty lists after battles, for telegrams from across an ocean or the other side of a continent; waited to see whether the dawn in a sickroom br…
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