Category: News

Life Lessons as Taught by My Dogs

I’ve been fortunate to have very smart dogs. Brilliant, really. I’ve learned so much from them. My rescues all shared one thing: a grateful heart. A day never passes without them reminding me how grateful they are to have a home where they can run and play, be warm and loved, and eat meals regularly. I’ve learned so much from them. Here are a few examples:

1. Don’t let your good friend howl alone. Join in to show that you care.

2. Always lick your loved one’s hand to remind them that you cherish them. It will give them an instant lift. Did you know loving licks are the equivalents of human hugs and kisses?

3. When your family comes home,  greet them with joy. Ever new joy. Never take them for granted. 

4. Relish the beauty of nature. A walk, birds singing in the trees, leaves dancing in the breeze. And don’t forget to pause and smell the flowers. All flowers, not just roses. This way, you’ll truly enjoy the wonder and beauty of nature.

5. When you’re happy, don’t just wag your tail; shake your whole body. And if you see a green patch of fresh lawn nearby, go ahead, roll around in it. Put all your heart into it. You’ll be glad that you did.

6. There’s nothing like lying in the shade on a warm sunny day, and taking stock of all the good in your life. It will brighten your outlook.

7. Eat with enthusiasm. But don’t overeat. Trust me.

8. Run and play as much as you can. But don’t forget to rest afterward. After you rest, try not to jump up immediately. Stretch first. You’ll feel much better.

9. If someone invades your space, it’s okay to let them know that they need to back off. Protect what is yours.  

10. Be forgiving. If someone hurts your feelings, let it go. Pouting drains your precious energy. Energy we need to run and play. 

Lifting Spirits

If you’ve read my latest novel, Murderous Means, you may be thinking the title of this post has to do with other-worldly, occult happenings. Not so. This post is about lifting one’s spirits, literally, as we kick off 2024. 

There are many of us eager to make positive and meaningful changes in our lives; to achieve personal growth and transformation and to move forward in a better way. It doesn’t take all that much to make this happen. Just a little will and mind power. It starts by finding little things that bring us joy. 

Our eight-year-old shepherd, Chico, did just that recently. A sweetie pie and nonathletic fellow, he prefers lying down to practically anything else. After a short walk around the yard, if I dare pause for any reason, he’ll hit the ground…lying.The other day however, Chico grabbed a toy that he hadn’t played with in a long while, and thrashed it about with great enthusiasm. For about eight seconds. We’d adopted him when he was four, and have only seen him thrash and shake a few times and that was a while ago. What prompted the burst of joy? 

He’d just finished eating (his first and foremost reason for being) and enjoyed his meal immensely, which gave him an instant lift, which he displayed by thrashing. Ah, the simple pleasures of life!

If we each take time, daily, to pause and contemplate the beautiful experiences in our lives, we too can become happy thrashers. We have the ability to manufacture our own joy, which can change our present experiences as well as our attitudes. 

I visited the local library today. After I’d checked out my books and returned to my car, I didn’t leave right away. I paused and spent a few minutes appreciating my surroundings; the air that flowed through my open window, the pure blueness of the sky dotted with silvery, puffy clouds, as well as the tall oak trees whose widespread canopy gave me shade during my pausing. It was an instant spirit and mood lifter.

I read that we should picture the New Year as a garden we are responsible for planting. If we sow the seeds of good thoughts and habits in the soil and weed out the worries and troubles of the past, we can create our own happiness right where we are. How easy is that? 

 

 

 

Inside Murderous Means

Dysfunctional families can be complicated. So can writing a mystery. Imagine writing a mystery centering around a dysfunctional family, which is what happened in MURDEROUS MEANS, #6 in my Southern California mystery series. Was it tougher to write? Maybe. But also more fun.

Book Cover: Murderous Means by Lida Sideris

I like playing around with words. I came up with the name of this blog* after a visit to Boston Harbor where most of the boats have memorably clever names (the Codfather, the Reel Deal). I was thinking of those names when I came up with the Means Well Ranch, the perfect setting for an odd, not even close, family named the Means. Oh, those family dynamics! Gets me every time.

Telling the future can be complicated, too. How about that psychic/medium/fortune teller who insists the Means family matriarch didn’t just die in her sleep. What’s that about? Exploring the psychic world opened up many opportunities for shenanigans in my book. I’ve never been to a séance, have you?  Rather than attend an actual (or is it pretend?) one, I threw a séance into my book and let my heroine and her sidekicks handle it. 

A hands-on mother can also be complicated. Especially when you’re an adult child. Just ask Corrie. Victoria Locke definitely has her own ideas about everything, especially about the direction her daughter’s P.I. work should take. Victoria somehow manages to fit herself into each situation, risky or not, much to Corrie’s chagrin, but Corrie can’t get rid of her. Or maybe, just maybe, she doesn’t want to. Corrie’s never exactly told me. Victoria is there mostly to watch Corrie’s back and to be part of the thrill of the investigation. If she knew how exciting cracking a case was, she would’ve joined in sooner! The mother-daughter scenes make me smile the most while writing them. Do they remind me of my own mother-daughter scenes? Maybe, a little.

I had a different story in mind, when I first started writing this book, as well as a different criminal, but my characters showed me I was dead wrong (forgive the pun). 

* It’s not “Follow the Lye-da.” It’s “Follow the Lee-da.” Get it?