Work in Progress (June 2026)

Happy World Ocean Month!

June 2026

Work in Progress

Where does the time go? A question I ask at least once a day...

I have made a small amount of progress on Next of Kin, and a small amount of progress on reviewing and reorganizing my digital files, which include many years worth of drafts of fiction and essays. I switched to an iPhone 17 Pro, and am inching along the learning curve of its new iOS and camera features.

I've posted more frequently than usual on Instagram in celebration of World Ocean Month.

I've been studying published short stories for craft elements such as structure, flashbacks, time transitioning, pacing, use of symbolism, exploration of theme, and dialogue. I discovered a remarkable resource called The First Two Pages at short story master Art Taylor's website, where writers share the thought processes behind their short stories. (I discovered Art after watching a four-part webinar about writing short stories he recorded for Sisters in Crime.) I'm applying the lessons to my own fiction.

What I'm Consuming

I’ve been reading a lot of short stories lately, some from back issues of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, others from:

Wish Upon a Crime: Crime Fiction Inspired by Fairy Tales, edited by Michael Bracken and Stacy Woodson
FaceOff, an eleven-story anthology in which twenty-two acclaimed members of the International Thriller Writers pair up their iconic series characters (Harry Bosch, Jack Reacher, Lincoln Rhyme, etc) in a co-written short story, edited by David Baldacci

Mystery Novels and Science Fiction/Thrillers

The Fever, by Megan Abbott
Nightshade, by Michael Connelly
The Lincoln Lawyer, by Michael Connelly
Dead End, by Leslie J. Hall
The Sherlock Society, by James Point (middle grade)
A Civil Campaign, by Lois McMaster Bujold. I've read (mostly listened to!) this science fiction novel dozens of times over the last three decades. I love the characters (most of whom I first encountered in earlier books in the series), enjoy the increasing complications of the story, and adore the social commentary on patriarchal society, gender roles, and individual growth, all of which seems more relevant than ever. I keep trying to read it as a writer, to analyze the structure and pacing and reverse-engineer how Bujold achieves her magic, but I inevitably get so caught up in the story that I cease analyzing it somewhere along the line...sigh. Next time, perhaps.

I haven’t had much time for TV, but I’m still enjoying New Tricks when I do have time to stream.

Have You Read Anything by Marcie R. Rendon?

I first came across author Marcie R. Rendon through her 2024 standalone novel Where They Last Saw Her. The story follows Quill, a young Native American woman living on a reservation in northern Minnesota in the present day. On a morning run, training for the Boston Marathon, Quill hears a scream, and feels compelled to investigate what seems to be a kidnapping. The mystery deepens when a second person vanishes. Tired of losing family, friends, and neighbors to human trafficking and related crimes, Quill refuses to stop asking questions and demanding answers despite others—including her usually supportive husband, who worries about Quill’s mental health and the safety of their two young children—telling her to let it go.

I loved Quill’s story and was delighted to find that Rendon has a series that I enjoyed even more. The Cash Blackbear Mystery series starts with Murder on the Red River. The stories are set in 1970s northern Minnesota and North Dakota. They follow the sleuthing adventures of a 19-year-old Native American woman just trying to survive in her rural community.

Cash Blackbear was raised in a series of white foster homes after her mother disappeared when she was little more than a toddler. The foster homes used Cash for free labor around the farm and fields, and although that’s given her a powerful work ethic and a strong body, it’s left her scarred, inside and out. She has no sense of family—her siblings were sent to other foster homes and she hasn’t heard from them in more than a decade—and little understanding of community.

Sheriff Wheaton is the one human for whom Cash feels warmth and loyalty. So when he asks for help investigating crimes that have ties to the farms where she works and the people she knows, she is happy to start asking questions and snooping around. But sometimes she goes farther than Wheaton wants her to, and finds herself in deadly danger as she tries to rescue those in peril and find justice for past victims.

Over the course of the four books (so far—I really hope there will be more!), we watch Cash grow as a person, open herself up to friendships and education, and learn more about herself and her family. Rendon evokes the harsh prairie-turned-farmland setting beautifully, and I felt like I was time-traveling back into my childhood by such details as smoking everywhere, driving without seatbelts, and the beginning hints of feminism, racial justice, and the American Indian Movement.

I was moved by Rendon's portrayal of Cash as someone who stands outside of the various systems (economic, political, religious, judicial, cultural, educational, etc) she’s supposed to take part in, and who refuses to adopt their often stupid or arbitrary rules just to make her life easier. While the injustices Cash faces in every story saddened and infuriated me, I admired her ability to cope with them without giving in to despair. Her character has truly been transmuted in the fires that forged her during childhood, and I fervently hope we get to see more of her adventures in future books.

Where I've Been

Although I’ve been planning and getting ready for a late-June trip to Maine, I once again haven’t gone far from home in the past month. But my inner travel bug is getting restless, which has me thinking about trips past, trips I’d still like to make, and trips I feel like I’ve almost taken.

One of my past trips took me to the waters off the east coast of Greenland, where our small ship encountered this lone polar bear. Did you know that polar bears are classified as marine mammals because they depend on the ocean for food? Happy World Ocean Month!

The places in the feel-like-I’ve-been-there category were, of course, settings in books I’ve read. Some of the places I’ve gone in my imagination include:

New Orleans, via a fun cozy mystery series penned by my friend Jen Pitts
All over England, via the works of Elizabeth George, Elly Griffiths, and Dick Francis
North Carolina, albeit a fictitious county, via Margaret Maron’s series about Judge Deborah Knott
New York City (and a few other places), via S.J. Rozan’s series following Lydia Chin and Bill Smith
Various parts of Alaska, via Dana Stabenow’s series about P.I. Kate Shugak, and her other series about State Trooper Liam Campbell
Venice, Italy, via Donna Leon’s series about Commissario Guido Brunetti
Vermont and New Hampshire, via Paula Munier’s series about Mercy Carr and her dog Elvis, and Archer Mayor’s series about Joe Gunther and the Vermont Bureau of Investigation
Colorado, via Margaret Mizushima’s series about Deputy Mattie Cobb and her dog Robo

And then, of course, reading historical fiction has let me do the time-traveling I couldn’t do “in real life”:

Victorian-era Egypt, via Elizabeth Peters fictional chronicles of Amelia Peabody
Ancient Alexandria, via Dana Stabenow’s series about Tetisheri, Queen Cleopatra's investigator
Victorian-era England, via Sherry Thomas’s series The Lady Sherlock, and Nancy Springer’s series about Enola Holmes

Various science fiction and fantasy books have let me travel far into the future and the past, to planets and other places real and fictional, inhabited by all manner of biological and inorganic beings.

Although I appreciate the movies and nonfiction videos that show us far-flung places, for me, reading is still the ultimate form of armchair travel. A well-written book captures not just the visual imprint of a place, but can describe the smells and tastes and textures, and be a truly immersive experience. (No ads, either!)

So even when I’m not traveling, I never feel stuck at home.

My Furry Muses

Although the kittens are not sure they fully approve of this weekend's visitors (largely because the four humans are accompanied by two dogs, who are extremely polite and well-behaved, but still...they are strange dogs!), they certainly enjoyed the process of getting ready for the visitors...

Butch inspecting a bedside lamp that just got a new bulb installed.

Sundance and Butch "helping" make up the guest bed.

Mia was a little surprised to have two canine cousins invade the house, but thanks to all the socializing she gets by going to doggy day care once a week, she has adapted quickly and opted for peaceful coexistence.

Mia is happily sharing her toys with her visiting canine cousins, and looking forward to showing off her newfound fetching skills.

That's it for now. Thanks for being a reader! –- Jenna