K.B. Pellegrino's Blog, page 5

What Sells?

Am I getting jaded, I asked myself today. For the last week and particularly today I noticed, numbering in the thousands: social media, television productions, magazine articles, movies, etc. presented that horrified us or made us cry or debate, or honored the attacks on the twin towers in NYC. I watched the explosions twenty years ago and caught my breath in disbelief then. I still choke when I remember. An attack on my country seemed impossible to me at that time, just as our leaving Afghanistan with Americans and good friends to the clutches of a group of sadistic and religious zealots to be murdered. And the media wallows in politicizing all aspects of these events.
I am left to pray for a return to our roots. I want an army left to do its job without interference with those lacking military skills. I want a coming together, despite our differences, as a nation to truly remember we are being attacked in many ways. I am particularly concerned with the attack from within.
K. B. Pellegrino, Author

New Starts

It is September. The kids are back in school. Mostly! Masks are worn, mostly! Teachers' workload is increased, mostly! School buses are on the road. Traffic is increased, mostly! I am overwhelmed by the speed in which August traveled. It is now time to settle down to our work with the renewed energy the autumn season brings. mostly! I am writing my eighth Captain Beauregard mystery novel, "BERYL KENT AND MURDERING WORDS"

My seventh in the series, "BERYL KENT AND THE BLEEDING MAN" will be published in the next six weeks.

There is so much correspondence on my desk. News on writing, publishing, entertainment, etc. I am often thrown off stride with the business side of life. Staying on course and writing, which I love, requires dedication. Life pulls me in all directions, but I still write. I put it in my mind. K, write just a few pages. Once I start, I forget about the rest of my life, Only blurred eyes from fatigue stop me. Oh, how lucky I am to have a passion overriding the business of life. And September fuels that desire.
K/ B/ Pellegrino, Author

Mini Vacay

Just a short update on life in my world: I am hosting Linda, my sister-in-law from Tennessee this week. Our first activity was to drive to Providence to have lunch with Caroleann and Ed on Monday. Left for an overnight at the J&J Lodge in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire with Joey and Janet. Three and a half hours of driving with beautiful Lake Winnipesaukee as our goal. Lunch and a visit to the Lucknow Lodge, built in the clouds in 1914. Walking a bit on the property and touring the house left us littl...

Driven by goals

Goals Drive…Yesterday I met Noe. This city of mine is Springfield, Massachusetts, and until the late nineties, we did not have a large workforce from Mexico. His story is the story of my grandparents, just from a different country. He is a handsome and well-spoken man originally from Mexico and has built his business from the bottom up. His equipment is kept in tip top shape. He has done well because he had goals. I’d engaged his services to remove an almost 200 foot diseased pine from my...

August 21. 2021 in Western Massachusetts

I'm sitting in my Pergola viewing the swaying evergreen and deciduous trees as they move in the wind. The barometric pressure has gone down leaving a wonderful feeling in the air filled with cleansing aromas. I know Hurricane Henri recently downgraded to a tropical storm has initiated his arrival. I am also aware that two of my two-hundred foot pines are at great risk. One is diseased and is scheduled to be removed on this coming Wednesday. The second may remain or be removed. At any rate, even if it is not removed, a lone pine of that height will not lasr by itself for long. I think of the pines as I do us humans, they need socialization to survive. All of nature, as I see it today, works in concert when stressed by great storms. Henri is the first hurricane quality storm to arrive in New England in a long time. I lost two pine trees the last time we were visited by such an event. A small tornado drove its force up our road and turned right to an area between mine and my neighbor's homes ripping two different pines from their roots to lean upon the roof of my home. It resulted in a nasty and costly removal. Still I missed those pines despite the fact that after their removal all green growth disappeared from my roof. There is, I think, a cost to everything beautiful. Tall pines have protected my home for the over forty years I have occupied this space. They are worth the cost of removal if it must occur. All good things cost. Life gives us gifts and troubles. Focus on the big picture. '
K. B. Pellegrino, Author

Killing The Venerable (It's Their Time)

"Killing The Venerable" is the sixth of my published mystery novels. The seventh novel to be published in the autumn turns a slight corner when Beryl Roisin Arabella Kent, an ordinary citizen, enters the domain of Captain Rudy Beauregard, Captain of West Mass Major Crimes Unit. There is an energy added to the West Mass police crimefighters supplied by Kent's character, Don't we all love to view the stalwart detective hit by an annoying bright light in his eyes forcing him to look away and think? Rudy and his team are humbled a bit. Still the perpetrators are arrested with the plot unraveled and life in West Mass is able to return to normal.....for a while.

K. B. Pellegrino, Author

Be Happy

We have just returned from eight days at the family home on Cape Cod Bay in East Sandwich, Most days were perfect beach weather, which for many of my friends who are able to lie on the beach for hours at a time, would call the weather ‘perfecto.’ I hit the beach early and late and never in the middle of the day, but instead watch the glorious ocean water from our deck. You may ask why and unfortunately, the answer is ‘I have a fair complexion’ and within twenty minutes into strong sunlight the r...

Summer End! Just When?

I was reminded today by my brother who lives in Tennessee, that the schoolchildren south of the Mason-Dixon Line will be returning (if allowed) to school this week or next week. And I have also noticed the early school start has creeped up in the northeast and elsewhere.

Uggh! What has happened to Summer? In the past we thought of Memorial Day as the opening day to summer. June was used to finish up school, get packed for overnight camp or day camp, or for the family move to the forests, mountai...

The Case for Fictional Murder

I am reading a summary of eight actual murders that took place in New England between 1673 and 2008. The fourth in the listed murders occurred in Norton, MA in 2001. I normally read and write in murder fiction and not in rea life murder. I now know why. After reading about the fourth in the listed murders, I retired. At four in the morning I woke, soaked in sweat, with the certainty I was about to die from a murderer's uncontained anger. I rarely have interesting dreams let alone nightmares, but this experience was chilling. Suddenly I became a college student looking for a safe place.
I have it. I do not react to fictional murders. They are not real. No matter how horrific they may be described by authors, they are not real. But...but...real life murders wherein a perpetrator decides to snuff out a person's life so implants in my soul the experience of chaotic evil, that I cringe at the thought. Too much for me.
I believe I can examine motives, opportunities, and actions by writing fiction without experiencing a jaded view of the potentiality of a murder happening right next to me.
K. B. Pellegrino, Author

So Long….

Computer glitches and vacations and editing requirements and publishing problems and life itself have all interfered with my blogging. Authoring requires dedication to more than just the written word. Life itself requires more than just existing. Holding all together the various aspects of ordinary living and work is a nexus of discipline, passion, work, endurance, and responsibility. I am back. I write mystery novels and short stories. I love writing, but then despite every day problems I love ...