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Slimmericks: Laugh and Lose Weight

A humorous collection of limericks concerning the always-in-the-back-of-the-mind subject of weight control. The limericks are paired with matching photographs by a variety of talented photographers. If you ever think about weight control or fitness, you’ll find something worth considering in Slimmericks.

I’ve written limericks on various occasions for most of my life. They lend themselves to almost any situation or topic. When I began to consider the humorous aspects of the never-ending fight to lose or control weight, I decided that “Slimmericks” could be a stand-alone project. The humor and sometimes useful content in the limericks are emphasized by accompanying photographs by some very talented people. The credit tags on those pictures lead you to follow-up contacts with those camera artists.

 
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Posted by on March 19, 2019 in Humor, Self-Help

 

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Loyalties: Uncertain / Mixed / Fanatical

Loyalties: Uncertain / Mixed / Fanatical

Todd Weatherford, Kentucky-born Chicago tour guide is seduced by an apparent tourist from the West Indies, leading to the sudden breakup of his marriage. When the seducer abruptly disappears, Todd seeks guidance from his family and learns that his ancestors were Revolutionary War Loyalists who also had West Indies connections. Todd and two friends journey to the Bahamas to track the mystery woman and unravel her suspected evil intentions. What is her ancestral secret? Will she once again derail Todd’s plans, or will he and his friends sabotage hers? Is she working alone, or does she have wealthy and powerful associates? The answers to these questions involve Todd and his friends in unexpected adventures.

Loyalties stemmed from my wondering what happened to the Loyalists who backed the losing side in the American Revolutionary War. I added to that question uncertainties about family relationships when a seducer disrupts normal marital developments and interests in the Bahamas and the pirates that once used those islands as their home ports. One of the best ways to approach the writing of a novel is to ask yourself questions and then proceed to answer them.

 
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Posted by on March 19, 2019 in Historical Fiction, Mystery

 

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Impasse

Impasse

The discovery of human bones while excavating a property to build a new church requires all work to stop. Arthur and Irma Blake investigate and find an earlier structure on that lot was involved in illegal activities, requiring FBI leadership of the inquiry. Further research reveals a group of foreign citizens who replaced Americans illegally and an elaborate money laundering scheme. What are the foreigners trying to do? Who killed the people unearthed during construction and others discovered later? How will the killer be brought to justice more than twenty years after the crimes?

Impasse was triggered in my mind by occasional news articles about the discovery of bones while excavating for construction of a new public or private building. Every discovery has a story behind it, so I started with finding skeletal bones and built the rest from there. Each step along the way engenders others. Impasse was my first book that involved scenes in the Bahamas, a fascinating location for me. I return to that setting in my next novel, Loyalties.

 
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Posted by on March 19, 2019 in Historical Fiction, Mystery, Resources

 

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Impending: A Genealogical Mystery

Impending Front Cover 001

Impending is no longer impending. It has arrived and is available for purchase in either printed paperback or Kindle eBook formats. Most books by Richard Davidson emphasize the influence of past events on present activities and situations. Impending carries that thinking even further. It is both a work of historical fiction and a current-day mystery novel. It starts with a family secret stemming from the American Civil War battle of Gettysburg, develops through an odyssey to Australia, matures in outlaw and fractured family years of the late nineteenth century, and comes to a series of climaxes in the present day. The details of this latest absorbing adventure through the years follow:

Young married private detectives, Debbie and Jeremy Hadley, discover that Debbie’s family, the Danforths, have a family secret. Grandma Marie Danforth summons them because she fears that alienated family members and underworld characters will attempt to wrest control of the secret from her. The history of the secret begins at the American Civil War Battle of Gettysburg and develops through a century and a half of Danforth family twists and intrigues. Although written as a continuous story, Impending actually is two novels in one: the saga of how the secret developed from its inception to the present day, and the mystery of how to counter multiple attempts to hijack it. Impending is history and mystery all-in-one. Debbie and Jeremy team with police from two cities to unravel the mystery and reach its surprising conclusion.

 
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Posted by on June 16, 2017 in Historical Fiction, Mystery

 

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Impending is impending

Impending Front Cover 001

Impending: A Genealogical Mystery is in its final stage of revisions prior to publishing release. It deals with young married private detectives, Debbie and Jeremy Hadley, discovering that Debbie’s family, the Danforths, have a family secret. Grandma Marie Danforth summons them to reveal the secret, which is one hundred and fifty years old, and to help her protect it from attack by questionable characters. Although written as a continuous story, Impending actually is two novels in one. First, we have the saga of how the secret developed from its inception to the present day, and second, is the mystery of who is attempting to hijack it. It’s history and mystery all-in-one.

 
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Posted by on June 6, 2017 in Historical Fiction, Mystery

 

Impostor: A Genealogical Mystery, Military Writers Society of America Review

Impostor: A Genealogical Mystery

Author: Richard Davidson

Reviewer: Betsy Beard

 

Beginning in the present day and reaching back through the decades to World War II, Impostor: A Genealogical Mystery by Richard Davidson is a mystery with a great deal of historical fiction thrown in.

Jeremy Hadley’s fiancée, Debbie Danforth, plans to surprise Jeremy with a genealogical research into his origins so that she can present him with a piece of graphic art that represents his family tree. But she runs into complications when she discovers that the man they thought was Jeremy’s great-grandfather was an impostor. Debbie’s research uncovers the fact that the real Michael Farrell Hadley was born in London on 17 April 1914…and died the same day.

In their quest to discover the truth, Debbie and Jeremy travel to England to find answers to the question of his heritage which was conceived in mystery and has been shrouded in secrecy for seventy years. Impostor takes us behind the scenes to the formation of the intelligence gathering community of the late 1930s and carries us through wartime American and British spy rings to the present day farmlands of the English countryside.

Fans of genealogical research are sure to enjoy this fast-paced mystery from its beginning to its surprising and unorthodox conclusion.

 
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Posted by on January 24, 2017 in Resources

 

Impostor: A Genealogical Mystery

Impostor Front Cover 001

The gravestone of a baby who lived less than one day casts the shadow of a man. Jeremy Hadley’s Great-grandfather is discovered to have taken the name and birth data of a child who died shortly after birth. Who was this Impostor? Was he good or evil? How should his present-day descendants feel about him? For that matter, should they alter their feelings about themselves based on this flaw in their ancestry?

The genealogical investigation is led by Jeremy’s live-in girlfriend, Debbie Danforth, who is also his partner in a start-up detective agency. What they find disrupts the structure of the Hadley family while revealing hitherto hidden information about events that preceded World War II in both Britain and the United States. Even their supporting associates in a covert federal agency discover facts that had been previously unknown to them.

This novel is leading readers in several countries to take a new look at their own family trees for past disconnections and substitutions that may change their outlooks on present-day family relationships.

 
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Posted by on July 6, 2016 in Historical Fiction, Mystery, Resources

 

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FANtastic!

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I recently learned that during December, one of my readers purchased all of my mysteries and read them in a single month. Hopefully, she has since added my Decision Time self-help guide and Overcoming anthology to her library. It reminds me of my own effort about twenty-five years ago, when I read all of Agatha Christie’s mysteries and short stories in a single year. It’s fun to randomly pick a novel from a mystery author and then, if you like it, read all of his or her other offerings. My mysteries feature common settings and characters that appear throughout my Lord’s Prayer and Imp Mysteries. Each volume stands on its own, but you’ll find familiar people and places in the next novel you read.

 
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Posted by on February 10, 2016 in Resources

 

Impostor

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My current project emerged from a genealogy effort several months back. This third volume in the Imp Mystery Series is called “Impostor”. When I studied my family tree, I discovered a branch I hadn’t seen before. It was in England, and I found that one of the children was born and died on the same date. I don’t know whether he didn’t survive birth, or if he lived for only a few hours. This discovery made an impact on me, and it’s now the focus of my new book-in-progress. The girlfriend of one of my characters decides to do a family tree for his side of their pending merged family. She discovers that his great-grandfather had the same name, birthplace, and birth date as a stillborn baby. Who was this IMPOSTOR? Naturally, they have to find out more about him…

 
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Posted by on February 10, 2016 in Resources

 

Impulses – An Arthur Blake Mystery Novel

Impulses is the second volume in my Imp Mysteries series. (Each volume title begins with Imp. Volume 1 in the series was Implications.) Although these mysteries use some of the same characters and settings as my earlier Lord’s Prayer Mystery Series, the Imp mysteries are not tied to a single theme. They are loosely connected stand-alone novels, some of which may stray a bit from the mystery genre.

Impulses presents a story that has many facets, or impulses, to it. Arthur Blake moves from initial boredom caused by a dearth of cases to an array of situations requiring simultaneous investigation. We focus on a small-town rehabilitation home where four female patients have died over the course of a year and also look at the apparent suicide of a pastor who had visited all of those women shortly before they died. Additional casework involves the disappearance of two people from a college town, the arrival of a mysterious shipment at Arthur’s father’s antiques shop, and examination of a woman who is experiencing flashes of memories from a deceased man. This latter evaluation leads Arthur and all of us readers to consider the possibility of life after death, in the context of university studies that have documented convincing instances of prior life memories.

The story also includes the introduction of a pair of younger investigators who assist in this volume’s cases but are likely to have their own adventures in future novels. Enjoy all of our Impulses and the characters who participate in them.

Impulses front cover 2

 
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Posted by on October 7, 2015 in Resources