There’s a body on the beach just yards from her back door. Should Minnie be afraid FOR her roommate? Or should she be afraid OF her? When Minnie shares her Airbnb with a stranger, her Savannah vacation morphs into a covert investigation. Turns out this young woman she’s helping has been lying to her since their first hello. Minnie is driven to uncover her roommate’s secrets, … [Read more...] about DANGEROUS CURRENT by Cynthia Rogan
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JUST FOR A MOMENT …
Whether we mean to or not, we make assumptions. I was in the middle of making a big dinner when I ran out of milk for one of the dishes. The convenience store a few blocks away was, of course, convenient, but the line was a mile long. I picked up the milk and took my place behind a tiny gray-haired woman in a tattered plaid coat. When it was her turn, she placed several cans of … [Read more...] about JUST FOR A MOMENT …
CRIME ABOUT IT! #1–Glenda the Bad Witch
Glenda’s name may have meant good and kind, but she was the supervisor from Hell. Her most famous words were, “Rules are there for a reason,” but after a while, it became clear that the rules were for everyone but Glenda. She arrived one morning looking like she’d walked out of an 80s Whitesnake video—without the cloud of smoke. But we didn’t need smoke to warn us. … [Read more...] about CRIME ABOUT IT! #1–Glenda the Bad Witch
The Hearts of the Matter
I'm an accountant by trade. I'm a writer by heart. I've loved to write since before I was ten years old, (although, back then I wrote mostly poetry and I imagine it was pretty awful). Roses are red.Violets aren’t blue. They’re purple.There are birds in that tree.I can tell by their chirple.Terrible Poem by young cynthiarogan These days, I'm always on the lookout for … [Read more...] about The Hearts of the Matter
Seedy Characters
I've always been in awe of seeds. To me they seem like the perfect tiny, sealed container of energy. Within them is everything they need. Just add water and light and presto chango—you get an entire plant. Sometimes that plant is a tree. Sometimes it gives us flowers, or fruits, or vegetables, or even something we humans have labeled a weed for one reason or another. There … [Read more...] about Seedy Characters
Cliffhanging
I couldn't decide what to blog about this month and it didn’t become clear to me until I started working on the graphics. I started out with a background. But what would make the picture more interesting? An old house? Who do you think lives there? An old man or woman with lots of stories to tell? Or maybe someone who enjoys the isolation—a retired celebrity, perhaps. … [Read more...] about Cliffhanging
Don’t Dog the Hot Days
Happy sauna day. It’s hot. In fact, where I live, we’ve had weeks of temperatures over 100 degrees. But it is almost July 23 after all—the exact middle of Dog Days. As a kid, I heard stories about Dog Days from my dad and his siblings. The one I remember most had to do with my dad stepping on a nail and having to soak his foot in kerosene because—as if stepping on a nail … [Read more...] about Don’t Dog the Hot Days
Dangerous
I can’t remember how old I was when I decided to roller skate down our steep driveway. In retrospect, it was a bad idea and I have the facial and emotional scars to prove it. Then there was the time (a few years later) that I decided to try crossing my arms while riding my bike. “What could go wrong?” Well, everything. For some reason, my brain didn’t connect that my left hand … [Read more...] about Dangerous
It Ain’t Just a River in Egypt
Several years ago, I wrote a short story called “One Last Time” about a young woman who couldn’t seem to stop lying. Whenever she lied, she promised herself it would be the last time—that she would always tell the truth going forward. But if someone asked her a question, she couldn’t seem to resist the urge to fabricate a life she wished was really hers using a story she made … [Read more...] about It Ain’t Just a River in Egypt
Trusting Your Instincts
Have you ever let fear keep you from doing something? If that something is physically dangerous, then fear might be the first step toward your survival. But what if the something you’re afraid of can’t physically hurt you? What if the fear of it holds you back—keeps you from moving forward or enjoying life to its fullest? Shortly after I started my first novel, I saw an ad … [Read more...] about Trusting Your Instincts
When the Time is Right
I love spring. Especially after a cold winter. It’s not so much the milder temperatures. It’s the birth—the rebirth. The trees—their leaves turned brown and fell off. So they spent the fall and winter having nothing to clothe them and keep them warm except the memory of the sun and the leaves. The flowers went to seed, fell off their stalks. Some of them will … [Read more...] about When the Time is Right
SWINDLE by Cynthia Rogan
A young girl drops something from the upstairs window of an abandoned pie shop. As it flutters to the ground Marcus, a homeless boy, realizes it’s a hundred-dollar bill and someone has written the words “HELP HER” on it in bright orange ink. Convinced that the girl is in some sort of danger, he walks by her window every afternoon to check on her. When she disappears suddenly, … [Read more...] about SWINDLE by Cynthia Rogan
TIME FLIES WHEN YOU’RE DOODLING
I grew up in Florida. As a kid, I’d look down into the inverted cone-shaped holes of doodlebugs. Sometimes I gently poked pine needles into the bottom of the funnel they left, hoping one would come out so I could see it. That never happened. I imagined them to be cuter than ladybugs—adorable even. I mean, a doodlebug had to be adorable. Besides, it left those cute little holes … [Read more...] about TIME FLIES WHEN YOU’RE DOODLING
