April 23, 2015 by Lori L MacLaughlin

A to Z Challenge: More Fictional Favorites! Day 20: Trixie Belden from The Trixie Belden Mysteries

T is for — Trixie Belden from The Trixie Belden Mysteries

I loved to read mysteries when I was growing up. I read every Nancy Drew book I could find, and I wrote about her last year for my A to Z “N” post. This year, I’m writing about another teen mystery series I loved: The Trixie Belden Mysteries.

Trixie Belden is a young teen with three brothers who lives in the Hudson Valley of New York. She and her best friend and neighbor, Honey Wheeler, stumble into all kinds of mysteries at home and during their travels. They brave many dangers and, along with their brothers, manage to solve the mysteries.

I liked Trixie, because she was an ordinary kid with the same insecurities and angst as any teen of that day and age. Coming from a family with two brothers, I could relate to her on that score as well. The stories were good clean fun with enough mystery and excitement to keep me reading to the very end.

The first book in the series, Trixie Belden and The Secret of the Old Mansion, was published in 1948. The series had 39 books in all, the last being The Mystery of the Galloping Ghost, published in 1986. For middle-graders who like mysteries, they are well worth the read.

To learn more about Trixie Belden, visit http://www.trixie-belden.com/index.html.

January 23, 2015 by Lori L MacLaughlin

Celebrate the Small Things!

Celebrate the Small Things is a weekly celebration created by VikLit and now hosted by Lexa Cain to celebrate the happenings of the week, however small or large. You can learn all about it and sign up for it here.

I’ve been on pins and needles this week, waiting for the designer I’m working with to finish up the book cover. I had originally hoped to release the book in about ten days, but at this point, that might be pushing it.

In the meantime, I’ve been working on setting up a blog tour for when my book finally does come out. I’m a little nervous about it, but I think it’s going to be fun! Some things I’d like to celebrate:

Watching the old Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys TV series from the ’80s with my kids. We got the series on DVD for Christmas and just started watching the episodes. My kids love the books and the shows as much as I did at their age. (Okay, I admit I still like them, too.) 🙂
Making progress with my blog tour plans.
Going to IHOP with a friend for no other reason than to celebrate the fact that it was Tuesday. (I know that sounds silly, but it sure tasted good!)

What other celebrations are going on out there?

April 16, 2014 by Lori L MacLaughlin

A to Z Challenge: Fictional Favorites, Day 14

N is for — Nancy Drew, from the Nancy Drew Mysteries by Carolyn Keene

I first discovered Nancy Drew when I was nine years old. My mom had eight of the old titles on the shelf, having enjoyed them, herself, when she was a youngster. I picked up The Secret of the Old Clock, the first book in the series, and was immediately drawn into the mystery and excitement of a missing will, a trail of clues, and a frightening encounter with a gang of robbers. From there, I read every Nancy Drew book I could get my hands on, eventually reading all the way up through the first fifty-six Grosset and Dunlap editions.

Nancy Drew has only grown in popularity, engendering many spin-offs for varying age groups, such as the Nancy Drew Files, Nancy Drew Notebooks, Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew, and Nancy Drew Girl Detective, to name a few, along with crossover titles with those detective brothers, the Hardy Boys. There’ve been movies, a TV series, (which I also loved), and now computer games, which my daughter loves (and I find fun, too!). My daughter is following in my footsteps and working her way through the original series from the beginning, and she’s read some of the other series, as well.

That’s what I like most about Nancy Drew — my family has solved mysteries along with her for three generations, and will hopefully continue to do so for many more.