August 2017 – Page 2 – Ladies of Mystery

by Janis Patterson

How would you act if you read in a story how a character discovered a grizzly site? Well… how you feel might depend on the situation in the book – and the writer’s command of the English language. A grizzly site is a location where there are large and usually cranky bears. A grisly sight means you are seeing something that is horrible or disgusting. These are called homophones – words that are spelled differently and have different meanings but sound the same.

A few more are brooch/broach, new/knew, great/grate, heir/hair, steak/stake, cash/cache, packed/pact, hear/here, and the two great triads cent/scent/sent and there/their/they’re. These sound-alikes are all over the place; there are lists of such linguistic traps on the internet, many with over 500 entries.

So why the differences? Who knows? English is a powerful but mysterious language with many oddities, and I personally believe these oddities are what makes English great – and when improperly used most definitely grate on one’s sensibilities.

And if one does know English well, grate they do. A misused homophone can yank an intelligent reader right out of the story, which is a horror for good writers. Say you’re reading a romance and the two lovers have a joyous role in the hay. Are they acting? (No, I’m not going down the rabbit-hole of are they faking it…) Is it some form of summer put-on-a-play-in-the-barn theatre? Worse, if the characters are back in the house eating a role it gives me visions of two sitting people at a kitchen table gnawing on play scripts, which as we all know have very little nutritional value.

Another example: in a dark and tortured tale of mean streets and meaner crimes the burnt-out alcoholic police detective stumbles into an alley and finds a grizzly murder. What? Immediately my first thought is how in the world did a large Northern bear find his way into such an urban setting? Sometime it takes a full page before I can become immersed in the story again. And sometimes that never happens, because from then on I have difficulty trusting the writer.

Good writing is easy to read and gently leads the reader into a world that is not their own. Good writing keeps them there for the duration of the story. Good writing is a window into a story, and anything that yanks a reader out of that story is bad. Misuse of homophones is more than bad – it is insulting and a sign of sloppy craftsmanship. Yes, this is one of my pet peeves. Why write a story and expect people to read it if you aren’t going to do it well? Should anyone even try to write a story if they disrespect their readers so much that they don’t care if they are jerked out of it by such egregious misuse of common words?

You would think that learning to use the English language properly is one of the first steps to becoming a writer. I really don’t understand how anyone dares call themselves a writer if they don’t bother to do so.

By Sally Carpenter

I don’t remember how old I was at the time, but one Christmas my parents gave me the first two Trixie Beldon books, “Secret of the Mansion” and “The Red Trailer Mystery.” Since then I’ve gone on the acquire the first 15 books of the series, all in the original (and cheaply made) Whitman hardcover editions.

I liked Trixie because, at the time, she was much like me. Thirteen-year-old Trixie lived on the family farm in Sleepyside-on-Hudson in upstate New York. My parents didn’t have a farm, but we lived in the country on a big plot of land, with fruit trees in the backyard and cows grazing in the field next door.

Trixie had two older brothers who teased her a lot; so did I. One of Trixie’s brothers was 11 months older; one of my brothers was a little more than a year older than me.

The Beldon family had a pet dog; I had a cat that we took in as a kitten from the barn cat of the neighbor across the road.

Trixie wasn’t good in math; arithmetic was never my strong subject either. Trix has to do household chores and help with the farm work, which she often grumbled about. I had to dry dishes and pick up the fallen fruit outside with the same enthusiasm. For a brief time I mowed the lawn but couldn’t push the X*%$#@ lawnmower up the hill.

Trixie’s best friend was Honey Wheeler, a rich girl who moved into the Manor House down the road from the Beldon farm. I didn’t have a best friend who lived nearby, but I pretended that Honey lived in the house atop the hill east of my home.

Trixie had short curly blonde hair. As a kid I had short curly brown hair, which has since grown out to long curly brown and gray hair.

Like my favorite sleuth, I didn’t think I was pretty. We share many of the same insecurities. I didn’t go sleuthing on mysteries, but I loved reading about Trixie’s travels and adventures.

I belonged to Girl Scouts, 4-H and the church youth group. Trixie made her own club, The Bob-Whites (they used the bob-white whistle to alert other club members), comprised of her brothers and friends. The BWs main purpose was to do good deeds for others and raise money for charitable causes.

The Beldons were comfortable but not rich. Trix had to earn her allowance. The Bob-Whites had to raise the monies they needed for their service projects and clubhouse repairs. My parents likewise watched their pennies.

Unfortunately, Trixie never achieved the fame of that other girl sleuth, oh, what’s her name. Trixie only last 39 books; no new stories are being written. Nancy Drew has gone on to well over twice that number as well as spin-offs and new variations of the character, with more new books each year.

I always wanted to see a Trixie Beldon movie, but one never came to pass. Just as well. If a studio tackled Trix today, they’d update her, give her a cell phone and MP3 player, have her talk about her personality issues with a school counselor, and make the Bob-Whites hang out at a mall instead of meeting in their homemade club house.

When I got older I read a number of Nancy Drews and, with apologizes to all of you Drew fans, the character never appealed to me in the same way as Trix.

I admire Nancy’s smarts, perseverance and bravery. But she never seemed real. In the early books Nancy was 16 years old but she didn’t attend school. Later she aged up to 18 and a high school graduate, but she never mentioned her school days. She didn’t attend college, hold a job (yet had unlimited funds to spend) or even help out around the house.

Nancy had no life outside of sleuthing. She didn’t belong to any clubs or sororities She had two best friends, Bess and George, but their personalities are not developed beyond “chubby” and “tomboy.” Nancy had a dad and a housekeeper, who mainly stay in the background.

The Drew books focused on solving the crime; the Beldon novels were more interested in the characters and their lives/interactions.

Trixie has a full range of friends, family and townspeople, all with distinct personalities. Her friends have interesting backgrounds. Naturally, school plays a big part in Trixie’s life, although in many of the books she’s either on a school vacation or traveling out of state.

Trixie’s biggest drawback is that she’s too young to drive. Her mobility is limited to where she can walk, ride a bike or ride a horse. She must rely on her oldest brother or another adult to drive her. So most of her sleuthing is limited to her town or family vacations. Nancy Drew has her own roadster and drives with abandon, seemingly without having ever put more gas in the car.

The Hardy Boys have them all beat. Frank and Joe not only drive but even ride motorcycles, pilot motorboats, and fly airplanes. No doubt they could man a space ship if the need arose.

Regardless of preference, all of these “juvenile” mysteries serve a good purpose: to encourage children to read and to present young characters that overcome obstacles, use their brains, and solve puzzles. Many fans of Trixie and Nancy grew up to pen mysteries of their own.

While I tip my hat to Nancy Drew, my heart belongs to the girl sleuth who struggles with her math homework.