Judy K. Walker's Blog

It’s that time of year again… Reader: You mean when you say, I’m going to get back to writing blog posts again? 😬 No, it is the Spooky Season. 👻 If you’ve only read my Tallahassee-based Sydney Brennan PI Mysteries, now is the perfect time to check out… brace yourself for the pivot… my Appalachian-set Dead Hollow supernatural crime thriller series. Hunh? Yes, you read that right. Think Justified meets Stranger Things (minus the 80s nostalgia). Don’t overthink it—just try it. The first book, Prodigal, is on sale everywhere until Halloween for just 99¢. Drifter Adam Rutledge is haunted by Read more...

It is 87°F (nearly 31°C) at my desk as I type this. It’s been hot and dry lately in purportedly rainy East Hawaii, with road dust thick in the air and grass crunching underfoot. The entire Big Island has been in a state of drought all year. (An aside: U.S. Drought Monitor is a great resource for checking local data, but cross your fingers that the dumbasses—and in early 2025, you know which ones I mean—don’t find its plug and either pull it or trip over it.) You may recall that, like most of our district, our house is on Read more...

There is a shortage of things worth smiling over lately, so this week I thought I’d share a super-dependable, go-to Joy Jam: our inimitable canine companion Sadie. Sadie arrived a little over a year ago, literally on our doorstep, and promptly lay down like she lived there. Au contraire, mon frère! we said. After the painful, successive losses of our previous pack members (Fritz, Travis, then Ninja Kitty, and finally Fred), we really were not ready for another pet. Not only were we still grieving, but we liked the idea of having one less thing to worry about when we Read more...

Happy New Year! I can still say that, right? Aspiring to appear here at the blog more in 2025 is my version of losing twenty extra pounds. But a writer can dream. Something else that always cycles back around like clockwork… the rats in East Hawaii. We’ve seen rats intermittently since the one-year anniversary of our great Ninja Kitty’s death. (It’s not surprising that Ninja’s bad-ass spirit—or at least his reputation—outlasted his physical form.) But there appears to be a seasonal aspect to the rodent infestations, by which I mean the times they stick around and set up camp. This Read more...

Hey! Remember me? It’s been a while, but I’m going to do the usual thing I do with friends—pretend like it hasn’t and pick up right where we left off. 😉 So The Hubs and I spent some time traveling recently, three states (I’m counting the District of Columbia as a state here) in what felt like the blink of an eye but my calendar says definitely wasn’t. Most of our journey revolved around family, including a gorgeous wedding with all kinds of warm-and-fuzzies. Though a little too much of the warm bit. 🫠 If you’re considering a formal outdoor Read more...

Welcome to my First Friday Free Mystery Fiction, wherein I share a free mystery short story on the first Friday of every month. You have one week to read the story here before it vanishes into the cyber ether. Tick, tick tick… My newsletter subscribers have the option of downloading these stories, plus a couple more, to read at their leisure. You can sign up in the sidebar. Hint, hint. 😉 This suspenseful short is NOT a Sydney Brennan story. It also has never been published before, so it has never been edited, except by me. If something wonky in Read more...

Welcome to my First Friday Free Mystery Fiction, wherein I share a free mystery short story on the first Friday of every month. You have one week to read the story here before it vanishes into the cyber ether. Tick, tick tick… My newsletter subscribers have the option of downloading these stories, plus a couple more, to read at their leisure. You can sign up in the sidebar. Hint, hint. 😉 This Sydney Brennan short has never been published before, so it has never been edited, except by me. If something wonky in it makes you lose sleep at night, Read more...

I’m back with five more mystery and thriller shows I enjoyed watching recently(ish), plus a BONUS NUMBER SIX. 😉 This is a post I thought I’d written—the list was already in my blog post file!—and yet, here I am sharing it (mumble, mumble) months later. That’s okay because they’re not going anywhere. Most are from the 2020s, but one is ten-plus years old. We watched on a mix of streaming services and (gasp!) DVDs. Some of you remember those, right? (Brace yourself for an admission of even older tech use below.) As always, your mileage may vary, and you can Read more...

Welcome to my First Friday Free Mystery Fiction, wherein I share a free mystery short story on the first Friday of every month. You have one week to read the story here before it vanishes into the cyber ether. Tick, tick tick… My newsletter subscribers have the option of downloading these stories, plus a couple more, to read at their leisure. You can sign up in the sidebar. Hint, hint. 😉 This Sydney Brennan short has never been published before, so it has never been edited, except by me. If something wonky in it makes you lose sleep at night, Read more...

I’m leaving this here to remind you that I share a free mystery short story on the first Friday of every month. You have a week to read the story here on my Blog before it vanishes into the cyber ether. My newsletter subscribers have the option of downloading these stories, plus a couple more, to read at their leisure. You can subscribe in the sidebar. Hint, hint. 😉 These Sydney Brennan shorts have never been published before, so they have never been edited, except by me. If something wonky in it makes you lose sleep at night, feel free Read more...