A friend sent me Tom Gauld’s cartoon about an autumn walk’s inspiration.
The poet thinks, “I’ll write a poem about the melancholy beauty of leaves falling in the autumn sun.”
The detective novelist thinks, “I’ll write a story about the autumn winds revealing a headless corpse hidden in a pile of leaves.”
I’m a member of a local poetry society, so I might briefly consider writing a poem about leaf loss. However, my poetry tends to the kind that ends up in science-based picture books. That’s because I believe picture books should rhyme.
Consequently, I probably wouldn’t write an autumn-based poem. I am confident that the members of the Tucson Poetry Society will write exquisite autumnal poems. You can see their work at Desert Tracks: Poems from the Sonoran Desert.
However, I do like mysteries and horror stories, so yes, I would definitely write a story about a headless corpse being found in a pile of leaves! When I started writing books, I wanted to write murder mysteries. Even though most of my time is taken up with the children’s books, I am working on a couple of mystery series.
Maybe one will include a headless corpse . . .
