Goodreads author pages have a feature I never remember to look at. But basically, readers can ask authors questions.
Today, I was a bit surprised to see this one:
What mystery in your own life could be a plot for a book?
I tried to post my answer, but another mystery popped up when Goodreads came back with an error message.
So here’s my answer.
Great question! There are so many mysteries, I’m not sure where I’d even start. Here are my top ten, right off the top of my head:
- Why do people say “off the top of my head?” Where are they keeping the other reasons? In their underwear drawer?
- Okra.
- Who really eats the orange jelly beans? And why?
- Literally, why do people say “literally”?
- Lindsey Graham. (I suspect alien involvement…)
- What if there’s a malevolent force that goes through my house, removing one earring from my favorite pair, knocking my phone onto the floor behind the TV, hiding one piece of each puzzle, and unrolling all the toilet paper rolls? And what if the evil force’s superpower is curling up on my lap and purring until I forget all about those other things and give it a new catnip toy?
- Why do people ask you where you last had something you’re looking for? Has that ever, in the entire history of the universe, solved a mystery?
- Why do I spend $157 on garden supplies to grow 3 tomatoes, but get furious about paying more than a $1/pound for store tomatoes?
Anything involving clowns. Because… clowns.- How could someone not like chocolate? (Again… aliens/Lindsey Graham?)
Barb Taub 
Now I will lay awake all night pondering these, especially number 7. Also why does hubby always ask every time I find a bug, beetle etc in the house, “Where did it come from?” The last time he asked I replied, “I don’t know. I forgot to ask him before I killed him.”
LikeLiked by 2 people
Haha! It would make a great cozy mystery plot if someone actually solves the mystery by remembering exactly where they last had the macguffin.
LikeLiked by 1 person
There are two malevolent forces in my house. One inexplicably drools when he’s curled up on my lap and the other (his twin brother), in keeping with memes you see about such creatures, will not hesitate to bite the hand that pets him.
I must say that I love orange jelly beans and chocolate. Literally. And okra, as long as it’s breaded and fried.
I, too, spend an obscene sum of money to reap four tomatoes. But those tomatoes are GOOD.
Alas, I have no answer to Lindsey Graham.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I’m stunned about the okra. Literally. Calling for ambulance…
LikeLiked by 1 person
point 7 baffles me – I’ve no idea what you’re talking about.
that clown drove me crazy… had to put my hand over it so that I could read the rest of your list.
learned about okra tks to my online search. So it wasn’t a total mystery to me but only since you made it a point of your list 😉
The price of lovingly self-planted veggies baffles me even more. I spent a fortune on my plants and apart from 3 lovely Nostrano cucumbers NOTHING grew at all, not even after I replanted everything a second time, after a vicious streak of cold, rain, storm…. And then I see cherry toms at a ridiculous (but still high) price in the shop and I think ‘I could have bought x tons of them with the money I threw in my mini garden for nought!’…
LikeLiked by 1 person
I saw a mama deer nibbling delicately at my veg and if I had a gun, Bambi would have been orphaned. Literally.
LikeLiked by 1 person
oh no – don’t say that!!!!! Not Bambi!
LikeLike
And funny you should say that about Goodreads. That’s the first thing I read (spoilers and all) usually and sometimes I shake my white locks because I can’t think of How dumb a question is that? and then going to the comments of readers on said book.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m a huge fan of the 1-star comments. My current fave is the pithy review of George Orwell’s 1984 which says, “Literally a combination of twilight and fifty shades of gray”
LikeLiked by 3 people
you can’t not agree with this ‘judgement’…. 😉 LOL
LikeLike
That clown!! 😱 If I have nightmares tonight I’ll know who to blame 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m so sorry. Clowns are a BIG mystery to me.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Me too!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Goodness, I shouldn’t have seen this post before bed.
Yep, 1 and 7 are mine too.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have to agree with you. Whyyyyyyyyyy?
LikeLike
Good question … hum, too many mysteries for me to enumerate!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha! You don’t fool me. I know you actually sit down and write them!
LikeLike
A mystery to me is people always asking, “Can I ask you a question?” Aren’t they asking a question to ask me a question. If I say no, I’ve already answered a question. I know they’re just trying to be polite (or put me on the spot and then I have to be polite and answer), but I always want to say, “You just did.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
And softly singing, “If I only had a brain…” is possibly not the right answer either. My personal fave is all the people who asked my frequently-gestating self if we were hoping for a boy or a girl this time. I would say, “Yes.” (It seemed marginally better than my sister’s response, which was to innocently inquire if there were other options.)
LikeLiked by 2 people
Love your sister’s answer! LOL!
LikeLike
Guilty many times over for number 8. But I know I’ll do it again next year…
LikeLiked by 1 person
And it’s not just the veggies. I can’t begin to tell you how much I’ve spent on my (completely unproductive) dream of blooming peonies. Or even one lousy peony.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Definitely with you on No 9 – I’ll have nightmares tonight.
When someone is ‘just not herself today’ who is she and where did herself go?
LikeLiked by 1 person
My mother’s friends used to scarily announce they had to “put my face on” and it took years before I realized they were going to apply makeup.
LikeLiked by 2 people
9 and 10!!!)))
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m with you!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Only disappointment is that you ended the list after number ten. Hysterical.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m crabby enough to have a MUCH longer list.
LikeLike
But #7 WORKS! I ask, “What’s the last thing you remember doing with the lost thing and where?” I go to that place as a start and talk them through the memory. Found LOTS of things that way. (including $1200 misplaced by my mother-in-law) She had put it in the pocket of her robe (she thought) and went about doing her hair. The money, in its little bank envelope, was tucked right along side her collection of combs and brushes.
LikeLike
Clowns. Ugh. I had to scroll through that photo real fast. 😳
LikeLiked by 1 person
🤡—product of a diseased mind.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I got this one yesterday too, Barb!
I will eat any colour of jelly beans. Actually, put them with #10 and you’ve got sweetie euphoria. I remember discovering the joy of American hardgums eaten with Rolos, when I was about 19. Try it. The fruity jelly thing with chocolate is …. well, like I said 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks a lot. Now I won’t be able to stop thinking about fruit gums and chocolates. It’s pouring rain (flood warnings) but I’m pulling on wellies to head for the shops. YOUR fault if I get swept off by an overachieving wave just because I have to eat chocolates and fruit gums. (Except for the orange ones of course. I refuse to risk death for the orange ones. )
LikeLike
Great list of mysteries. I’ve wondered about most of them. You can add Mitch McConnell to that list of alien possibles. I’m not sure what sick mind created clowns but I hope they ended up somewhere very hot. I’ve had fried orka before I knew better. My great aunt made it palatable. Any other way should be illegal. I’ve lost the same roll of packing tape 6 times since last night. Where did I last see it? Not where I found it each time.
Someone wants me to get my steps in.
And softly singing, “If I only had a brain…” Hilarious. If I had one, I could think of more mysteries but I have no bandwidth left for thinking. Thanks so much for lightening the day.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It is never where you last saw it! Never, ever!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hahaha!!! Love this!
LikeLike
Well… the mystery in my life (or more correctly, my family), is hopefully going to become my novel!
LikeLike
Lindsey Graham is a mystery in EVERYONE’s life!
LikeLike