People often ask about what and how I write but looking at myself as a reader for this blog has been a fun project.

At Daddy’s Office by Robert Jay Misch was my favorite picture book as a child. In fact, I still have the book!

I used to read this story over and over. I thought the sun rose and set with my daddy and loved to imagine going to his office … if he’d had one. He worked as an appliance repairman for Sears & Roebuck and later had his own wholesale meat business. Though he didn’t have a traditional office, I loved riding on the truck with him to make deliveries.

The first chapter book I remember reading was The Happy Hollisters. The family consisted of a  mom, dad, five children, a cat, and a dog who solved mysteries around their Shoreham home in New York. Then I delved into the Nancy Drew chapter book series and The Secret in the Old Attic became a favorite of mine. Nancy always managed to get involved in some mysterious entanglement and in this book she races against time to unravel clues from a dead man’s letters.

A few of these chapter books are also still on my shelves. I saved them in hopes that my grandchildren might love them as much as I did.

If I could have dinner with any fictional character, I would have tea and hot buttered crumpets with Agatha Christie’s  legendary Miss Marple. I adore the way actor Margaret Rutherford portrayed the character. Wouldn’t it be amazing to chat with the elderly, unlikely sleuth whose shrewdness was underestimated? I’d glean what I could about her mystery solving techniques. And if I could visit a fictional place, it would certainly be St. Mary Mead—the village south of London where Miss Marple lives. How fun it would be to trot alongside her on a foggy English moor amid quaint shops and bungalows or beautiful estates.

Currently, the next book I look forward to reading is C.J. Box’s mystery/suspense novel, Savage Run. I was drawn into his heroic game warden lead character, Joe Pickett, in his first book, Open Season. But if I were to pick a favorite author, I’d choose Susan May Warren. I know her, admire her skill of getting words on the page, and she graciously shares her talents through My Book Therapy.

Just in time for Christmas! (Free, November 3-7, 2022: get your copy here!)

The sold-out Hamilton Harbor Christmas Pageant, “What Makes Christmas?”, is in jeopardy when the cast is detained in an out-of-town snowstorm. An actress, in town to visit family, agrees to help with the production but the prop box holding the answer to the play’s question is missing. In the quest for THE LOST BOX, a renewed romance and the townspeople come together to reveal the true heart of Christmas.

Sally Jo Pitts brings a career as a private investigator, high school guidance counselor and teacher of family and consumer sciences to the fiction page. Tapping into her real-world experiences she writes what she likes to read, faith-based stories, steeped in the mysteries of life’s relationships. She is author of the Hamilton Harbor Legacy romance series and the Seasons of Mystery series. You can connect with her at www.sallyjopitts.com