Happy Monday! It’s time for a pop quiz! Ah, come on, play along here. It’s only one question. First read the paragraph below, then the question. Take a minute to consider your answer, then check your answer against the answer below:

A woman, while at the funeral of her own mother, met a man she didn’t know. She thought this guy was amazing, so much her dream guy, that she believed him to be just that! She fell in love with him right there, but never asked for his number and couldn’t find him. A few days later she killed her sister.

Question: What is her motive in killing her sister? (Give this some thought
before you answer).
So, do you have your answer? No peeking until you think up your answer!

Answer: She was hoping that the guy would appear at the funeral again.

If you answered this correctly, you think like a psychopath.

This little test of my sanity came to me over the Internet, and supposedly it is a test
by a famous American Psychologist used to test if one has the same mentality as a killer. The claim is that many arrested serial killers took part in the test and answered the question correctly. So if you answered the question correctly…you think like a serial killer!

My niece sent me this because she thought as a mystery writer I might guess the answer. (Or, she questions my sanity but I prefer to think positively.)

I got the answer wrong. Not because I lack any killer mentality, but because as I read the question, I formed a character in my mind. I could see her clearly standing in her high heels in the wet grass of the cemetery, watching this guy across the casket of her dead mother. I felt her interest in the man, the connection she felt when he looked at her. She knew that he recognized her as his soul mate, just as she recognized him.

Then she caught her sister looking at him too. The slut. Her sister has always been a jealous vengeful slut. Always trying to steal whatever the woman has.

I knew exactly why the woman killed her sister—she was not going to let her sister steal her perfect, amazing man. No freaking way. Not after all the years their mother favored her sister, but now their mother was dead and she was free…

Then I read the answer that the woman killed her sister to see the man again. And immediately I saw plot holes. Big, gaping plot holes. Why would she kill her sister if she didn’t know for sure the man knew her? The woman had no idea who the man was or why he was at her mother’s funeral—she only knew the very important fact that he was her dream guy, her soul mate. And that her sister was going to screw it up, steal him, and turn him against her. So the “right” answer didn’t ring true to the character forming in my head.

So what’s the moral of this story? Well, I don’t think you can determine whether or not someone will kill by a set of questions, for one thing. What makes a killer is much more complex than that. If it was that simple, we could wipe out killing just like we wiped out polio.

But I also think that writers have trained their minds to respond differently to provocative questions. In fact, I bet all five of us here at Murder She Writes would come up with different answers. That’s why questions like these can be fun!

So what about you all? Are you killers in the making, or pleasantly sane people?

Here’s some blogs you might have missed . . .

Today, at Romancing the Blog, I wrote about Chemistry. Head on over and tell me who your favorite fictional couple is and why . . .

Colleen Thompson, who writes romantic suspense for Leisure, has a great column about why she writes RS. It’s something we’ve discussed here at MSW. I particularly love this:

. . . a world where, without exception, the mystery is solved, the mortal threat vanquished, the evil punished, and flawed yet worthy human beings find the love that they deserve.

For some holiday whimsy, check out Shirley Jump’s column at RTB, Santa Take Note. It’s her twelve days of Christmas for writers . . . I particularly liked:

10. Ten daily minutes. To be all by myself. Yes, to actually go to the bathroom without someone knocking on the door, asking how to divide fractions or complaining that their Science teacher is one of Stephen King’s unleashed monsters. If you can pull off the above miracles, surely this one will be a piece of cake.

I took that one to heart and had a private bath (i.e. locked the door!) yesterday morning. Bliss, total bliss, for forty-five minutes.

And check out the writer’s block cartoon over at the Backspace blog . . . it cracked me up.

And don’t forget our contest! Midnight Saturday we’re closing entries, and announcing the winner on Sunday, so if you haven’t entered, so it now! Rules here.

While the holidays bring out the best in many people it brings out the worst in others. There are lots of grinches out there who wait until the Whos of the world are asleep or out visiting to strike. They target the cheerful Christmas tree, most especially what lies gaily wrapped beneath it or cut your purse strings, literally, as you shop, and run off with your wallet and ID.
Here are a few holiday tips to make you less vulnerable to the grinches of the world:
Make sure you lock your doors and windows.
Leave a light on during evening hours.
Leave exterior lights-front back and side on (thieves do not like a well lit house).
Do not leave a key out, thieves look for them, find them, then help themselves to your home.
If you have a dog, leave it in your house, especially ones that bark (like mine) at the slightest hint of someone outside, thieves do not like barking dogs.
Let neighbors know if you are going to be away for an extended period of time.
Cancel newspaper and mail delivery during your absence.
When shopping, store packages safely in your trunk not in your back seat where they are visible.
When paying for purchases do not display all of your cash.
Always be aware of your surroundings.
Remember where you park.
Park as close to the mall or shopping center as possible.
Try to do your shopping in daylight hours.
Never give personal info over the phone to solicitors. Ask them for a phone number to call them back at your convenience.
If you don’t have a peep hole, don’t open your door for strangers. Ask who is there, and what they want. Don’t be bashful, it could save your life.
Keep you cell phone charged, and let someone know where you are going.
Have an emergency kit in your car.
Last and certainly not least, go with your gut, your intuition, if someone or some situation doesn’t sit right with you, contact a cop, call a friend, or wait it out in a store.
I’m sure I’ve missed a few good tips, anyone else?

Miss Snark unsnarky . . .

Yesterday, Miss Snark (my guilty pleasure) posted this sad story, beginning:

A good guy was gunned down in the streets of Brooklyn two nights ago. He was a cop doing his job, chasing a guy who turned out to be armed, dangerous, and really stupid. The stupid guy lived. Officer Stewart, father of two, husband, brother, son, didn’t.

Read more about this senseless tragedy here and here and here.

Which leads me to why I write suspense. It’s exactly what Miss Snark says . . . “Crime novels make sense of the carnage. There’s always a reason. There’s always a motivation. And there’s always a sense of justice.”

My cops are the good guys. They get the bad guys. Justice is served. The end. It’s fiction, which Officer Stewart’s murder sadly reminds us.

Under the heading We Can’t Make This Stuff Up . . .

Yesterday, a judge ruled that a man was not guilty of rape because he’d been sleeping.

A sleep expert testified at his trial that the man suffered from sexomnia, a sort of sleep walking that includes sexual acts, likely brought on by alcohol, sleep deprivation and genetics.

Apparently, he’s done this with his girlfriends in the past so this is now okay behavior? What’s next . . . “I’m sorry officer, I didn’t mean to stab my girlfriend to death, I was sleeping?”

However, I bet next season we see this on CSI . . .

26 days and counting . . .

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, that’s okay. You’ll hear more later.

And then she was done . . .

I have 21 more pages to review on my copyedits of The Kill and then the 480-some page manuscript will be overnighted back to NYC. It’s sitting here in front of me reminding me that I need to finish up. So I’ll sign off for now.