The Chicks are happy to welcome Sarah E. Burr to her first-ever Chicks post. Today she’s sharing a fascinating story about a mysterious gun unearthed on her family’s Maine property…
Hi, everyone! It’s so lovely to meet you virtually, and thank you to Ellen for inviting me here today. I’m relatively new to the cozy mystery scene, having launched my first paranormal cozy, You Can’t Candle the Truth, in November 2021. I have another book release (and new series!) just around the corner, too. #FollowMe for Murder, first in the Trending Topic Mysteries, slides onto bookshelves on February 15th. #FollowMe for Murder introduces mystery lovers to blogger and social media influencer Coco Cline. Murder just might go viral after Coco stumbles across a dead body in the back of a consignment shop.
As I was sitting down to figure out how I could write a hilarious, fun piece worthy of being featured on Chicks on the Case, I had a meaningful moment of self-reflection and ultimately realized I’m really not that funny. Being effortlessly witty is just not a character trait I have. What I do have is a serious obsession with imagining fictional murders. And honestly, I can pinpoint the exact moment when my fascination with the macabre took flight.
I was seven years old when my parents moved our family from the beautiful beaches of Florida to the quiet woods of Maine. The three of us moved into an old farmhouse in the dead of winter. As one might expect of a New England winter, the fifteen-acre property was completely covered in snow. For months, we had no idea what the rest of the land looked like. It wasn’t until the following spring that the slightly warmer temperatures revealed just what goodies awaited.
You know the saying, one man’s trash is another person’s treasure? In this case, the former occupants’ trash was also our trash. Those who’d previously lived in the home had, for decades, been using the backyard as their dumping grounds. We found chicken feeders, an old Jeep, a life-sized doll (which, despite the mold on it, I wanted to play with), tires, couches, bookshelves, tools, shoes, chairs…the better question would be what didn’t we find out there?
But the most exciting find was unearthed by my dad while he was rototilling a plot of land for my mom to grow her garden. He found a rusty, old gun.
Now, I was eight years old by this time and thoroughly immersed in the world of Nancy Drew. So, when my dad brought this gun inside to show my mom, I managed to catch sight of it before it was whisked away. My imagination went into overdrive with my totally normal ‘What Would Nancy Do’ mindset. Why was there a gun buried in our backyard? Would my dad find a *gasp* body, too?
The gun may have disappeared quickly, but my questions did not. Whose had it been? Were there any markings? Was it loaded? Missing bullets? Was there any blood caked into the rust? I asked my dad daily if he found any bones outside. His answer was always “None human.” I asked my mom if she knew whether anyone who’d lived in the house before us disappeared or died under mysterious circumstances. She’d give me a mom look and tell me to eat my green beans.
When no body surfaced that summer, I took it upon myself to figure out what happened in typical eight-year-old fashion. With no real-life answers, I began to craft stories of my own.
In the beginning, my main character was Nancy Drew herself. She happened to be visiting the old farmhouse of a dear friend and arrived for a restful weekend before stumbling across a gun buried beneath a rosebush. So many “Chapter Ones” were written, but Nancy never unmasked her culprit, nor did she figure out why there was a rusty gun in her best-friend-named-Sarah’s backyard to begin with.
Eventually, my characters became MCs I boosted from The Wonderful World Disney or Lizzie McGuire, and their stories always began with finding an old gun buried in their backyard. The circumstances surrounding this mysterious find, however, did differ depending on my mood. Maybe a dead body was found only a few feet away. Perhaps the previous owner had gone missing, and the gun was all that was left. Maybe a trail of blood was barely visibly in the dirt.
Two things these works all had in common? A gun was unearthed in someone’s backyard, and I never finished writing them. Even as I got into my teens and began creating original characters, I never got beyond writing that “hey, we found a gun” introductory scene. It was a mystery that plagued me for years; it was the ending I couldn’t write because it was too real, too close to home.
It would be a decade later before I finally finished writing my first bona fide mystery novel. The manuscript didn’t even include a gun buried in the backyard (in a shocking turn of events). I don’t think any of my thirteen-plus mystery novels have ever featured a firearm. Why? I just can’t separate reality from fiction in this case. My mind always goes back to seeing the rusty, old gun, and how the mystery surrounding it will be forever unsolved. The trail has long gone cold. But all those lingering questions and wild scenarios I imagined as a kid kickstarted this fascination with mystery writing that keeps my fingers typing to this day.
As I was puzzling out what to write for my Chicks guest piece, I shared this story with my partner about my dad digging up a gun, and his first question was, “Did your family ever report the gun to the police?” Um, what? No!
Immediately, my thoughts flew to legal ramifications (yes, the phrase ‘statute of limitations’ ran through my mind), and I didn’t want my parents getting in trouble with the FBI or something because I posted a quirky article featuring a story from my childhood.
So, I texted my dad if there he and my mom were obligated to report the old gun he found on their property to the authorities, to which he responded:
“Well, it was a toy cap gun, so I think we’re okay.”
Mystery solved.
Readers, have you ever found anything unexpected or lost something that turned up years later?
BIO:
Sarah E. Burr lives near New York City but grew up in the small town of Appleton, Maine. Since she was seven, she’s wanted to be Nancy Drew, but, unfortunately, she wasn’t stumbling across
any mysteries in corporate America. So, Sarah left her healthcare IT career and started writing mysteries of her own.
Sarah is the author of the Trending Topic Mysteries, the Glenmyre Whim Mysteries, and the Court of Mystery series. In addition, she currently serves as the social media guru for the NY-Tristate Sisters in Crime chapter. When she’s not writing, Sarah is either reading up a storm, seeing Broadway musicals, video gaming, or enjoying walks with her dog, Eevee.
Instagram: https://bit.ly/saraheburrinstagram
Facebook: https://bit.ly/saraheburrfacebook
Twitter: https://bit.ly/saraheburrtwitter
Website: www.saraheburr.com
Books by Sarah: https://bit.ly/authorsaraheburr
Chicks on the Case 
Hi Sarah,
Congratulations on your upcoming book release. I love this story about the lost gun found on your parents farm and the surprised at what it was.
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Thank you so much, Dru Ann! It’s kinda funny that this is one of my most vivid childhood memories. What’s more, it’s made me the writer I am today. Mystery definitely is my favorite genre!
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What a fun story! I’ve never found anything so memorable, which is probably a good thing. I’m sure I would be very uneasy finding a gun. Writing about them is one thing, but dealing with them in real life is something else entirely. Congrats on your new and upcoming releases!
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Thanks so much! As a kid, I wondered how my parents were so calm about the whole thing, but I guess the fact that (once my dad got the dirt and rust of it) they discovered it wasn’t a real threat really helped with that mindset.
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Congratulations on the new books. After so many years of imaginative fodder, was it a letdown to learn the gun was a toy?
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Thank you so much! You know, there is a very small part of me that was let down by this development (I literally learned about this two weeks ago), but honestly, my dad and I had such a laugh about it. Only I would spend years and years thinking about a wild scenario that I’d completely made up in my head!
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If only he would have spent that much time concocting a story for when you finally asked!
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That story is priceless, Sarah! Perhaps you can weave a toy gun into one of your Coco Cline mysteries as a red herring? Just a thought.
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Love it! I definitely need to figure out a way to weave this into something…the gun being fake the entire time is too good not to use!
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This is fantastic, Sarah! Love it.
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Thank you, Carol!! Appreciate you stopping by!
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Thanks for the story, Sarah. I remember rooting around in a closet as a kid and coming up with a revolver. It was one of my dad’s (he had passed away by then), and my ma absolutely freaked when I showed it to her. Don’t know whether it was loaded or not, but Ma took it and dropped it inside the walls of the old house we lived in. It’s probably still there, to be found if the house is ever demolished.
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Wow! What a find for you, and what a fright for your mom. Hmm, to come across a gun hidden in a wall…there’s a story there for sure!
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How do people put things in walls? I have always wondered.
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In some old houses, there’s a gap between the inner and outer walls. Maybe a form of insulation.
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Welcome to the Chicks, Sarah! Congrats on your books! So glad I didn’t stumble on a gun in real life…
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Thank you so much, Jennifer. It’s a real *pinch me* author moment to be here. I feel like if I came across a gun now, I would totally spiral. I’m the person who covers their eyes the moment a gun is whipped out in a TV show or movie.
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I’m laughing at the ending of that story. Maybe now you can work through the gun issues you have and include them in a novel? I’m certainly intrigued on all the stories you’ve started. I want to know what happens next in each of them.
Congrats on the new series! (Or is that serieses?)
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I think I’ll have to work on those issues, sooner than later, especially since I write murder mysteries! Thank you so much – I’m celebrating two new book series at the moment. My brain is a jumble of characters!
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Ha! I love this story SO much! You truly do have to work it into one of your mysteries. (Or perhaps write a YA or kids’ story about it?) The only interesting things I’ve ever dug up in my yard are old glass bottles and marbles–which are pretty cool. But nothing as exciting as a gun…
Thanks so much for visiting the Chicks today, Sarah, and congrats on all your new books!
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Thank you so much, Leslie! It’s so funny because I’m still coming to terms with the resolution of this decades-old “mystery.”
I love finding old glass bottles – they’re actually something my mom and I used to search for when we went antiquing. I always imagined magical potions being kept in them, while my mom leaned toward them being used at apothecaries.
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First of all, Sarah, I think you’re hilarious! I would love to read an anthology with the theme “gun found buried in backyard” especially if every story were written by an 8-year-old.
Welcome to Chicks and the world of cozies. Pretty sure you fit right in!
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Thank you, Becky! I appreciate that so much. I think I can be funnier on paper than in real life because I can take a few minutes (or hours, days) to think of something fun LOL
I am so happy to be here and be a part of such an awesome community!! Cheers!
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Great story, Sarah! Thanks SO much for guesting with us. Still trying to think of something I found that would match your story. No luck so far, lol.
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Thank YOU, Ellen, for inviting me to be here! I’m sure with all your amazing (and wild) travel stories, you’ll have me beat in no time!
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Fun story, Sarah — and congrats on the new series!
The only thing of interest (to me) I ever unearthed in the backyard was a rock with gold-colored veins running through it. I was convinced it was gold and there was likely a fortune’s worth nearby. Unfortunately my mom spotted me dragging a shovel up the hill and was naturally curious!
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Omg! Gold veins? I would have done the same if I found something like that. I mean, I often pretended regular rocks were gold, so I can only imagine the somersaults my mind would do if I found something that looked like the real thing!
And thank you for the congratulations!
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Thanks so much for visiting Chicks today, Sarah. Loved your story–and you are definitely very funny! I wrote the Lizzie McGuire Mysteries way back when–wish I could have read your story versions with Lizzie, Miranda and Gordo. (Not to *borrow* any ideas, though, of course. I swear.) And I have always dreamed of finding something in every back yard I’ve ever had–also at the beach–but it has sadly never happened, sigh.
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Ooo, I bet you could find the most amazing things hidden away at a beach! Thank you for thinking I’m funny – I think it’s a lot “easier” for me to be funny in writing because I can spend hours/days (sometimes months) trying to come up with a funny line. One of my characters in my new series, Jasper, has sarcasm & wit as a staple of his personality. He was the most fun to write but also the hardest because for the longest time (before beta readers and editors) I wasn’t sure if he was actually funny. Maybe it was all in my head!
Lizzie, Miranda, and Gordo = such a great team!
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Sarah, what a story! And I loved the twist at the end!!
I’ve forever wanted to stumble across something interesting, preferably mystery-related. Sadly, all of my finds have been mundane. But hope springs eternal!
Thanks for visiting us and congrats!!
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Thank you so much, Kathleen! And just think of it as the best find of your life has yet to come!
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Wow! The magical power of imagination! Great blog Sarah.
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