Bluebird day.
Anyone who’s spent enough time in Colorado knows about that remarkable experience. A sunny day savored beneath a cloudless sky painted with a palette of blues ranging from cyan to cerulean.
Skiers and snowboarders especially prize the bluebird days that follow snowy nights, a deep blue sky above and glittering white landscape below. The contrast is no less vivid on a crisp fall day in the high country, where yellow aspen leaves quake in the breeze and tumble like gold coins from the blue heavens.
Bluebird days occur in Colorado because of a combination of weather and geography. Low-pressure systems that push storms west to east often precede high-pressure systems that bring air so still and dry it takes on a crystalline clarity. Mountain elevations intensify the illumination of the sun. At least that’s the scientific explanation.
I believe there’s a psychological component as well. Bluebird days induce euphoria. An eagerness to accept challenges, push limits and seize opportunities before they’re squandered. To realize successes.
Then there are the metaphorical aspects of bluebird days. And, at long last, my point as a novelist: Bluebird days constitute an important metaphor in mystery writing.
What’s the opposite of a bright and clear day? A dark and stormy night — part of the opening lines made famous by first Edward Bulwer-Lytton and then Madeleine L’Engle. Don’t forget Snoopy, the cartoon strip beagle who typed his novels atop his doghouse.
Most mysteries don’t begin on dark and stormy nights, but dead bodies often appear on opening pages. Corpses — and, by extension, foreboding evil — provide a reliable hook that yanks readers into stories at the onset. Detectives, private investigators and librarians — sleuths of all sorts — then go about the process of figuring out who done it and bring the villains to justice. In that process, sleuths invariably endure life-changing difficulties even as the stakes mount.
What follows every metaphorical dark and stormy night? That supreme ordeal? A metaphorical bluebird day. A resolution. Challenges accepted, limits pushed, opportunities seized and successes realized.
I write what I contend are bluebird day mysteries set in the rugged mountains of Colorado. My mysteries include plenty of dark and stormy nights in deadly shootings, mine cave-ins and other catastrophes. Villains commit heinous crimes motivated by greed, envy and revenge. My sleuths — a relentless small town journalist and brilliant history professor — endure their own difficulties. But in the midst of their desperate searches for truth and treasure, they discover meaning. Good triumphs over evil and love conquers all. Bluebird days prevail.
I hope my bluebird day mysteries offer readers an escape from what’s too often the stresses and tedium of life — bad days at work and mind-numbing scrolling through screens. I offer a chance instead to sit, relax and savor a compelling story told well.
In other words, an experience as enjoyable and satisfying as a bluebird day in Colorado.