Being the Detective: Admit it ... you always wanted to be just like Nancy ... without getting your shoes muddy of course ... and now you can by reading reports from Steve Huff on Huff's Crime Blog, doing some research then sending Huff your findings and tips. This recent piece on Neil Entwistle by Huff is a great place to start regarding some techniques for doing internet research. Do it now ...

Watching the Detectives: What would Nancy have done here? A state police detective said Tuesday that a dominatrix told investigators she spent two hours trying to decide what to do with the body of a client who authorities believe died of a heart attack during a bondage session. Barbara Asher, who is on trial for manslaughter in the death of former North Hampton resident Michael Lord, told police that she and her boyfriend settled on a plan to chop up the body and dump it because it was too big to carry out of Asher's condominium, said the detective, Sgt. Dermot Moriarty. Read more ...

Discussion Groups: There are quite a few groups at Yahoo for ND fans to meet and discuss ND with others. Among these, more or less in order of size and activity, the top 10 currently are NancyDrewSleuths, TheNancyDrewGroup, nancydrew2, DetectivesClub, nancydrewmysteryclub, NancyDrewDiscussionGroup, nancydrewfanklub, Nancy_Drew_Trailblazers, Nancydrew, and SleuthsCHAT. I've added a link to Yahoo Directory entry for Nancy Drew to the menu at the right. You can use that link to do some investigating and decide which of these groups best meets your needs.

Nancy Boy: OK ... so there was a lot more to the Nancy Drew (and Hardy Boys) stories than I realized when I first read them ... or when I reread them years later. Might be time to revisit them again with ideas presented by Michael Bronski in mind. He writes that "teen-sleuth novels taught me that I could have a mysterious, adventuresome, erotic imagination on my own" and the examples of "explosive element" in the original stories that he presents certainly seem to support his argument ... at the very least they could make for an interesting conversational gambit when you are next in need of such. Read more ...

Secrets of the Stratemeyer Syndicate: This program on Sunday, January 22 in Guilford CT by two of Syndicate founder Edward Stratemeyer's great granddaughters, former Nancy Drew ghostwriter Cynthia Adams Lum, and her sister, Guilford resident and past Syndicate researcher Dr. Kimberley Stratemeyer Adams looks like it could be very interesting. Learn more ...

The Delight of Used Books: A former ND reader who's taste has since "recovered" confesses to becoming "shamelessly giddy" after stumbling across the complete set of Nancy Drew in a used book store. Learn more ...

Her Interactive's Morgan Woolverton: A short interview with 3D artist Woolverton who does Nancy Drew for Her Interactive about his current interests and influences is available at Gamasutra. And I've added link to Her Interactive to menu at right.

You Too Can Nancy Drew: Boston University is opening a private investigation program through the Center for Professional Education led by Tom Shamshak, a law enforcement veteran of 21 years who is president of Shamshak Investigative Services, and is also a member of the Licensed Private Detectives Association of Massachusetts . The program, which runs 160 hours over six months on Saturdays starts January 21 and addresses Foundations of Professional Investigation, Internet Research, Public Records Research, Investigative Interviewing, Investigative Surveillance, Legal Issues in Professional Investigation and Practice Management for Professional Investigators. Sounds like just what Nancy could use but yikes ... it's $4995. If you're still interested you can read more ...

Wikipedia: Of the 905,140 articles that are reported to be currently in Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, there is an excellent one on Nancy which includes a concise history as well as plot summaries for many of the ND titles. I've added a link to the Wikipedia article under "More Nancy Sites" on the menu at right.

The Mystery in Hollywood Hills: Jerry Weintraub Productions - the folks who did among other films, Karate Kid and its two sequels as well as Ocean's Twelve remake, the dreadful Ocean's Twelve and quite possibly an Ocean's Thirteen - has apparently begun work on a Nancy Drew movie with Emma Roberts, star of Nickeloden's Unfabulous and niece of Julia Roberts, with a release planned for 2007. In the movie teen detective Nancy Drew (Emma) accompanies her father on a business trip to Los Angeles, where she happens upon clues to a murder mystery involving a movie star.

Progress Report and the Plan: So far so good. Links on the left retrieve a listing of books for sale as extracted by AddAll - a free service that searches for books online from more than 40 online book services and 20,000 dealers. So far I've got the 56 Grosset and Dunlap titles up. You'll notice I've sorted than by "price descending" because, at least for me, its always fun to see what prices are being asked for some of the early copies. I've also included a link to Nancy Drew items on Ebay - you'll see there's a lot of fun stuff there. Lastly for now on the left menu are books about Nancy Drew - and so far I've only got Farah's Guide by David Farah listed - this book is absolutely indispensable for the serious collector. Finally on the right menu I intend to link to other sites about Nancy. I've started with Jenn Fisher's Nancy Drew Sleuth and Nancy Drew World by Lea Shangraw Fox. I'm still discovering others.

Nancy Drew Enthusiast Launched: If I hadn't found those five old Nancy Drew books in dust jackets at the used book store down the street several weeks ago and hadn't then bought a copy of Farah's Guide this site might not have been put together ... but I did ... and now I'm looking forward to building this site as an online resource for Nancy Drew enthusiasts everywhere. Your help with links and news would be very much appreciated. This should be fun.