Nancy Drew Is On The Case | Blogging From A To Z Theme Reveal

April 1st is going to be a big day here at The Cynical Sailor. Not only is it April Fool's Day, but it's also the kick-off of the 2016 Blogging from A to Z Challenge. Every day during April (except Sundays), I'll be following along with the alphabet and posting on the blog. Committing to doing 26 blog posts during the month is challenging enough. But, what's going to make it even more challenging this year is that I've signed up to do a theme. That means that all of my blog posts have to relate to the theme I've chosen. No more slapping up random blog posts to tick off a particular letter of the alphabet. Things are going to have to be a lot better planned. Yikes.

Theme Reveal

You've probably guessed what my theme is from the image on the top of this blog post. Yes, Nancy Drew is back on the case. Some of you may remember when Nancy made an appearance on the blog at the end of last year during her investigation of the Case of the Slowly Sinking Ship. Nancy never did figure out where the mysterious leak on my boat was coming from, but she gave it a valiant effort and she looked immaculate the entire time she was investigating, even when she was poking around in the bilge with a turkey baster.

{By the way, for those of you new to The Cynical Sailor, I live on a sailboat, which is currently located in southern Florida. I often blog about life as a live aboard, along with a whole host of other random topics. You can find out more about our backstory here.}

The Nancy Drew posts were pretty popular, so I thought I would bring her back to investigate the Case of the Missing Anchor as part of the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. Here's how it's going to work. Every day (except Sundays), I'll post an installment of the case (it will basically end up being a short story by the end of the month), along with some random thoughts on the day's particular letter. For example, on April 1st, you'll be reading about A is for Anchor, where Nancy and her friends discover that an anchor has gone missing at the local marina. Then, I'll tell you a little bit about the real case of the missing anchor that this story is loosely based on. Next, there will be B is for Boatyard, C is for Catamaran, D is for Ditch Bag and so on. Sounds like fun, doesn't it?

Who's Nancy Drew?

Now, some of you {gasp} may not be familiar with Nancy Drew. I know, it's a bit shocking, but we better get everyone up to speed before April 1st rolls around.

The original Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series was published between 1930 and 2003. During that time, there were 175 books written by a number of ghostwriters under the pen name of Carolyn Keene. A major revision took place in 1959 to update the series, remove racist stereotypes and shorten the books to be faster paced. This was the version of the series that I read when I was a girl, published between 1959 and 1979 with the trademark yellow spine.

There have been other Nancy Drew book series, such as Nancy Drew on Campus and the Nancy Drew Files, as well as TV series and movies, and Nancy and her friends have evolved over time. But, the Nancy you'll see during the A to Z Challenge is based on the books I read during my childhood. My Nancy is an 18 year old amateur sleuth, who lost her mother at a young age and lives with her father, a well-to-do attorney, and their housekeeper, Hannah Greun, in the town of River Heights. Nancy is resourceful, bright, independent, kindhearted, wholesome and always solves the case. She has a handsome boyfriend (Ned Nickerson), drives a blue convertible, wears fabulous clothes and never has a hair out of place.

During the Case of the Missing Anchor, you'll meet Nancy's two best friends - George Fayne and her cousin Bess Marvin. George is an athletic tomboy who is an expert in judo and doesn't easily frighten. Bess is more feminine in nature, tends to worry, flirts with all the boys she meets and constantly talks about food and shopping. Nancy's boyfriend, Ned, will make an appearance, along with Bess and George's boyfriends.

If you want to find out more about Nancy Drew you can check out Wikipedia and the Nancy Drew Sleuth site and blog.

The Case of the Slowly Sinking Ship

If you missed the original Nancy Drew posts, you can check them out here:

The Case of the Slowly Sinking Ship, Part 1 - Where a leak is discovered aboard a sailboat and Nancy investigates the likely suspects.
The Case of the Slowly Sinking Ship, Part 2 - Where Nancy narrows down the list of suspects and her friend Bess worries about alligators in the marina.
The Case of the Slowly Sinking Ship, Part 3 - Where a new leak appears on Thanksgiving and Bess consoles herself with apple cobbler.
Nancy Drew is a Total Slacker - Where a mysterious beep is heard during the middle of the night and a new case is opened.
The Case of the Disappearing Cat - Where I start to turn everything into a Nancy Drew investigation, even when cat sitting. This post really has nothing to do with Nancy Drew, but if you like cute cat pictures, this might be right up your alley.

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Linked up with the A to Z Challenge Theme Reveal