The Midnight Dog Wash

I tried to sleep last night.

I went to bed at 9:03, even thought I had the opportunity to stay up and watch TV.

But I went to bed.

But I was rudely awakened by my little dog SCRATCHING.

Standing on top of my and scratching and scratching and scratching.

I was ready to strangle her but it wasn't her fault.

She has very dry skin and it is worse this time of year.

But she was miserable and so was I.

So.......at MIDNIGHT, I could not stand it anymore.

I jerked her out of bed and THREW her in the tub.

I gave her a nice long bath with her medicated shampoo.

She whined and cried.

I wanted to whine and cry.

But after our little Midnight Dog Wash, I dried her off, put her back on the bed, wrapped her up in a blanket.

And guess what.

She went to sleep.

And so did I.

Characters coming alive.

I would love to write a cozy mystery.
I like the genre, I think I understand the basic formula and I've had some pretty good ideas lately.
The question is:
What to do about the characters?
I read a mystery writer's web site and she said her characters push their way "on stage" in her imagination and demand to be heard. They insist on being listened to.
What if my characters are shy?
What if they have stage fright?
What if they need to be coaxed along?

How do I coax them out and give them a self-confident voice?

Yeah, I do believe.

I do believe.
I believe in ghosts and I believe in aliens.
I don't know why people don't.
Oh and I believe in BigFoot or Sasquatch too.
Ghosts?
Sure. They are around.
People are energy.
People have souls and sometimes people have things left unfinished.
I think they may linger.
I think they may be lost or confused.
They may be angry but I don't think they will hurt you.
You may hurt yourself if you are afraid of them.
But I don't think they will hurt you.

Aliens.
Now aliens are a bit harder to explain.
But I think they are here.
I think they have been here for a very long time.
No, I don't think they built the Pyramids.
But I think they are here.
And if they aren't here already, they are trying to get here.
I don't know why.
But they are real and they are around.
If we can send probes to Mars and Saturn and land on the moon, why do we think that other life forms can't be sending probes here?
Maybe they are just curious.
Maybe they have the same concerns we do.

BigFoot?
I think Bigfoot could be real sure.
As vast as this planet is, there is no way we could have explored every square inch of it.
We don't know what's out there in the wilderness.
It's huge.
Why couldn't there be something out there that no one's ever seen?
Who know what's out there?
I think Bigfoot's real.
I do.