Welcome

SLIDER BLUE JOHNS FLUORITE
Mill Water Wheel 2
View into a quarry mine.
aerial view of scenic mount vesuvius, Naples in Campania, Italy
Jokulsarlon glacial lagoon, Iceland
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Where Science Meets Mystery and Adventure!

Thank you for visiting me! My name is Tracy Diane and I write mysteries and adventures for kids and adults who love a little science with their fiction.

Meet Tracy Diane

Hi! I am a geologist who loves to write stories full of mystery and adventure. My career is a fun mix of technical environmental geology projects, running my website Mini Me Geology, and writing stories that entertain.

My favorite stories have a little real science thrown in with the story’s science fiction. It is no wonder that when I started writing my first book, Blue John’s Cavern, that the kids in the book used a time-traveling cave to search for the rarest rocks and minerals in the world.

Crystal Cave Adventures for Tweens who love Science and Adventure

Geologist Heath Matthews loves showing his students new minerals. When a gem-hunting trip deep in the West Virginia forest reveals a mysterious cave, the day turns from ordinary to magically extraordinary! Over the years, Mr. M traveled through the Crystal Cave in search of the rarest rocks and minerals in the world. When his prized collection was destroyed just days before its debut at the Natural History Museum, his young neighbors, Emma and Brody offer to help him find new samples. Little did they know that their offer to help would turn into the biggest adventures of their lives!

The Crystal Cave Adventures blends a little geology and real-world locations with a time-traveling magic cave! What can be more fun?

The Crystal Cave Adventures novels have a series of companion workbooks that teach kids some behind-the-scenes fun facts about the places that Emma, Brody, and Max travel to in the books, plus puzzles, creative writing activities, and story quizzes. I hope you love the series as much as I do and if you have any questions about the real mineral samples that the kids have to steal, er um….collect, I hope you’ll send me a note!

Penelope Lake Mysteries

My upcoming cozy mystery series is for adults and older teens who love to solve a puzzle. Penelope Lake is an ordinary girl who is the resident geologist at the town natural history museum and helps her mother at her rock shop in the cozy town of Sierra Springs, North Carolina. When her friend and a neighboring shop owner is murdered at the first outdoor festival of the season, Penelope jumps in to solve the case! The Diamond Murder, a Penelope Lake Mystery will be out in Summer 2023!