Retrospective And Looking Forward

             Oh, yes, I had a fun time at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books last Sunday. I saw friends and met strangers who write and read at the Sisters in Crime LA and the Mystery Writers LA booths. And the panel I mentioned last week, Turf Wars: When Cities Rewild, was wonderful! I enjoyed all the speakers and will most likely get around to buying books that most of them talked about, although I had to leave before they did their signings.   

            I also visited the Huntington Botanical Gardens on Saturday with friends. I think I’d seen the library before but not all the wonderful gardens, with the plants divided by themes and locations, including California, Japan, Australia and the desert. I’m not a plant expert at all, but it was delightful to see what was there. 

            And big surprise—I’ve been plotting some more! Not sure which I’ll settle down and write next, mystery or romantic suspense, but my ideas are plentiful and fun. It feels strange to be doing more plotting than writing right now, but I’m looking forward to more soon!

 

 I finished going through the proof pages for KNOT DEAD AGAIN and sent them in by my deadline.  It's all wrapped up now and will be up for pre-sale probably today.  I love the cover.

I immediately went back to working on CLASSY YARNS as it is due next week.  I am working on the ending right now and then will spend next week reading it over.  

And then there's the next Molly book.  I needed to push up the deadline for it and as I was discussing it with my editor and told him about the hot water leak and buckled floors, I realized it might turn out to be research for the next Molly book.  

I am still trying to clear stuff out and move things around so important things don't get lost when they actually start the work on the floors.  It's overwhelming and at the same time interesting.  I keep finding cool things I didn't know I had.  

There's a post that has been circulating on Facebook about gratitude and the difference between saying I have to....as opposed to I get to... Just a slight change of words but a whole different perspective.  Just saying I get to and filling in the blanks in your mind feels different than  mentally saying I have to....

It really is how I want to live.

More Plotting

           Yes, I’m still plotting some new ideas.  I’m also looking forward to the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books this weekend. I’m only going to be there on Sunday, but I’ll be signing at the Sisters in Crime LA and the Mystery Writers LA booths as well as visiting a lot of other booths. I’ve also signed up to attend a panel: Turf Wars: When Cities Rewild. It’s about wildlife returning to urban areas and some people who write about it. For one thing, I’m fascinated that cougars are found in LA, and the freeway overpass for them and other wildlife is really progressing, including some overnight freeway closures in the coming weeks while it’s being worked on. I’m sure I’ll enjoy the panel. 

            I also finished some details about my fifth Shelter of Secrets story for Harlequin Romantic Suspense and got into their updated website to enter the information. There, they now show how many individual books I’ve sold in total with Harlequin. I hadn’t really kept track, but I’ve written quite a few novels for them. I’m not going to mention the number of sales here—but it’s delightfully high! And it of course doesn’t include books in the many mystery series I’ve written, but even though I tend not to be a bestseller, I now feel even better about my sales. Of course, it helps that I’ve had 61 books published so far. 

            And more to come!

 

Ends and Beginnings

 Even with all the chaos here I am keeping on track.  Still just buckled floors with blowers going as the restoration company tries to work things out with the insurance company.  

I finished going over the galley pages for KNOT DEAD AGAIN.  It is basically proof reading for errors and little things I want to change.  The way  I handle the corrections is to print the pages that have them and then at the end I make a list by page and line number of changes that need to be made.  I will make that list over the weekend and it will be ready to send in by Monday. And then that's it.  No more changes.  Really over.  Goodbye to Casey, Dane, Lucinda, Frank and the rest until next time.

As soon as I finished going through KNOT DEAD AGAIN, I went back to CLASSY YARNS.  I was glad that I was able to get back into the story so easily.  I am in the midst of rewriting the end.  It is always a challenge to remember to tie up all the ends and explain how things happened.  I always feel a tug when I get to the end of the end. Even though I just handwrote the actual end and still have to put it in the computer when I finish rewriting what leads up to it. I will see the manuscript again several times, so it's won't be really  finished when I type in my notes.  But it's the end of the adventure for  the characters.  It's always a surprise how they turn out no matter how I thought of them to start with.  In this book Gray Hanover was supposed to be a side character, fish out of water,and a problem for the main character Annie Sara Hart.  But Gray turned into so much more.The rest of the characters are a quirky group who I liked spending time with.

I have already begun to think about the next Molly book.  Already beginning to think of the first page.