Not According to Plan...

My much-anticipated writing retreat didn't quite go off as planned. I lost two days helping a friend deal with a family health emergency (NOT COVID) and then Hubby returned home early from his hunting trip. As a result, I had only one full day of blessed solitude to write.

I did, however, make good use of it. I completed a very rough first draft of Fatal Reunion (Zoe Chambers #11) as well as another round of polish to the thoroughbred racetrack mystery I plan to release in May 2021. 

I had one other "distraction" but it was a good one. Yesterday, I signed a three-book contract with Level Best Books to continue the Zoe series! I'm thrilled to have found a home for the Monongahela County gang. It will be a while (spring 2022) before Fatal Reunion hits the bookstore shelves, but such is the publishing business. 

As for NaNoWriMo, I did not technically "win." But seeing as I managed to produce a completed manuscript, I definitely don't see it as a loss. Would I ever do it again? I doubt I'll have the opportunity since I'm back under contract and working with a production schedule that probably won't allow me to block off a month to JUST WRITE. There are all those other pesky tasks like revising and marketing and promoting that normally eat up chunks of my day. 

Today? Yeah. We have snow. I'm thinking it's a good time to settle in with a book. 




Comments

Dru Ann said…
Love the title of the new Zoe book. Trying to figure out whose reunion is fatal.
12/1/20, 2:59 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mom Update

Image
It’s been a while since I wrote anything about my mom. If you follow me on Facebook, you’ve probably noticed a number of posts recently about long nights in the ER with her. I appreciate the kind concerns and prayers from friends and family. But while I know they’re well intended, the “hope she gets well soon” sentiments cut like a finely honed blade. Mom isn’t going to get well. She has good days and bad. More and more of the latter. Today’s “good days” are about the same as the bad ones a couple months ago. She has vascular dementia. In addition to her mental slippage, her legs have grown weak and uncooperative, adding to her pre-existing balance issues. We plead with her to call for assistance to get out of bed. Unfortunately, she can’t remember that she’s had numerable falls lately, so she continues to try to get up and around on her own, resulting in more falls. And in more trips to the ER. She has dislocated her right hip twice now. She’s hit her head more times
Read more

Agatha Nomination for Fatal Reunion!

Image
I am over the moon to share the news that Fatal Reunion has received an Agatha nomination (my sixth!) for Best Contemporary Novel! You can find the entire nominee list here . You would think that six nominations in, I wouldn't be surprised by the news. But I am more stunned with each one. I never take it for granted and never assume I'll ever walk that path or wear that "NOMINEE" ribbon at Malice Domestic ever again. I'm beyond grateful to those who wrote down my name on the nomination forms. 
Read more

Catching Up...AGAIN...Part 1

Image
It's been so long since I last posted and so much has happened, there's no way I can fit it all into one post. Especially since I'm busy with the second draft of a new book. So I've decided to catch up a little at a time.  First up, HELPLESS , my 12th Zoe Chambers Mystery came out in May. It's my first foray into straight suspense, rather than whodunit mysteries, and the reviews have been outstanding. I'm so happy. And relieved.  Second, Where the Guilty Hide is FINALLY available in paperback in the US. It took a lot of trial and error and manually pushing buttons by my UK publisher, but it's out there! I won't go into the frustration involved in not being able to get my books into US bookstores. And I've been assured this won't happen when the second Detective Honeywell Mystery comes out in print early next year.  That would be Keep Your Family Close which has my absolute favorite cover of all of my books! It's up for digital pre-orders no
Read more