Progress!

After a whirlwind November, I'm finally at a place where I can catch my breath just in time for the holidays. 

After doing NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) last year for the first time, I'd sworn I would never do it again. True, it had allowed me to complete my first draft of the next Zoe Chambers mystery, but I hadn't needed the "goal" number of 50,000 words to do that. 50K in 30 days is sheer madness. At least it is for my personal process. 

However, as I wrote back in June, I had abandoned a manuscript that wasn't selling to start something else. The Something Else hasn't sold either, and the characters from the first of those manuscripts were clambering to have their stories told. So I signed up for NaNoWriMo 2021 with abandoned manuscript #1 as my project. I'm thrilled to report that a.) I topped my 50K goal within the month of November and b.) I completed the rest of the first draft within the first week of December. Typing THE END is such a sweet moment for every writer. 


In the midst of NaNo, I received my first edits back on Fatal Reunion (Zoe Chambers #11). Celebration! They were minimal! Once my NaNo project was finished, I tackled those and sent the revised manuscript back to my editor. 

Two major projects off my plate for the moment!

That left my annual Christmas short story. 

In case you aren't aware, every Christmas Eve, I post a new short story on the Subscribers Only page of my website and send the password in my newsletter. The only way you can access the FREE short story is to be a subscriber. If you haven't signed up yet, go to my website and fill in your name and email. If you do it before this Christmas Eve, you'll still get the password for last year's story, which will be there until I replace it with the new one.


(If you've missed all the previous short stories, I've put them together as a collection titled Crime in the Country. It's available on Amazon for Kindle, Barnes & Noble for print and Nook, AND signed copies are available from Mystery Lovers Bookshop. You can also click HERE to find it on other ebook platforms.) 

So from now until the end of the month (YEAR!) I'm doing some minor rewriting on the NaNo project (mostly, I'm letting it sit and simmer a while) and catching up on my reading. Wishing you all a happy holiday season and some time to breathe and rest up as well. 

Comments

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