Playing Catch Up

Once again, I've fallen behind on my posts, but I have a good excuse. Several, actually. June was a busy month. 

In case you missed it, there was my interview with James Patterson. 

In addition to a bunch of appearances throughout the month, I was working on the next Zoe and Pete mystery, tentatively titled Helpless. It's proving to be quite the challenge. 

At the end of the month, I received word that Death By Equine had made the cut and has been named one of THREE finalists for the Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award! I'll be traveling to Lexington, Kentucky, in November for the announcement of the $10,000 winner. 

I also received my first editorial letter from my new UK publisher for the first book in my new Lake Erie Mysteries series. I wasn't sure what to expect. New editor. New publisher. The United Kingdom. But I couldn't be more pleased with her insights and suggestions. So for several weeks, I put Helpless on the backburner and focused my full attention on revisions. 

With that manuscript back across the pond, I've been nose-to-the-grindstone on Helpless again and I think I've turned the corner.

There are memes all over the internet about the writing process. About how we start out excited and enthusiastic about our new creation. About how we soon start thinking we don't know how to write and the story sucks. About how, at some point, we decide it's not so bad. And as we type THE END, we're excited and enthusiastic again. I'm at the it's-not-so-bad stage. 

Two things have been trying hard to distract me from my writing. First is Facebook. No, I don't mean I'm wasting too much time there. Well, actually, I am, but not because I'm enjoying cute cat videos. I seem to have gotten on the bad side of Facebook's robo algorithms. For the last two weeks, they've repeatedly removed my posts, saying I've violated their Community Standards. The posts in question were things like wishing members of my Zoe Chambers Mysteries & Friends community happy birthday or sharing posts about my trip to Florida for Sleuthfest. I have no clue what triggers their mindless Artificial (Un)Intelligence bots. But they've also frozen my account a handful of times, including on my birthday. (Thanks, Facebook.) This morning alone, I had three posts flagged. I've given up trying to figure out what's causing them to target me. But I haven't given up posting. At least until they put me in Facebook jail. 

When that happens, you'll see a lot more of me here!

The second distraction is the death of my desktop computer. I don't know if there's a connection, but the computer death and the Facebook fiasco all started at the same time. Fortunately, I still have my trusty laptop as my backup, so I haven't lost any writing time. A new computer tower is to be delivered today. Of course, I have to figure out how to set it up, which will be a whole new distraction.