Have you ever put off a task because you expected it to be grueling? That's basically how I approach developmental edits. I have pages and pages of notes from my editor, and I need to find a way to rip apart my book and put it back together to patch the holes she found.  Guess what? It's never as bad as I think it's going to be. The hardest part is dragging my writer's brain out of the book I'm drafting to sink it into the book that needs to be edited.  And that's where I am. I received my editorial letter early in the month. It's only a page and a half, which is virtually unheard of for me, and a good part of that is raving about the characters and twists. At the time it hit my inbox, we were recovering from a vicious windstorm and had no power. Then there was preparation for the Pennwriters Conference.  And my editor told me "no rush." Never ever tell me "no rush" because that' permission to procrastinate.  I ran out of excuses this...

 The new laptop arrived. I remember the old days when I would spend hours...days...a week...getting the new computer set up. Every program had to be installed. Every password had to be remembered, looked up, or changed (because who can remember ALL their passwords???) And that was after the original start up and hours of updates. Thanks to fiber optic internet, updates took maybe twenty minutes. Then I had to sign in to one account, using a PIN. Voila! My email and photos and virtually everything else effortlessly showed up on the new machine. Even my screensaver was transferred.  I did have to install my preferred browser since Edge isn't it. Plus Dropbox. Plus Zoom. I'm sure there will be more, but for now, it's pretty well ready to roll.  Meanwhile, the old laptop is still limping along, so I haven't sent it to the electronics graveyard just yet.

Last weekend's Pennwriters Conference went off without a hitch. Mostly. Having been a conference coordinator once a long, long time ago, I know there are lots of hitches and glitches behind the scenes. The trick is how you handle them. This year's coordinators handled them beautifully. I'd guess 99.9% of the attendees were unaware and were too busy having fun to notice. Smiling faces abounded. I had a glitch of my own to contend with. After teaching two workshops on Friday, I had one more to go on Saturday afternoon, and it was the one that totally depended on a PowerPoint slide show.  Friday night in my hotel room, I reached into my computer bag to pull out my laptop and was startled to feel how hot it was. Not scorching hot, but warmer than usual. Let me add that my beloved laptop is five years old, which seems to be their life expectancy. The battery no longer holds a charge, so I need to keep in plugged in when using it.  Anyway, I decided to err on the side of caution ...

The Pennwriters Conference begins this Friday, and I’m teaching three workshops, so right now, my focus is on making lists, packing, and preparing my classes and handouts. I may not be writing, but I’m thinking about writing a lot .   I do have more news to share. While I’ve had my doubts in recent months, it appears there will be two more Detective Honeywell Mysteries coming out this year! I have release dates and titles! But still no cover art.   The third in the series will be The Devil Comes Calling and will be released in eBook format on November 7, 2025. The fourth will be out in eBook on December 19 and is titled No Stone Left Unturned . Preorder links are starting to pop up sans the still-missing covers, but I’m not promoting them until there’s something interesting to look at. Call me superstitious. It simply never feels real until I have that cover art.   I also got my developmental edits for No Stone Left Unturned , and they don’t look too daunting. I’...