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.

Back in the Groove

           I’ve been getting back into my routine after our trip I described last week, although I’m not under any current deadlines so I’m mostly in the clouds of my mind, coming up with and working on fleshing out some ideas—both for more Harlequin Romantic Suspense books and also for a potential new mystery series. I also had some details to finish for my HRS book that will be out next year, and that’s all in the works. 

            This year? My next book, CANINE PROTECTION, the fourth in my HRS miniseries Shelter of Secrets, will be a September release. Plus, I’m also looking forward to the republication of my first Alaska Untamed mystery, BEAR WITNESS, by Worldwide Mysteries in June. Yes, it’ll still be under my first pseudonym, Lark O. Jensen. Different cover, though, and it will be in paperback format this way, not hardback—although the hardback is still available. 

            As I write this, my assistant—my younger dog Roxie--is lying on a chair beside me, and my older pup Cari is on our front porch behind the locked gate staring out at the world. Yes, it’s back to the usual around here. 

            Did anyone see the eclipse? We didn’t except on TV and in pictures, but several of our family members went to my husband’s family farm in Ohio, which was on the eclipse path, and really got great views of it—and pictures too. I kind of regret not joining them. But virtual viewing, and seeing all the interest all over the country, was definitely interesting too. Oh, and it also happened to be National Zoo Lovers Day, so I also enjoyed that.