Still Learning

It figures, it’s the first day of summer and jacket weather in Chicago.  I’m not complaining.  It was a millions times better than the awful heat a few days ago.  I stayed inside with everything closed up trying to keep what little bit of cool was inside.  By the time the heat broke, it was 89 degrees in my living room and that was with one air conditioner pumping in cool air from the back of the apartment along with numerous fans.

When the sky is this gloomy and I need to turn on lights during the day, it is hard to judge the time.  It’s like the whole day looks the same until it fades to night.

Somebody said it on facebook -- writing is a sitting business.  I keep having to remind myself to get up every hour or so and walk up and down the long hall a few times as try to finish this rewrite.

I have finally developed a more casual relationship with my laptop.  I no longer have to work with it plugged in which means I’m mobile. It finally got through to me that the battery works for a long time.  Nor do I have to have it sitting on a table, in my lap is just fine.  I also stopped treating it like it was so fragile.  I just leave it where I leave it without too much concern. This morning I had a thought about something I wrote last night and all I had to do was grab my MacBook off the couch where I left it, sign in and my manuscript was in front of me.

I’m still not happy with the way Mac shows files but I’ve mostly made friends with Word for Mac.  Whenever I find myself grumbling, I think back to carbon paper, and typewriter erasers that tore the paper.  Even when I had an electric typewriter and used correction tape and Liquid Paper it was a pain.   One small correction could mean pages of retyping.  Now I can try on sentences like clothes in a store dressing room.  If I don’t like it, I don’t have to keep it.

The big news is that Amazon is running a one day promotion on June 25, offering the Kindle edition of ON THE HOOK for $1.99.

New Beginnings

I'd never have guessed that my series titled New Beginnings was going to need a new beginning of it's own. At the end of last week, the publisher of my inspirational romantic suspense announced they were closing up shop at the of June. There was no hint or warning this was coming. Granted, I'd been super focused on my mystery series as I'm editing the first book in the series while writing the second book, but from what I'm reading from other affected authors no one saw it coming.

I'm surprised, yet not surprised. The publishing industry isn't easy to navigate and seems to get harder each year for authors and small presses to get noticed. So, it's not a surprise that another small press has decided to close its doors, but it hadn't seem like this was something to have on my radar. The publishing house still had books set to release and were taking submissions so the announcement through every one off guard.

I do plan on self-publishing the titles myself...I love this series...but don't have a time frame at this time. There's a lot on the list to re-publish a book: new cover, re-editing, re-formatting. And I have five books needing that attention. I'm hoping I can get them out next year though my schedule is pretty full right now with the new mystery series.

I'm a little sad that the publishing house, Desert Breeze, will be no more. I enjoyed working with them and I know this wasn't an easy decision for the owners. I had been hoping to pitch a new series to them and one day meet them in person at a romance conference. But alas, that won't happen. It's also a little disappointing to know this series will be coming down by the end of the month. I'm proud of these books. New Beginnings is an inspirational romantic suspense series that follows a group of skip-tracers who dedicate their lives to relocating abused women who need a new start in life. These women and men face danger as they keep their clients safe. These were my self-rescuing princesses and tarnished knights out to set the world right. The couples hold a special place in my heart, and I hate to "see" them gone...even knowing I'll bring them back.

Catching Up

 

How weird it feels to have sent in my manuscript, ended my blog tour--and not have another deadline looming!

That should give me time to catch up with other things in my life.  One of the fun things is that I took a short trip last weekend to participate in the joint birthday party of my grandsons. 

Now, I'm back home with my dogs and working on what comes next.

Just for the fun of it, I've been plotting something different from the books I've been getting published lately.  Yes, some of the same elements such as suspense and romance are there, since that's what I enjoy writing.  But that's not all.

It probably won't focus on dogs, either.  But you can be sure there'll be at least one dog in it!

Will I come up with a proposal I like?  Will I actually write the book that's scratching its way around my mind?  We'll see...

Meanwhile, I also have ideas for some of my more usual stuff to follow up on, too.

Tooth and Consequences

Well, it's still Tuesday, isn't it?

I had an early morning appointment with my dentist about a toothache that had slowly been getting worse over the past ten days or so.  I thought the worst that could happen was a root canal.  But he took one look and got out one of those teeny tiny cameras and showed me what the problem was: a crack in the tooth that had spread up under the gum.  The tooth was irreparable, it would have to be pulled and replaced with a bridge or an implant.  Either was going to cost thousands of dollars.  He was very nice about it.

I didn't realize how shaken I was until this evening when Ellen noted that I hadn't posted an entry on Killer Hobbies.

No, we don't have dental insurance.  No, this won't bankrupt us, but I'm sorry now for buying that Queen Anne Shilling.

Wow.