Still Writing Slowly

           Still working more on my third Harlequin Romantic Suspense K-9 Crime Solvers novel, not going fast but making some progress. And my head’s still swirling a bit with the mystery idea I had, but not too far along with it yet.   

            So, not much to say now. I’m still trying to convince my mind, and sore hand, to write more and faster, but so far they’re not paying much attention.

            Oh, but yes, like Betty, I take time out from my writing to do crossword puzzles. They can be puzzling, yes, but I enjoy intriguing my vocabulary that way.

The Rewrite Continues

 The weather has been so nice that I absolutely forgot what month it was.  But today the weather has begun to change. It's subtle just some clouds instead of the sunshine and blue sky, and the temperature has begun inching down from the upper eighties to just eight.  Next week there might be rain.

I'm grateful to have had some day to take my coffee outside and let the sun bathe over me.  I really feel for all the people having cold, bleak winter weather.  

Rewriting the next Yarn Retreat book is going okay.  Since I got to know the characters through writing the first draft, I can add touches to them now.  I need to make a list of the characters with basic details so I don't change their names or eye color later in the manuscript.  I like to go through magazines and cast my characters, so that I have an actual visual  in mind.  People Magazine works great.

It always takes a while to get from my kitchen table to my computer.  I have found that doing a crossword puzzle or another kind of puzzle works like exercise for my mind and  makes it easier to work on a manuscript.  I had a book of crosswords that were easy, but then I got one that has easy, medium and hard.  I worked my way through all the easy ones and am not into medium.  It's a whole new experience. I went from whizzing through the puzzles to having to look things up.  Like I would know off hand what water is near the leaning tower of Pisa.  It's the Arno River.  My phone definitely comes in handy for stuff like that.  It's harder when the answer is an expression or reaction to something.  I could always look in the back for the answer, but I like to figure it out myself.

I think the reason that crosswords are helpful in writing is that they are all about meanings of words and relationships of words.  It has made me think about the English language and how tricky it is.  There are words that are spelled the same, but have different pronunciations.  Words and phrases that don't make sense if you just look at the words.  Anyway, it is a far better way to spend my time than scrolling through my phone.  And my mind feels oiled and ready for action when I get to my computer.  

 

February!

          New month, and new idea for a cozy mystery series. Oh, it kind of incorporates an earlier idea I was working on but adds another angle that hopefully will be enjoyable to write and read.

Otherwise, I’m still working on my upcoming Harlequin Romantic Suspense K-9 Crime Solvers series, more slowly than I’d like but I’m making progress.

Hope the groundhogs were kind in what they did or didn’t see in your area. L.A. is still—well, L.A.

New Editions

 While there is a threat of more snow and a bomb cyclone on the East Coast, the weather has turned warm and dry here.  But it comes with winds that always feel a little ominous--particularly after all the fires that January.  

    My book news is that the trade paperback of DEATH AMONG THE STITCHES came out on Tuesday.  And my agent's foreign rights people are submitting DEATH AMONG THE STITCHES and SCONED TO DEATH for editions in other languages.  I'm  not sure if anything will happen with them, but I had to set aside the next Yarn Retreat manuscript to put in some corrections the PDF files I have of each book.  It's a whole involved process of turning the PDF into a Word file and then trying to locate the errors.  I have a list with page and line numbers of them from  when I originally went through the first pass pages and it would be easy except that the Word file is almost like the PDF, but off enough that it takes patience to find the mistakes.

But it's a cool thought that my books might be translated into another language.   We'll see.