It's Almost My Favorite Reading Time of the Year

The holiday season is just around the corner. And for me, that means one of my favorite reading times of the year is approaching. Actually, it's one of my favorite times of the year period. I love the snap of cold in the air (don't love snow though), the decorations, baking, crafting, and especially Christmas books and movies. There is just something about Christmas themed entertainment that cheers me up and boosts my spirit. And the last few years, I've found myself diving into my holiday reading earlier than the previous year.

From November 1 until January 1, I only read novels (and pretty much watch Christmas movies exclusively) set during the holiday season or have a seasonal theme. The only time I review books on my blog (The Self-Rescue Princess) is when I'm in my seasonal reading phase. The reviews focus on the holiday spirit in the stories. Last year, I also started reviewing a Christmas movie (usually a Hallmark movie). 

Usually, I have a good list of books I plan on reading but find my list is really pitiful this year. I've been swamped with writing projects (editing, writing new books, and now rereleasing a series) that I haven't spent as much time browsing for new holiday reads. If anyone has any suggestions for my to read list, please share them in the comment section. (Authors feel free to mention your own book.)

Preparing for a Book Signing

It's been awhile since I've had a traditional book signing, or at least a signing where selling books is the only focus of the event I'm attending, and I have one coming up during Mountaineer week at WVU. I'm nervous and excited about it. Since a craft fair is also going on at the same time, and my mysteries have a crafting component, I decided I wanted to spruce up my table decor.

For a table cover, I usually use a piece of fabric that matches the theme of the newest book. Most of my crafting projects lately had been vinyling t-shirts and other items, so I decided to "upgrade" by decorating a fitted tablecloth with my book cover images, my name, and a slogan.

I bought some fabric transfer sheets (Avery brand) and printed my mystery covers on them using the ink jet printer. The colors were a little muted, but not sure if it's because of the program used to convert the image, the DPI resolution, or my printer ink is running out. (I have a feeling it might be the last as I've been doing a lot of color printing.)

Following the directions on the packaging, I pressed the image onto the fabric using the half-sheet recommendation. I lifted up a portion and noticed the image didn't completely transfer. I placed it back down but it had shifted and the image smudged. Fortunately, I only need one side of the tablecloth visible so I flipped it over and started again.

This time, I used the time for a full sheet transfer image...and added thirty more seconds to be sure. The image came out good...the top more clean than the bottom which had more details. I think part of the issue is the material the tablecloth was made from. My plan is to buy another one that has a higher cotton content and make a new one. I'm redoing my inspirational series and would like to add the covers onto the other side, in case I ever have both sides of the tablecloth visible.

 


And, as a follow-up to last week's blog entry, I wanted to share that I have put the first book of my inspirational romantic series up on Kindle. Lost Then Found is currently only available as an ebook on Amazon and is in the Kindle Unlimited program.

 

Battling Doubts

I wrapped up books one and two in the Merry and Bright Handcrafted Mystery Series (former series title was the Twas the Murder Before Christmas). Last week, I turned in the final edits for Not A Creature Was Stirring and the next stage for that book is release day. And this week, sent in the manuscript for book 2 Be Good for Goodness Sake. The last month (okay, actually 2) had been a little hectic with juggling both of the deadlines and even having to push hem back a bit. I was happy with book two but do foresee some edits in the story line. There was one new secondary character who I think might have inserted themselves a little too much into the story. I'll see what my editor says. Sometimes, I'm not quite the best judge of my own story.

The title of this blog post is battling doubts, and it's not the book I just turned in that's the battle field of my doubts, though I am having some for it. I think it's natural for writers to not be sure of a story once it leaves our hands/computers. Or, at least I know I always do. The doubt that has me at a standstill is over whether or not to republish (self-publish) my inspirational romantic suspense series. I have reedited the first book, am working on the second book, and designed covers for all five of the books. Yet, now that the first book is formatted and I'm about to press the publish button, I am frozen.

I love the series. The characters. Why I wrote it. It means a lot to me. But, I'm scared to take that final step and get them back out into the world. I'm not sure if it's because it wasn't well-received (as in sales wise) and I'm afraid that I'll be disappointed yet again. Or, the fact that releasing them is giving up my "hopes and dreams" on what could happen and discovering the "what is" for the books. Honestly, it's a little scary.

The New Beginnings series are romantic suspense stories about self-rescuing princesses and tarnished knights out to set the world right. I adore all the books I have written, but have to say this series holds a special place in my heart. These books are about pushing past and through the traumas in life that want to keep us captive, want to pull us down into despair and keep us there. It's about clinging to hope for a better future even though it seems life wants to break you. About knowing when to let go and when to continue fighting.

And in writing that out, I realize it's not time to "let go" but to push through my insecurities. I don't want to let this series go. And to battle these "demons" a little bit, I'm going to be brave and share the cover and the copy. Because then it'll be back out there. It'll be real. And the first step is always the hardest...next up will be uploading the formatted to Amazon.

Skip-tracer Renee Stratford-Knight’s life plan changed upon her sister’s murder. Instead of using her skills to find people, Renee opened New Beginnings a firm specializing in “vanishing” abused women. Now her ex-husband –and former business partner – Jonas Knight reenters her life asking about her most vulnerable client.

In order to uncover the secret a teenager girl disappeared to keep, and a killer wants silenced, Jonas and Renee must struggle through distrust and the pain of their pasts to work together to save the life of a teenage girl – and their own.

The Perfect Ending--I hope.

This is the closest I've been to a deadline without having a complete first draft done, and I'm not liking it. I've come to discover I don't work very well when there's a loud clock ticking in my head, but I really hate to ask for more time. It makes me feel like I'm failing. Professionals don't ask for more time. And, I already received an extension because I was struggling a bit with editing one book, writing another one, and trying to market...and the marketing has really gone downhill as there just wasn't enough time to get it all done. The first book in the Merry and Bright Handcrafted Mystery Series (series title changed from Twas the Murder Before Christmas), was originally scheduled for March and we moved it to January. At that time, I had everything under control and then my well-laid plans changed. The biggest being I knew that I needed to start over with book 2 as there were unresolved life (not mystery) issues from the first book readers needed answers to. So, I started a new book 2.

And now, the endings--yes I have written more than one--just haven't been right. The first ending had a darker tone than the rest of the book. It didn't fit. I went back to the beginning, made some changes to the first half of the story, and saw where the ending needed to go. Or so I thought. Again, didn't work. Merry's personality seemed to change. She sounded too much like another character of mine and not Merry. Once again, I scraped the ending, returned to the beginning, smoothed out the plot and transitions in the other chapters.

Onto another ending...and the book stalled. I have finally caught onto the fact that when I stall it's because something isn't working in a previous chapter. I went back to the beginning and edited again. That's when I discovered that I loved the first 80% of the book, but the story once again took on a slightly different tone when one of the secondary characters was on screen. Toward the end of the book, whenever this one character interacted with the heroine it threw off the story so I had to downplay this character.

I'm now on my fourth, fifth, possibly sixth ending as I've lost count and hope this one sticks. I have kept the other endings...they might work in another book. 

But what if...

I'm nearing the part of the book where everything that had fallen into place now needs some tweaking because a great twist popped up. Now, I have to do some adjusting to have it remain in the story. The easiest thing to do would be edit out the twist and continue on with the established plan, but I'd know the plot wasn't as strong as it could've been. So it's once again back to beginning and make sure I can layer in the details needed to make the twist work.

Right now, it looks like with some small changes, and the elimination of a now unneeded character, the story will back on track. For some reason, I always get "a great idea" when I can see the finish line of the story and I'm writing at a wrist-aching speed to get there. I don't know why it can't happen when I'm outlining or when I'm halfway through the novel, it's always when I can see The End in the not so far distance that a "wow" moment shows up in the story and I have to weave into all parts of the story so it doesn't seem to come out of nowhere.

Name Change

Remembering a character's name can be difficult, especially when they started off the story with one name, and you realize that it needs to changed. I've thought of this character as one name since he popped into the story and I'm having a hard time not using the original name. The reason I changed it was there would be too many characters that had the letter W as either their first or last name. Unfortunately, the original name fit him perfectly, according to my muse, and I'm having to keep reminding myself of his new name. Just a few minutes ago, I resorted to typing in all caps at the beginning of chapters his name is Norman not Walter.

Hopefully, that will be the last reminder I need and I won't have to do use the find and replace function again. Now, I have to also go back through the book and make sure there weren't any places where replacing Walter with Norman created new words. I've changed characters names before when the name didn't match the character, or I got stuck on a letter (I seem to do that a lot) but none have caused me as much trouble as this one. Maybe, I need to think of another name to change it to since Norman isn't sticking in my head.

A Full Calendar

I've been sitting here staring at the computer screen for an hour, starting a post then deleting it. My mind just can't seem to settle down and concentrate on one item. There's just too much in it to focus on anything. I'm leaving Thursday morning (when this posts) for a scrapbooking retreat. I'll be gone until Monday so a lot to do before I leave: check pet food and other supplies for house/pet sitter, goodies for the house sitter, clean house, finish laundry. Packing suitcase. Packing up scrapping supplies. Packing up books (this is also a book selling event for me). Not to mention, I'm writing Be Good for Goodness Sake and just received the ARC proof pages for Not a Creature Was Stirring to proof.

There's a lot on my to do list and I have come to the conclusion some things just won't get done.
I had planned on making some Disney ears for the scrapbooking retreat (it's Disney themed) and some cutting machine covers but crossed those craft projects off the list. When an activity you enjoy becomes a stressor it's time to reevaluate the craft project list. I've never made ears before so want to do it at a time I'm not feeling stressed so I can enjoy the process. It's also hard to learn how to do a new craft when my mind is jumping all over the place.

Back to packing for the crop: next item is sorting some paper scraps (for die cutting) into an accordion folder. I dislike having to cut full sheets of 12x12 cardstock when I only need an inch of paper to make a design. 

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.

The Lost Email

Before vacation, I turned in the first revision for Not a Creature was Stirring and spent a week enjoying time with my husband and crafting as the resort we stayed at had wonderful craft classes. Monday's plan was to get back to work and into the swing of on the marketing/business side of writing and the rest of the week would be working on the next book. On my list was checking where I left off in the WIP, scheduling heroine interviews on my blog, filling out my weekly schedule, and double checking the due dates for the other items needed for Creature.

Next on my to-do list for Creature was filling out the cover art sheet and sending in the back cover copy. Usually, I shudder at having to write the cover copy. There's just something about having to condense an 75,000+ word book into no more than 175 words that sends me into a slight panic. It involves days of agonizing over every word and changing it one more time before I send it in, realizing it sounds pretty much like the first draft of the blurb. I do not look forward to writing them at all...except for this time.

I vaguely recalled the pitch that I had wrote for the book. I didn't remember the exact words but knew it was awesome. A wonderful mix of humor, serious, and introduced the main character and the crime perfectly. Or at least that is what my memory is telling me. So, I wasn't worried about writing it. I'd copy the blurb from the email I sent to pitch the book, tweak it a bit, and it would be ready.

Except--the email is gone. I know I saved it because it had my intention to use part of the pitch to write the cover copy. I told myself not to panic because if I accidentally deleted it during my yearly trim down the emails in the inbox, it was in the sent folder. I didn't delete sent folder emails until they were about 3 years old. Nope. Not there either. It just up and disappeared.

In examining my sent folder, I noticed that according to it, I didn't email anyone for about 8 weeks. Impossible since I email myself from one account to another at least twice a week with reminders of items I needed to make sure I did and also ideas and solutions to WIP problems. (And I have checked my other email, not there either.) So, I'm guessing there was a glitch with the server and emails in the sent folder vanished/deleted.

On the bright side, at least I only lost an email that contained the jumping up point for the back cover copy.

The Week Got Away From Me

I'm late! I aim to have my post up by 8:30 am every Thursday, but this week the days became a tangled mess and my schedule is off. Workdays (Mon-Fri) are usually low-key with only writing, marketing, or other book related activities on my calendar. This week, my days filled up a little more with other appointments and errands, and it threw off my normal routine. It also didn't help that I hadn't made time at the end of last week (had family visiting and a party to clean for) and didn't write out this week's work schedule on my calendar. So, I've felt like I'm playing catch-up all week and things I've usually done on certain days were pushed back because of other items. I'm the type of person who thrives on consistency and written plans.

With the release date for Not a Creature Was Stirring in January, my editing schedule is a little tighter than normal. Yesterday it was a struggle as fixing one small element turned into a huge problem when the "easy fix" messed up the timeline. So, back to the drawing board. It seemed like I spent all day fixing then unfixing the fixes. And that is how writing the blog post totally slipped my mind...until late last night.

With the shorter editing time frame, I've been skipping plotting out my weekly and monthly schedule like I had at the beginning of the year. I'm just going to make mapping out the remainder of the month a priority so I don't spend another week feeling lost.

Some Days the Words Won't Come

It seems I've spent of the day sitting at my desk and staring at the computer trying to figure out what to write for the blog post and also for my next work in progress: Book 2 in the Twas the Murder Before Christmas series. I just can't seem to think of what I want or need to say. I usually can do one or the other, blog or story write, but today the words are stuck in a place in my head I can't quite reach.

I don't know if it's because I have no title for the book (titles usually reflect the theme or an element of the story I'm working on) which means while I know the key elements the driving force for the story still hasn't shown itself, and the fact I switched which book I was writing because of deadline dates.

As for blogging, it's hard to know what I want to share when I know I need to get going on a book. I can't focus on what I want to talk about as my mind keeps flipping to what else I should be doing. Deadlines can be helpful but other times throw a wrench into what were well laid plans. Back to the work in progress and trying to figure out what is at the heart of the mystery my heroine needs to solve.

Story Vision Board

With Twas in the first round of editing, and scheduled to be sent off to beta readers in about a week, I was planning on next outlining the seventh Scrap This and ran into a major, to me, issue. The plot that is consuming my mind, demanding to be written, is a little later in Faith's life than I wanted. I've tried brainstorming other plots but they won't stick in my head. None of them work because the one in my head has grabbed my imagination and I'm excited to write it...except the when it happens in Faith's life.

Readers have followed Faith in her journey through crime solving and romance and in Altered to Death, Faith is planning her wedding. Book 7 would happen after the I dos. The wedding would've happened off-screen months in advance. And I really want readers there for her wedding. I feel it's important for them, and me, to be invited to the nuptials rather than told in passing. They've been with Faith through some hard times in her life and I wanted them there for this joy.

To solve that dilemma, I'm going to write a short story. I had part of the plot come to me, while other pieces were harder to grasp. I decided to pull everything together, I was going to try a crafty approach and create a vision board for my story. It worked. I don't know if this process will work for a full-length but I'll give it a try.

Here is the "board" I created for the short story.

Back to the Beginning

On Friday, I came to a standstill on my work in progress. I was writing words, but the plot seemed to found a holding pattern and was going round and round instead of moving forward. I concluded the book was broke. The only way to move forward was to go backwards. One of the issues was the person I had designated as the killer was not the guilty party. Now, this didn't come as a surprise to me because out of the fourteen mystery/suspense stories I have written, I was never right. The real killer was always revealed by writing the story.

Usually, I'd make notes in the manuscript and continue writing until the draft was complete and then add any necessary clues and details. This time that method wasn't working. I was adding to the word count but I knew they were filler words. The problem I was having was the motive for the crime was a little different than I originally thought, the "heart" matter of it wasn't the same, and that changed the mood of the story.

The only way to move forward was to go back to the beginning and adjust the mood in some places, lighten it up some, deepen it in others, and add in more about one relationship that at first was complementary but now drove a part of the story. 

Distractions

Lately, I've been good at staying on track with my work. The word count has increased each day. I'm on track to finishing this book at the end of the month. Learning more about marketing. My new planner is helping focus my days better than the phone calendar method I tried the last half of 2017.

But today, I'm finding myself distracted by my mind wandering to what's next rather than focusing on the present. My muse has a great idea for a series. Four books in total. I love the idea. Excited about it. But, I keep telling myself, I need to finish this book before I start another one. Especially one that is in a genre that is different from what I usually write, and comprises of four books. I've done romantic suspense, but not romance only. I'm confident I can pull it off, but it's not on the schedule. And for some reason my muse cannot deal with that and keeps pushing it into my mind. I have perfect scenes for the book. Wonderful dialogue. Intriguing plot points. All elements needed for a great book. Except, it doesn't do me any good for this book.

This is the first year I actually wrote out a schedule, not with dates, but projects I want to complete this year. Finish the book I'm writing now, another new full length mystery, revamping/editing a romantic suspense I wrote about five years ago, and two short stories. Ambitious for me. And now this new project has taken up residence in my head, and it's not on the schedule. There's a chance I can add it in depending how long the next two big projects take. Right now, I'm against changing the plan as every other time I've decided to work on a different idea than the original I had in mind, I got less done than more. So, I feel it's important this year to give scheduling projects a chance.

If only this new idea would let up a bit.

Graphic Creation

I have a love/hate relationship with creating promotional graphics for books. At times it's an enjoyable task, and others a necessary evil. Like today. It took me two hours to come up with something I liked, while the last book took fifteen minutes to make a graphic I loved. I loved it so much, I had a poster printed and bought a frame and easel so I could display it.

Today, I was getting so frustrated (which of course wasn't helping the process) with the time I was spending because I'd rather devote it writing more of my new book that I wondered if it's worth it. Why was I doing this to myself...getting myself in a tizzy over a graphic to put on Facebook? It seemed like a waste of time. I am a writer. I should write. But alas, one must promote and market their book(s) if they want readers to know about and read it.

I knew I'd be short-changing myself if I ignored this necessary task so I took a deep breath and got back to work. The truth all writers face is that there are a lot of books out vying for readers love. Readers won't know about my book if I don't share. If I don't tell. So, I pushed the negative feelings aside and continued with coming up with a show-and-tell for my new book.

It took some tweaking before I had a option that I liked. At first, it looked too plain and now it seems a little busy. I'm going to let it "sit" for today and see how I feel tomorrow. Though right now, I'm leaning toward deleting the Crafty and Crime sticker in the lower left corner.

Heroine on Vacation

I'm rushing a bit to get this blog post done because I've been working on a short story. Actually a new story as the first one wasn't going anywhere because my heroine Faith (from the Scrap This mystery series) just didn't want to participate. Originally, I wanted to title this when your heroine has you on ignore but that was a little depressing. And not quite accurate.

I had already decided she was the lead in the story. I outlined the main elements of the plot. I started writing and after two pages I was stuck. At first, I thought I started the story in the wrong place so I rewrote it. Still wasn't right. I wrote and rewrote the beginning of the story for weeks. I loved the plot but it wasn't coming together. It refused to move forward. All the characters seemed to hover around, doing something yet basically nothing. It was starting to stress me out. There was an approaching deadline. What was wrong?

I stepped away for a day and realized the issue was that Faith wasn't interested in being in the story. This mystery wasn't hers to tell. Once I released Faith from solving the crime, a character popped into my head. Her backstory. How she and the other characters fit and conflicted with each other. The story is flowing and I'm intrigued by this heroine. I don't know why Faith wasn't fitting in the story. All I could think is that maybe Faith needed a vacation.

The Siren Song

There I was zipping along in my car...I mean driving the speed limit...on my way to the craft store for Scrubby Yarn when a song playing on the radio caught my attention. I turned it up. Images popped into my head. A story began taking shape. The song ended and I knew I'd have to track it down. There was story being born from it. I didn't know if the idea would expand, but I had to find out.

Fortunately, I was able to find it on iTunes. I listened to it and images came into my mind. I replayed it, over and over. A more concrete plot took shape. The heroine introduced herself to me, along with the reluctant hero. He wasn't sure he was the right match for this story. But that was the basis of the story--the relationship between them--he thought he was too flawed, too imperfect for her while the heroine believed the hero's flaw was also his strength. The reason for his beliefs is what has really gripped my imagination.

I'm still editing Altered to Death so it'll be a month before I can start working on the book. And to think it was a song, and not my angsting and over thinking, that has determined my next story. I do believe it'll be a book length project but I'm going to see where the words take me.

What's Next?

It's been awhile since I've found myself pondering the writer dilemma of what book will I write next. Last few years, I knew exactly what book was on the horizon. This time the choices or seemingly endless. It's an exciting and scary time, especially when so many ideas battle for my attention. What direction do I go? Stick with mystery or go back for a moment to romantic suspense? Or something different? Should I start by outlining an idea or two and see which one springs to life? Or work on a project that I had set aside three years ago and revamp it? For that story, I know I want to switch it from an inspirational romantic suspense to a "regular" romantic suspense. I'm just not sure if that's the best project for me or one of my other ideas.

The more I think about it, more questions enter my mind. It's a confusing time for my muse. There's one project on the list that at one time had me so excited to write. I had dreams about it. Scribbled down scenes on any available piece of paper. Now that I'll have the time to work on it, my heart doesn't yearn to write it as it once did. I feel kind of blah about it. I still think it's a fabulous idea but I just have no desire to enter into that world.

Fortunately, Altered to Death will be back to me for editing so I'll have another month before I have to make a decision on the next book-length project. I do have 2 short stories I know I'll be working on so maybe once I'm done with them, I'll know for certain what's next.

The Case of the Disappearing WIP

Now, I can look back at this particular moment with humor but almost a week ago I was in meltdown mode. I am an obsessive saver of any document I am working on, but not so good at backing up the work. I do email it to myself on occasion, but not as often as I should which is how I found myself in a heart-wrenching predicament last Friday.

I was at a crop retreat last week and spent the first hour each morning working on the edits for Altered to Death. I didn't want to get behind schedule, so I took some time away from scrapbooking to edit. Being in a different environment energized me and I found the words and ideas flowing. As I was finishing writing for the day, the thought entered my head that I should email the document to myself. Just in case. Instead of doing that immediately, I decided to browse the Internet for a bit for a die cut file I needed for a layout. I was debating between two design files when all of a sudden the screen went blank.

First, I was calm. I figured I hadn't plugged in the computer correctly or the cord got loose and the battery died. No problem. I checked the cords and pushed the button to turn the laptop on. Nothing. Double checked cords. Pressed the on button. Blank screen. My stomach did a little flip. The laptop had crashed.

While I hated to lose today's work, it was only one day. I checked my email on my phone. Oh no! The last time I "backed up" the book was over a week ago. A week of changes and additions that were gone forever. The edits are due May 9th. What was I going to do? Could I redo everything by then--if I could even remember everything? I was so angry with myself. Why hadn't I emailed it first?

After berating myself for a few more moments, I did the one thing that might make everything better...I called my computer tech who is my husband. He was golfing but told me he was positive he could fix it once he returned. And if not, he'd be able to get the drive out of the laptop and save my book.

While I felt a little better, I wasn't totally calm until my husband arrived and within a minute had the laptop back up and operational. After thanking my husband, I emailed the book to myself and will schedule my WIP to be updated on Dropbox on a daily basis. I don't want to go through that panic situation again.

Editing: From Suspect to Snitch

I'm still editing away and am able to breath a little easier now. Last week, I was in the middle of my developmental edit and was stuck in a particular place. I wrote words. Deleted words. Outline a change. Added it. Then took it out. Nothing was working but I knew this part of the story had to be changed. The problem was every choice either complicated the plot or gave away the ending. What was I to do? Nothing was working and I didn't want to edit myself into a place where I needed to rewrite the whole beginning. I was at a loss. I was frustrated. So, I made a decision that might not have been wise, due to deadline approaching, an event looming on the horizon, and the restarting of my part-time job at the golf course, but I took the morning off anyway. 

There were some items I wanted to get before my next crop event, and the nearest craft store was thirty-five minutes away so I knew it would be a huge time commitment. But as I was at the point of wanting to scream "I quit" or bang my head on the keyboard, a few hours away would be a good thing for me. So, I grabbed my Joann's coupons and keys and went on my trip.

As I drove away from my house, my computer, and the book, my mind started to clear and the task I left behind didn't seem so daunting. The farther away I got, the more my mind clearer and ideas started to come into my head, including two answers to my dilemma: change of ownership and make him a snitch. When I reached my destination, I sat in the car and emailed myself the hopefully brilliant solutions to the issues I was facing.

When I returned home, I went downstairs and took a look at my developmental report and the outline of changes I had intended to write. What do you know...the few issues I was still having would be solved or smoothed out with these two changes. One of the changes would mean reworking a few scenes and removing another but as it required a new one, no worries on the word count ending up too low. 

The biggest problem I was having was with one suspect. I had tried to find a way to make him more solid without giving away the ending or over complicated the plot with so many twists (or even worse coincidences) that it was not believable. I read back over his scene and discovered the idea I had on my drive was the right answer. The man wasn't a necessary suspect as I had others, stronger ones, and what was needed was a catalyst to narrow down the who could've done it--a snitch. He was no longer a character who didn't have a strong enough motive, and seemed like an add on. He was now necessary and helped move the plot forward rather than bog it down.