Better Late than Never

I have been on vacation this week. So on Wednesday, even with good intentions, the blog didn’t happen. Thursday, even with greater intentions, clean missed it. On Friday, moving day as they say in pro golf (we were traveling home), again I swung and missed. So now, early Saturday, with coffee in hand and the need to get this done (and a long list of other things) before the Michigan-Michigan State game at 9:00, I am pounding away on the old Mac (actually there is no such thing as an old Mac – don’t we upgrade every few years whether we need to or not? And, most seriously, think of Steve Jobs and how he changed the writing and book industry – it will be as dramatic as the changes to the music biz).

Update on Toulouse 4 Death

Dennis DeRose, my editor, tells me he’s almost done with the first editing draft. He will then email me the Word doc, I will review the Track Changes he has made, approve or reject as necessary (usually he bats around .950), then send it back for a final read. He’s thorough and now has my jargon style and POV. I look forward to his edits. I will then get back to the blogs about building a book in InDesign from the manuscript. I want to do it as I prepare the real book, it’s easier.

Still working on the cover, tweaking here and there, but it’s coming together. I am very excited about this next book in the Sharon O’Mara Chronicles. Nine months ago I promised, through this blog, a book. It is almost here.

Elk River

TV interview on Tuesday afternoon with a Traverse City station, a lot of buzz in Northern Michigan. See blog immediately below. We are looking forward to a book tour in the spring. I know that hardier folk, those with Michigan blood, would schedule the tour for the dead of winter, all that macho-tough-it-out stuff. Me? California now pumps through these thin veins and, besides, my tan would suffer. So the spring it is, maybe when the cherry blossoms are in bloom. Quite poetic, don’t you think? BTW, Horizon Books of Traverse City just bought ten books, huzzah!

I have to admit, quite proudly that I am a writer. Why? Because it seems now that everything I do (outside of the professional community planning - moneymaking side of life) seems to come back to thinking about writing words on a page. Thinking of the next story, storytelling. All writing is story telling, even business letters. Even taking down an order for a widget is a story of a transaction. But within the world of fiction there are no rules other than to tell a good story. Lay it out for your reader, tease them into turning the page, then making sure they are not disappointed. Simple, yes?

Believe it or not, I am into the next Sharon O’Mara “story.” Almost 4,000 words and I’m jazzed. But a good story also must be mysterious, so for now, kind reader, you must remain in the dark. I will come clean in the next few months and then you can follow the bread crumbs as I weave the next San Francisco O’Mara mystery.

More later . . . .