It’s been over a month since I last posted. Between clearing out snow and writing obligations, I haven’t had time to think, dust, or anything else except gain weight and get older. I did manage to find this neat photo though (do I ever take pictures of anything that isn’t in my own back yard?), and love the colors so much that I thought I could at least share this.

In my last post, I mentioned my upcoming blog tour. I didn’t realize that writing guest posts is far more difficult than I had imagined. There is so much to cover, and deciding how to approach it is confusing. Do readers want a description of the new book, tips on writing a series, insight into other things that I’m writing, or even my thoughts about books by other authors?

As you might have guessed, I’m awful with self-promotion. To me, it’s bragging — and that isn’t the way I was brought up. Tooting your own horn was discouraged, almost forbidden in our household. “Nice girls don’t brag,” my mother would say. “Don’t be such a show-off,” my father would tell me, being more direct. So where does a writer draw the line? I’m not sure about that.

I’ve written a few guest posts so far that I thought were pretty good. My editor has already nixed one of them, saying my idea has been pretty much done to death. It was one of those where do I get my inspiration from? –type pieces. I get it, of course. Every guest blogger has done this kind of post and I suppose, after careful consideration, most readers couldn’t care less what inspires me. Still, much of what I write has come from personal experiences and incidents that are based (very loosely) on actual events — which I have learned from my publisher can get you into a whole lot of legal trouble by admitting. Still, these things are my inspiration — like the missing teacher in New Math is Murder, Colleen Caruso’s panic attack as she covered flying lessons for a Town Crier assignment in Hide nor Hair (yes, it really did happen to me while I was up in the sky covering flying lessons for the local newspaper), and tons of other instances in various things I have written. But basing a guest post on these things only makes for one column. What about the other four?

So it’s back to the drawing board for me. I have two more posts to write and three that are finished and need my editor’s approval. I just hope they read well and don’t sound like I’m bragging.

I’m doing a blog tour for Hide Nor Hair which is available for pre-order on Amazon, though from what I’ve seen so far, it seems that it’s only for the Kindle Edition.

It’s so much fun preparing and very exciting to do a tour. I didn’t realize how much work it would be, but it’s fun work, so it’s not really work at all. Below is the schedule and I hope all will stop by to visit!

Oh, I’m posting this schedule first and then making sure all the links are accurate — so I may have to update this. It reminds me so much of my stringer days when I used to put web addresses in the stories. What a pain in the butt it is tracking down all these links! Making sure things work is the pits and I’m so bad at it. Keep your fingers crossed that I did this right!!!

Here is the schedule:

 TOUR PARTICIPANTS

April 21 –  Musings and Ramblings –  Interview

April 22 – View from the Birdhouse – Spotlight

April 23 – readalot – Review

April 24 – Babs Book Bistro  – Review

April 25 – Escape With Dollycas’s Into A Good Book  – Spotlight

April 26 – 3 Partners in Shopping, Nana, Mommy, & Sissy, Too! – Guest Post

April 27 – Tea and a Book  – Review, Interview

April 28 – Shelley’s Book Case  – Review, Guest Post

April 28 – Cozy Up With Kathy – Interview

April 29 – i blog 4 books – Review

April 30 – A Blue Million Books – Guest Post

May 1 – Brooke Blogs – Guest Post

May 2 – Michele Lynn Seigfried’s Blog – Review

May 3 –  LibriAmoriMiei – Review

May 4 – Queen of All She Reads – Review, Guest Post

I had a slew of plans for this post, mostly regarding Harper Lee and the manuscript supposedly stuck to the original copy of her To Kill a Mockingbird manuscript (at least that’s the version I read). Needless to say, I’m really excited about this and can’t wait until it comes out. Go Set a Watchman is set to be released on July 14, 2015. It’s already listed on Amazon, though there is no book cover as of yet. I might just pre-order this one, which is something I never do.

On the subject of book covers, I am pleased to announce that my latest book now has one! Take a sneak-peek above for what the cover of Hide Nor Hair will look like. This is the second book in my Jersey Girl Cozy Mystery series.

I love the cover; the artwork is especially eye-catching. Colleen looks the same, thank God — very Jersey-looking!

The release date has been changed again to coincide with a blog tour I’ll be doing in about two more months. The date is now April 21, 2015 – for some reason that date rings a bell, other than Hide Nor Hair’s debut, of course.

I’m busy writing the third in the series — Food For Thought, as well as taking mental breaks by writing a mystery/thriller with the working title of Recurring, which is not part of the series.

Okay! Back to work for me. Let me know what you think of the fabulous new cover!

I’ve been thinking about trying something for the last few weeks and decided now is as good a time as any to attempt this. I want to write a novel in 30 days. Yeah, I know November is National Novel Writing Month. I also know that writers generally take on this challenge in the month of November. Too bad, I’m doing it in February anyway. After all, there’s nothing much else to do except shovel snow and shiver on the couch whenever the thermostat dips below 70 degrees.

A few of my fellow writers pointed out that I would have to write approximately 6 to 7 pages each day in order to accomplish the task of reaching 200-plus pages of a first draft in a month’s time — and believe me, if you’re cranking out 7 pages of fresh copy in one day, it will be an extremely rough first draft. I think I’m up for it, even though today I only wrote three pages. I went back over all three pages and made a few changes here, then edited a little bit there, which is something those brave writers who have already accomplished this amazing feat strongly advise against. The whole point is to crank the novel out fast, then go back and edit, and edit, and edit some more.

Can I do this? I don’t know. But you can bet I’ll be giving it a try.

Meanwhile, with the next book in the Jersey Girl Cozy Mystery Series, Hide Nor Hair, due to be released on March 30, the folks at PageSpring Publishing asked me to get a professional shot of myself for the book cover. Twenty years ago I would have jumped at the chance. This year I moaned and groaned and got myself to one of those Glamour Shot places. The end result? See the picture above. They did their best, of course, though honestly, they didn’t have much to work with! I think maybe the camera was too close (the picture might have come out a lot better had they photographed me from a block or two away). I also think going with liquid eyeliner might have been a mistake (even though I did give the go-ahead when asked if I wanted it applied). I kind of look like I could play the part of O-Lan in The Good Earth, or maybe sing Linda Low’s “I Enjoy Being a Girl” tune from Flower Drum Song — okay, a REALLY OLD Linda Low.

Anyway, I’m back to work. It’s 8 p.m. on a Tuesday night and I have five more pages to write before Agent Carter comes on. Wish me luck!

So here we are — our very first major snowfall of the season. It’s awful outside. Cold. Wet. Fluffy. I really hate this white sh-t! I just came in from shoveling (only lasted about 20 minutes) and I’m thoroughly exhausted, so I decided to wait until the kids next door wake up and come over to do it. I’ll go outside and help them out, but these kids do the brunt of the work and they work for cheap! It only cost a Mexican lasagna (which I make for them and provide all the trimmings) and a big hug. They’re nice, good-natured  boys — early twenties, sleep ’til noon — you know the type. Like we were in our early twenties.  They LOVE Mexican food. And they won’t take money, no matter how many times you offer it.

As this infamous Nor’beaster continues to dump snow throughout the day, I’m thrilled it won’t be the 2 – 3 feet predicted. So far it looks like 8 – 9 inches, but it’s a pain just the same. If I’m not totally wiped out by this afternoon, I may be able to actually write something longer than this post! Though it’s tempting to outline a thriller that has lots of snow as part of a woman against nature theme, I’ve begun working on something that’s even better. More mainstream, more woman in peril, more mysterious with plot twists and turns — fun stuff. And NO SNOW!!!

I’ll also be outlining my next chapter for Food For Thought, the third in my Jersey Girl Cozy Mystery series. So I’ll have loads to keep me occupied, as long as the power doesn’t go out. Until I settle down to work, you’ll find me out in the driveway, shoveling this crap and dreaming of warmer, brighter days.

Stay well everyone, and keep warm!

I have finally finished the edits for my next book in the Jersey Girl Cozy Mystery series – Hide Nor Hair. They seemed as vast as the ocean! I got up early, stayed up late, and fixed, fussed, read and reread to the point where I was sure my eyes would bleed. A few things needed to be added and two major scenes were trashed. The addition took some thought on my part, where the tossed parts broke my heart.

And the book is better because of the changes.

As writers, I think that we consider our words “golden,” yet nothing in a manuscript is carved in stone. At times the best parts have to be tossed for the sake of flow. Sometimes things must be added to better explain the situation or the character’s point of view. These happened to me and I’m sure it also happens to anyone brave enough to write a novel and send it out into the world in search of a publisher.

My first book, New Math Is Murder, went through extensive edits and rewrites. Though it was basically a cozy, I broke so many rules of the genre that if presented to hard core cozy readers, it would have been a major disappointment. Sure, I was annoyed, even a little angry and insulted by the suggestions to improve the manuscript. With this new book, Hide Nor Hair, I understood completely why certain changes had to be made.

First, nobody is perfect – especially not writers. We make mistakes. Our rhythm and timing is a little off at times. We miss errors. We can’t (or won’t) always see the whole picture.

Second, if you’re lucky enough to have great editors (as I do at PageSpring Publishing), they will point out these lapses. As embarrassing as it seems, the errors don’t signify a lack of talent, an IQ of somewhere around 41, or even lazy, sloppy work habits. They are simply mistakes we all fail to catch or gaps in the storyline that we didn’t acknowledge. Sometimes we are so close to our own work that we can’t judge it properly – we can’t see the forest for the trees.

This is why God made editors!

So the word for today is rewrite! Don’t let it scare you, as it did me. Plunge right into changes and edits, and make your work even better than before. Your manuscript will read all the better if you do.

Have you ever been embarrassed by the errors  in your manuscript or suggestions of a rewrite? Share it with a comment!

I hope everyone had an amazing Hanukah and Christmas, with enough energy left over to enjoy the coming New Year’s celebrations.

As with all things in my life, Christmas Eve conversation eventually got around to the subject of reading and writing. I had dinner at my son and daughter-in-law’s house – a real treat because I didn’t have to cook. Over coffee in the living room, my daughter-in-law’s mom, Kathy, told me how much she enjoyed New Math Is Murder. The best part came when she told me exactly why she liked the book.

“It was easy to read and it felt like I was watching a movie,” she said.

I instantly knew what she meant.

New Math isn’t overcomplicated. There weren’t any deep, dark emotions to deal with and there was no need to figure out who was thinking what and why they were thinking it in that book. Even the settings were familiar – work, home, the supermarket, the Little League field . . ., not exactly exotic locales with unpronounceable names. The characters, like every day friends, neighbors, and family, were identifiable and relatable.

In other words, totally veg-out reading.

I sometimes read heavy stuff, the kind of books where you want lots of information. These kinds of books aren’t read for pleasure – but the subjects are those you want to delve into and learn more about. Often I’ll start to read a bestselling novel and think, “God, I’m in over my head with this one!” It’s a struggle to finish but, if you’re anything like me, you’ll muddle through to get to the end. Not that it was a rotten book. On the contrary, the book was excellent. It simply wasn’t the kind of book I was looking for and needed to read at the time – a read for the pure pleasure of reading and relaxation.

Which brings me back to my discussion with Kathy and her reading habits. The books she enjoys most are read for the pure pleasure of it – which I believe is the reason Cozies have gained so much in popularity. They’re fun! They’re funny! Sometimes they can be extremely clever, other times simple to solve mysteries. They all have two things in common – characters you love (or love to hate), and an air of mystery throughout the pages.

Cozies are always entertaining, and if you really get into a series, reading them is like greeting old, dear friends that you haven’t seen for a while and are dying to catch up with.

So, three cheers for Cozies – and many more for the New Year. Now go read something lite!

 

Ten more days until Christmas and nothing is done — especially writing!

I can’t believe what a slug I’ve been, with both the decorations and the next book. The cards are out, with only two returning for messed-up addresses. Nothing is decorated, though all the gifts are wrapped thanks to The Dust Man, my four-pawed helper. But all this Christmas business will get done before the 25th — not so with finding a decent poison.

I want to kill someone off with poison in my next book, but it’s so difficult to find one that will make a person sick, not kill them — and forget about finding one that won’t leave the victim with permanent damage! Oh, and poisons tend to give off all sorts of disgusting symptoms which an author simply can’t describe in a quiet, cozy mystery!

Maybe the subject matter is a little dark for the holidays, but it’s plenty bright for me! I’ll ask my doctor at my next appointment. The last time I asked him, he suggested pesticide. Sounds a little boring, don’t you think? Oh well, I’ll figure it out.

Meanwhile, enjoy your decorating, readers! If you need an extra paw to help you, I’ll send The Dust Man over!

I attended the Sisters in Crime Central Jersey chapter meeting today, where handwriting analysis expert Terry Antoniewicz was the guest speaker. We spoke later and discussed creativity and the connection between the physical act of writing and the human brain.

It dawned on me that whenever I get really, truly stuck on something I’m writing, whether fiction or non-fiction, I can get unstuck by simply putting pen to paper and letting creativity bloom. Staring at the monitor simply doesn’t inspire me much of the time. Sometimes the clean, white screen is intimidating, as though daring me to come up with something and fill the page. My mind goes as blank as the first page of the document.

The physical act of cursive writing is like a tonic for the brain. Ideas begin to flow on real paper and I get a feeling of accomplishment – even though I know the words are only a few paragraphs and the word count will probably amount to no more than a hundred words. Still, my best ideas began in long-hand.

I keep a pad and a pen on my night table. Waiting for sleep, my mind often races and strange ideas pop into my head – a mysterious stranger, an unusual name or occupation for a character, or even a great way to poison a victim that could possibly go undetected. I write these thoughts down, awake in the morning to elaborate on the same writing pad, then fire-up the old computer to transfer these ideas and form a story or a chapter.

I don’t think I could write an entire book this way, and I can’t imagine how writers did this before the invention of typewriters, let alone computers. But using pens, pencils and notebook paper to express those initial creative thoughts are enough to get my juices flowing. If you find yourself stuck, give it a try.