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Wednesday, May 22, 2019

Writer's Wednesday

I have a little time, so thought I'd let you all know what the status of my writing is. Since we have now been on the road for about 6 weeks, spending no more than 3 nights in any one place (and those with friends, making visiting, not writing, my priority), you will be unsurprised to learn that not much has happened.

I did receive a rejection on my one story submission last month, but with a suggestion to submit to another place, which unfortunately is currently closed to submissions. I have managed to write my Fiction in 50 piece, which will go up on Friday in lieu of any longer fiction (or more photos) for my Friday post. I even spent a morning updating the blog and indexing the posts on the relevant Pages (see top bar) (though they still need to be better organized in there. Chronological order seemed good enough when I had only a few dozen posts...). And Dani has been hard at work on my cover, reminding me that I need to get my blurb written. I'm including the current draft here and hope any and all of my readers will comment on what works and what doesn't!


The library can save your life… can it kill you, too?
JJ has a new job at the library, and life is settling down a bit. Not that JJ’s getting bored. Between work, the PTA, and her 16-year-old son, there’s never enough time to spend with her sweetheart, police chief Ron Karlson. That’s especially true with Thanksgiving on the horizon and her mother coming to visit, not to mention the PTA’s Holiday Bazaar looming ahead.

One thing seems to be running just fine without JJ’s help. The school is finally going to get a badly needed pool! Only now someone has shown up to claim that the land is rightfully hers, and everyone’s looking at JJ to figure out if she’s right.

When things in the library stacks turn deadly, JJ has to figure out who might have killed the local gadfly. She’s determined to get to the bottom of the land wars and the murder, and not all the answers are at the library. JJ and Kitty may have to face the ultimate peril: a visit to Mrs. Halsey, the oldest—and crankiest—person on the island.

Meanwhile, in real life...
I am immensely proud to say that what I did over the weekend was watch my oldest son graduate from Colorado College! Hard to believe these 4 years went by so fast, not to mention the 17 before that. His immediate plans include... writing a book. I may have been a bad influence :)

6 comments:

  1. Well done No 1 son! I can't believe it's four years either!
    Glad things are settling down for you, although sorting the photos will keep you dreaming of all that open space.
    I've just submitted to The Moth Short Fiction Prize - you have until the end of June to see if you want to, too. (Max 5,000 words) - themothmagazine.com
    Re the blurb, i'd rethink the second paragraph... and maybe it needs more active words - lots of passive sentences in there.
    Must read your draft at the weekend ;)

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    1. Thanks. I agree that the second paragraph doesn't work (and what's with the formatting? Sigh). It takes me a lot of tweaking to get anything like a blurb. Sometimes I think that's the hardest part--those 100 words or whatever it is.

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  2. Bummer about the rejection.

    I don't think I could travel for 6 weeks. The 9 days hubby and I spent on our last vacation was just long enough. lol

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    1. Well, I consider it a triumph, in a sense, since I can't get rejected unless I'm submitting!

      Our total travel here is more like 2 months. We left Christchurch April 1. Since then, the longest we've spend in any one place is 3 nights (3 times). I'm exhausted. My husband seems to be made of a tougher fiber.

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  3. Congrats to your son! And to you for raising him :)

    Blurb writing is so tricky. I think you've done well with yours. Only thought is to move the murder up to the second paragraph.

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  4. Time does fly and congrats on your influence!

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