Blog news, author travels

Happy Boxing Day! And Merry Christmas to those who celebrate that, or pick your holiday of choice (heck, pick them all. How many feasts would that give us??!).

As I'm getting ready to leave for the Southern Hemisphere, here's the latest on what happens with the blog. First, the blog will be largely on hiatus for January, as we will be on the trail much of the time that month, with unknown internet access even when off the trail. I'll try to pop up a photo or two every now and then so you don't forget I exist.

1. Reviews. I'm putting them on hold until I'm in a position to read and reflect. January won't be that time. I will eventually get back to sharing reviews of what I've read, and participating in blog tours with Great Escapes tours, but quite likely not until we finish traveling in late May.

2. Photos. Since we'll be producing a lot of photos, I'll concentrate on sharing them through the first half of the year. I guess that means I'm turning into a travel blog for the duration!

3. Flash fiction. I'll share it when I have it. I was going to shut down the Fiction in 50 feature, but since Jemima Pett gave me a set of prompts to use, I'll keep it going. Not sure about the WEP challenges in February and April. If inspiration strikes I'll get something up, if not, I'll try to read anyway.

4. IWSG. I'll keep participating, and try to read and comment on as many as I can. I may not be great at that, so please forgive me!

5. Novels. My first commitment to myself is to resume working on the latest novel in February. If that proves to be too hard, I'll work on short fiction for submission. We shall see.

That's pretty much the story! Since I love my on-line community, I'm not going away entirely. But our travel schedule will make it challenging!


See you in the new year!
--Rebecca/The Ninja Librarian

Writer's Update and WEP reminder

First things first: today is the official December WEP day.

Click on the image to go to the list of fantastic WEP stories from this month, including mine. We all posted up early to make sure there would be time to read the stories before the holidays sweep us all up.

Writer’s Update:
Well, we survived NaNo, and while it was (and is) hard to maintain the momentum after the end of the month, I did manage to hang on and bring my word count up to just under 70k, with a pretty good draft of the story (not too many missing bits). I’m also considering it a positive thing that, unlike my usual process, I don’t feel the need to dump the story for 6-12 months before I look at it again. I am actually ready to continue chipping away at the big issues and working on getting the draft to the point where I can give it to beta readers, hopefully before summer (northern hemisphere summer). Apropos of that, if you are interested in beta-reading Death By Library once it’s ready, let me know. It’s book 4 of the Pismawallops PTA mysteries, but is meant to stand alone if necessary (part of what I will need to know is what else needs explaining that I’ve taken for granted).

Of course, the other reality lies in that reference to the Southern Hemisphere, because the Ninja Librarian family is off to New Zealand right after Christmas, for some pretty extensive travel. I know that nothing, and I mean nothing, will happen writing-wise during January, as we will be tramping and traveling non-stop. We’ll see after that.

Which brings us to...

Blog update:
The Ninja Librarian’s blog will be going on hiatus during January. There may be some random posts (including, of course, the IWSG post on the first Wednesday), but I don’t expect to be reading and responding to others’ posts, for which I hope you all will forgive me! I simply won’t have enough time or internet connections to do anything consistent. I hope you won’t all forget me while I’m off playing—keep coming back to check for photos, which I will post as and when I can!

Updates and business and stuff

This is just a post to say that I will be traveling through most of July, and won't be able to post regularly (if at all.  It depends on finding a hot spot and time to make use of it).  I will schedule in advance as many posts as I can, spread throughout the month.  But I won't be making my three-a-week schedule, and the fiction will get a bit thin on the ground.

Taking July off presents me with a lot of challenges.  For one thing, I'll lose momentum in my writing (I know from experience that when we are on the road, I do well to keep my journal/trip log up to date, let alone any other writing).  I hope to have Return to Skunk Corners ready to go before I leave, so that I can plan on a publication date in early August, when I'm back to manage that.  And I've starting plotting and planning and scheming a sequel to Murder Stalks the PTA, even though I haven't finished that one yet.  So I'll keep working on that if I have time (though as about the only thing that would give me that kind of time would be illness, I hope I don't have time!  I've already done that, coughing my lungs out in camp while the rest of the family hiked all over Glacier National Park).

If I could work in a moving car this would go a lot better!  But except maybe on some stretches of freeway (and we won't be seeing many of those), I'm apt to puke if I try to do much besides stare out the window.  And I will NOT haul a fat MS along when backpacking, though I always carry my journal, so I can keep working.

So when you wonder why I'm not posting, just bear in mind that this is my idea of a vacation:

A relaxing day in the country:

 New heights of inspiration:

 

A family meal:

 (All three photos copyright Dave Dempsey; used with permission)