Saturday, August 2, 2014

Turning the Corner into August

My last week of holidays and I'm in writing mode. I've begun the fourth Anna Sweet mystery for Grass Roots Press and have been knocking off a thousand words a day as I get the opening firmed up and the plot underway. I'm not one hundred percent certain where this storyline is heading so have to allow for thinking time. So far, so good.

I was invited to my first book club earlier in the spring and it took place on Thursday night at a home off Main Street in Ottawa south. This group of about ten women host a local author every July and tell me they've been doing so for the past eight years. They are a welcoming, comfortable group - all had read Cold Mourning and they had questions ready. So for two hours, armed with a glass of wine and a table full of tasty food, we discussed the book, getting published and the writing industry. A lovely way to spend a summer evening.


I usually have a book that I'm reading on the go, sometimes two or three. I've heard authors say that they can't read a mystery while they're writing one because it impacts on their own manuscript. Happily, I haven't found this to be a problem. This past week I read Ann Cleeves' book Raven Black, first in a series set in the rugged Shetland Islands and introducing Detective Jimmy Perez. The setting, character development and plot are seamless and riveting. I highly recommend this fabulous read for your summer book list.

And now, back to the keyboard and another morning spent with Anna Sweet. She's a PI with a office in Hintonburg (boro in Ottawa) who roams around the city neighbourhoods in search of killers - very fun to have her in establishments that I frequent in my Westboro and Wellington West hoods. These novellas are great fun to write. My neighbour across the street read The Hard Fall, second in the series, yesterday and said, "What a great little book. Amazingly interesting for such a short read."

Mission accomplished :-)

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