Solve a mystery, fight space battles, talk to ghosts, or even journey to Oz!

Sounds a lot more exciting when I put it that way. Another way to put it is that I’m looking for beta readers who would be interested in reading one-or more-of my four so-far unpublished novels. Count ‘em-four.

All the details can be found either on the newsletter:

( Read more... )

It took almost exactly seven months to write the rough draft of We Love Trouble, which totals just over 80,000 words. That's writing part time, of course--plus I took a break to get More Slightly Off the Mark ready for publishing as an e-book. (The print version just came out--you'll be hearing about it.)

Not bad. It's about 15,000 words longer ( Read more... )

This was lost in my blog drafts--it was actually written several months ago, then forgotten! It's interesting to me, because in it I speculate on a novel project I'd just started on--but in the real timeline, I just finished the first draft.

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Recently I had some ( Read more... )

I've already worked into my novel-in-progress three atrocious puns, three references to The Wizard of Oz, two more to Harry Potter, two horses, and ... well, just one dog, but he's an unusually smart dog.

And it just hit 70,000 words, making "We Love Trouble" my longest rough draft ever.

There's also a line of dialogue that makes me giggle every time ( Read more... )

I hit 50,000 words in my latest novel rough draft!

I need to get that thing done, so I can let it cool while I work on my non-fiction project. I'd have them both done by now, if not for all those bills and, on a related note, that pesky full-time job.

But my hands have healed up from the sewer line fiasco, so at least typing isn't painful anymore.

( Read more... )

I spent some time on the internet last month researching the parts of a saddle and bridle, types of horses, trailer hitches, dog behavior, cowboy hats, head injuries, patient assessment, and the topography of Brown County, Indiana. All for one story.

Later I spent more time researching the horse racing industry, handguns, mushrooms, John Wayne, skin ( Read more... )

After hitting 28,000 words on the first draft of my new novel, We Love Trouble, I'm calling a halt to it.

Temporarily! Come on, I'm not going to give up on a story that I've described as The Thin Man meets Scooby-Doo. I'm having way too much fun.

But Emily and I wanted to get our new humor book, Still Slightly Off the Mark, out before the Christmas ( Read more... )

I'm back!

Not that we went far: we had a two week vacation that was almost all spent at home, largely because of my annual super sinus infection and some family responsibilities. I did catch up on sleep--this is something all third shifters appreciate. We also caught up on some reading and watched a season of Game of Thrones, which is not what I'd ( Read more... )