Welcome to the pool

Yesterday we opened our pool for the summer. It's always a potentially frightening event.  Will the water be clear or murky?  Will the bottom be full of dead worms who wiggled their way under the cover, fell in the water and drown? And...how's that liner doing?

We were relieved that upon peeling back the cover that the water was sparkling clear. (Whew!)

Last week, while poking around in our basement looking for something else, I came across a plastic yellow duck.

Hmm. Where did that come from?  Neither Mr. L nor I remember ever buying this duck. Did someone give it to us?  Was it conjured up by rubbing a lamp and asking a genie for a wish? Who knows! But it's now in our pool, floating around and looking a little lonely. Should I try to find her a friend? Many friends?  Where would I find it/them?

Since the pool was looking pretty spiffy, I decided to make a video using it as a background. What do you think? (I like the bird tweeting in the background.)


So, yup, if you'be been waiting for the paperback of A KILLER EDITION, it'll be available on June 30th.

 Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books A Million | Chapters/Indigo | Indiebound 

 Book Depository (free shipping worldwide)

Give Sabina A Chance

It's only been 15 years in the making.

Back in the day (which means before I was published in novel-length), I experimented with several different genres. I started out with hard-boiled suspense (the Jeff Resnick series), cozy mystery (the Victoria Square Mysteries) and women's fiction.

Sabina Reigns started out as women's fiction, but then I wrote three chapters as a cozy mystery (for a contest, where it didn't even place), and then went back to women's fiction. But then I got contracts for Booktown and Victoria Square from Berkley Books and the Sabina manuscript went back under the bed. But I never forgot her.

This winter, when I was between projects, Sabina came out from under the bed and I spent two months rewriting it. I've come a long way in 15 years and so Sabina and her cohorts have a much deeper, more sobering story to tell. But there're still some elements of fun as Sabina makes her journey from housewife to successful entrepreneur. It's also a story about mothers and daughters and how those relationships change.

The book will be available in print and ebook on September 4th. (The print edition isn't yet available to pre-order, but if you read ebooks, it can be pre-ordered now.)

Sabina Reigns Miller had it all: a wealthy husband, a beautiful home, a daughter at a great college. Without warning seven words blow the bottom off her world. "I've met someone else-and she's pregnant." Her husband of twenty years wants a divorce so he can move his mistress into their former residence. Although Sabina loses her comfortable life, she refuses to fall on her face. Her ex-husband's girlfriend may be living in their house, but Sabina has interior design skills and a bucket of dreams.
Can she rebound from the unexpected change, stick to her principles, help out a friend, and find someone to love again?
Kindle US | Kindle Worldwide | Nook | Kobo | Apple Books | Smashwords

Will you give Sabina Reigns a chance?

Saying Good-Bye to a Reader

Last week, I got a note from a reader of my Booktown Mysteries. She wrote:  "I can't bring myself to read on. In every good series there are twists and turns, good & bad,,but killing off (SPOILER) has broken my heart."

A writer never wants to hear that a reader has given up on her work. (Yeah, ouch!) But despite losing this reader, there is a silver lining to this dark cloud.

I'm sorry she feels that way ... but you know, the fact that I was able to make her care so much about that character means I succeeded as a writer.  I brought life to that character. He meant something to her, something that will stay with her for a while. But that also means that she cared more for him than you do for Tricia, Angelica and the rest of the Booktown characters, and that makes me sad.

I'm also sad to know how she isn't interested in how the characters will survive this turn of events. 

I'd hate for her to miss the next book in the series. I wrote that book while my mother was in hospice dying. It kept me going when I felt like I'd lost everything. How I ever wrote such a fun book during that terrible time still amazes me.

Of course, there're more hard times ahead for Tricia and the other Booktown characters because that's what storytelling is all about: conflict. When there's no conflict, there's no story.

I thanked her for reading the first x-number of Booktown Mysteries, and I invited her to check out the other six series I write under my real names. I'm pretty sure she won't give them a chance, but that's her decision. When I write a book, the most important thing I consider is characterization, even over plot. Apparently, that's what keeps readers coming back for more. 

Have you ever given up on a series in the middle? If so, why?

Summer with the good and the bad

Just about everyone around the world has had their lives impacted by Covid-19. Here's my list of things that we won't be doing or having done.

• No flowers: we usually go to the local nursery and buy flowers for our urns.
• Nobody to clean the house every two weeks.
• No one to help me in the garden
• Not so much meat for supper
• No interacting with friends and family
• No trips to the ice cream place
• No yard sales (oh, boy--for a thrifter, that's a BIGGIE)

But then there have been some good things, too.

• Our pansies from last year self-seeded, so we do have some flowers after all
• I  baked bread for the first time
• I've been baking quick breads (to use for Mr. L's breakfasts)
• We've been doing more jigsaw puzzles (well, mostly ones we've done before)
• We're still able to patronize our favorite restaurant via takeout
• I've been able to stay on my diet despite bread and quick breads (15 lbs down) 
• I've finished two books and a short story and started another two books
• I've got everything I need to repaint my kitchen cabinets 
• Curbside pick-ups & home deliveries
• The mail still comes 6 days a week

So while this won't be the summer we all wanted, maybe it can still be a good summer.  How will you make your summer special?