Gigi Pandian's Blog, page 8

A Balancing Act

The verdict is in on my new book proposal.

The good news: my agent loves the story and characters! But (you knew there had to be a "but," didn't you?) she has some substantial edits, too. They're good ideas, but the challenge is that I'm currently deep in revisions for the next Jaya Jones treasure hunt mystery, Pirate Vishnu.

How to stay focused? A mini writing retreat with the Pens and friends.
To stay on track for Pirate Vishnu to be published a year after Artifact, I need to remain focused....

Fingers Crossed for My New Mystery Series Proposal

Tree in a front yard in Portland, Oregon.Today is a satisfying day. I turned in a new book proposal to my agent!

I'm still writing the Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt mystery series (I'm deep in revisions for the next book), but I also have an idea for a new mystery series I'm trying out.

I've been spending a lot of time in the Portland area since my parents moved to Oregon, and between the friendly vibe of the city and the gorgeous walks in the woods, I thought it would be a fun place to set a myster...

Post-Chemo Hair: Cute Hats to the Rescue!

I've been documenting my hair growing out after completing chemotherapy (a few of the earlier pics are here and here). Having short hair has been a trip. Here's what it has looked like lately. In December my curly hair went through a mad scientist phase, shown below. Cute hats to the rescue!

Celebrating the New Year with a Giveaway

My Christmas gift bounty of books has brought me many hours of enjoyment already, but as for the task of finding space on my bookshelves... Well, it firmed up my resolve. I'm now an ebook reader convert. I'd already been reading ebooks for the past year while traveling, and I found it was much nicer than I expected. I guess that shouldn't be surprising, since the words are the same regardless of the medium. But since I'm such a visual person, I expected to miss reading physical books mor...

A Book Cover's Unintended Consequences

Once a book leaves a writer's personal computer and goes out into the world, it no longer belongs to the author. Readers give a novel a life of its own through their personal interpretations.

In the few months since Artifact has been out, it's been fascinating to read reviews that focus on different aspects of the novel that the reviewers found compelling. I'm lucky the reviews have been overwhelmingly positive so far. But what I didn't expect was the reaction to my book cover.

I love my b...

Suspense Magazine Names ARTIFACT One of the Best Books of 2012

I'm so honored that Suspense Magazine has selected Artifact as a "Best of 2012" book in their year-end issue!

This month's issue is free to download on the Suspense Magazine website. I'm on page 46 as one of the best debut mysteries of 2012. It includes a fun little interview in which I talk about a new project I'm working on.






Now I'm off to read the rest of the magazine to get good recommendations before Christmas. If you're a mystery reader and don't already subscribe to Suspense Magazine, I...

Photos from the LA & OC Book Launch Parties for "Other People's Baggage"

I'm back from a fantastic visit to southern California. I was in town for two book launch parties for the Other People's Baggage mystery novella collection with co-authors Diane Vallere and Kendel Lynn. We were at Traveler's Bookcase in Los Angeles on Thursday night, and at Mystery Ink in Huntington Beach on Saturday afternoon. What great bookstores! The events were a lot of fun. Here are a few photos.

And if you missed the parties but are interested in the book, more details about Other Peopl...

The Night of Writing Dangerously

I received a last-minute invitation to attend the NaNoWriMo Night of Writing Dangerously write-a-thon last night. So I scrapped my plans to try out a new recipe from the fabulous new Kris Carr cookbook, and headed to San Francisco!

The Night of Writing Dangerously serves the dual purpose of being a benefit to raise money for the Office of Letters and Light and providing a place where NaNoWriMo writers from all over the world can come together as a group to get to know each other and be in...

NaNoWriMo Halfway Point

Heading to a Berkeley cafe to write after voting. It's November 15th today. Halfway through November, meaning it's also halfway through National Novel Writing Month / NaNoWriMo.

I turned in the next Jaya Jones novel to my editor in October, so while she reads it this month, I'm using NaNoWriMo to experiment with a new project. I don't know yet if I'm succeeding, but I've got close to 30,000 words of a story. That puts me slightly ahead of schedule to reach 50,000 words by November 30.

Yes, 50,0...

The Next Big Thing

I've been tagged by mystery author Diane Vallere to answer the questions in this blog hop. Diane is one of the co-authors of my new project discussed below. 

Q: What's is the working title of your book?
A: Other People's Baggage, a collection of three interrelated mystery novellas that comes out December 3, 2012. My novella is Fool's Gold: A Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt Novella. It's a prequel to Artifact.

Q: Where did the idea come from for this book?
A: Mystery writers Diane Vallere, Kend...