Annette Dashofy's Blog, page 2

Invisible Hitches and Glitches

Last weekend's Pennwriters Conference went off without a hitch. Mostly.

Having been a conference coordinator once a long, long time ago, I know there are lots of hitches and glitches behind the scenes. The trick is how you handle them. This year's coordinators handled them beautifully. I'd guess 99.9% of the attendees were unaware and were too busy having fun to notice. Smiling faces abounded.

I had a glitch of my own to contend with. After teaching two workshops on Friday, I had one more to go on Saturday afternoon, and it was the one that totally depended on a PowerPoint slide show. 

Friday night in my hotel room, I reached into my computer bag to pull out my laptop and was startled to feel how hot it was. Not scorching hot, but warmer than usual. Let me add that my beloved laptop is five years old, which seems to be their life expectancy. The battery no longer holds a charge, so I need to keep in plugged in when using it. 

Anyway, I decided to err on the side of caution and powered down the laptop to avoid unpleasant and smokey surprises in the middle of the night. 

Fast forward to Saturday afternoon. Prior to my third and final workshop of the conference, I went upstairs to boot up my laptop and load my PowerPoint presentation so that all I needed to do was plug it into the projector. 

I plugged it in and hit the power button. The lock screen popped up. I typed in my password...

...and the screen went black. I waited. Nothing. I rebooted. The same thing happened again. And again after the third start. I may have said some nasty words. 

The good thing is I was prepared. I had saved the PowerPoint to a flash drive. Even better, I remembered to stick it in my computer case! I shut down the laptop and headed downstairs, clutching my flash drive. 

My travel buddy, Liz Milliron, came to my rescue by lending me her MacBook. With a bit of help from our Pennwriters President/IT expert, I was up and running. And only a few people were aware of the momentary panic I'd suffered minutes earlier.

Lesson learned: ALWAYS have your workshop saved to a flash drive and ALWAYS keep said flash drive in your computer bag.

Epilogue: Sunday morning, my computer came back to life after being left plugged in a while. Apparently, the battery had been so dead, there wasn't enough juice to start it up, even when plugged in. 

My new laptop arrives tomorrow.  

Pennwriters Conference 2025

The Pennwriters Conference begins thisFriday, and I’m teaching three workshops, so right now, my focus is on makinglists, packing, and preparing my classes and handouts. I may not be writing,but I’m thinking about writing a lot. 

I do have more news to share. While I’vehad my doubts in recent months, it appears there will be two moreDetective Honeywell Mysteries coming out this year! I have release dates andtitles! But still no cover art. 

The third in the series will be TheDevil Comes Calling and will be released in eBook format on November 7,2025. The fourth will be out in eBook on December 19 and is titled No StoneLeft Unturned. Preorder links are starting to pop up sans the still-missingcovers, but I’m not promoting them until there’s something interesting to lookat. Call me superstitious. It simply never feels real until I have that coverart. 

I also got my developmental edits for NoStone Left Unturned, and they don’t look too daunting. I’ve put a hold ondrafting the fifth book of the series until I tackle these edits, because the waythey affect the ending will also affect the beginning of #5. As I said, I’mthinking. I also expect to feel reenergized and motivated after the conference.I always do. So, I’ll launch into those revisions as soon as I return home andcatch up on sleep.

  

Me? Guest of Honor???

I'm home from this year's Malice Domestic where a secret I've been bursting to tell everyone was revealed. 

I'm going to be next year's Malice Domestic Guest of Honor!

I have known since early March, but wasn't at liberty to say anything until it was officially announced at the end of this year's Agatha Awards Banquet. This is an amazing honor. When I look back over my collection of programs from past years and see the other authors who have held this title, I'm humbled. And gobsmacked. 

Adding to my excitement was learning that my good pal and fellow Agatha nominee (although she's actually brought the teapot home a few times), Ellen Byron, will be Toastmaster! It promises to be a fun weekend! 

I have a lot more news coming in the next days and weeks, but this is enough for one post. 

Just Another Day

How many times have I sworn I was going to post here more regularly? I've lost count. And yet, here we are, more than two months since I last wrote something for you. 

After 16+ books, I still find myself going down the same internal dialogue rabbit hole as I hear newbie, unpublished writers doing. I don't have anything interesting to say. What could I possibly write that anyone would want to read? My life is BORING.

For over ten years, I've had a new release coming out at least once a year, so there's been something to share. Cover releases, pre-order links, behind the scenes of a coming-soon novel. I recently realized, this is the longest I've gone without a new book since I started this journey. And I'm not happy about it. 

In my defense, my publisher has TWO of my manuscripts and is sitting on them. Meanwhile, I'm writing every day, so it's not like I've retired. 

In case you're wondering about my previous post, yes, I finished the synopsis and have sent it to my agent. 

Anyway, as I said, I don't have anything interesting to say. What could I possibly write that anyone would want to read? My life is BORING.

That will change a little next week, since I'm heading to Malice Domestic in Bethesda, Maryland. I'm not a nominee, so I'm looking forward to not dealing with the stress of hoping to hear my name announced at the banquet...and not. I'll be the fan girl, cheering on my friends and colleagues. 

I've been looking through photos from past years and enjoying the memories. 

                                        

Beyond that, each day is mostly just another day. Get up. Feed Kensi. Drink coffee. Write. Edit. Read. 

Wash, rinse, repeat. 

A few days have been a bit different. My husband got a new toy. 

Because my grandfather's Farmall that we've used to mow the pasture forever now refuses to start.

And there you have it. Just another day in the life of a hardworking writer. Oh, and I can't leave out the hardworking writer's cat.

Finish the Book!

For close to 20 years, anytime I've been asked to provide advice to aspiring writers, one of my bits of wisdom has been "Finish the book." So many newbie authors get wrapped up in perfecting the first chapter. Or the first three chapters. They tweak and rewrite and fiddle and fix ... and never get beyond those opening pages. Then they get a newer, better idea and start a new project, where they work to perfect those opening pages yet again. 

Wash, rinse, repeat. 

Which is why I strongly advise powering on and finishing the book. Honestly, those perfected first chapters will very likely end up needing drastic revisions once you get the entire story down. So, don't worry about perfection. Write the shitty first draft. Don't edit until you have a completed manuscript to work from.

This has been my advice. 

And now I'm defying it.

I'm working on a proposal for a new book that's been inside my brain for the better part of a year. In the last few months, I've started putting words on the page. I currently have 109 pages, which is quite a lot for a proposal. But I was in First Draft Mode. I know what the next few scenes are and am champing at the proverbial bit to let them play out.

Except, I've had to stop myself. DON'T finish the book. Not yet. Instead, I need to go back and perfect those opening chapters. Tweak, rewrite, fiddle, and fix. AND write a full synopsis.

Cue the hysterical screaming.

"I love writing synopses," said no author ever.

I confess, I've been procrastinating, tackling other tasks and chores. My brain is on page 110. I've written those thoughts, ideas, and snippets of dialogue in my outline notes. But I really really really want to keep drafting the book. 

Finish the book! 

This morning, I finally put aside my procrastination to-do list, opened a new document, and started creating a synopsis. The Cliff Notes version of this book. I must stick with it for one simple reason.

The only way I'm going to get to write the rest of this book is to finish the proposal, send it to my agent, fix it according to her suggestions, and let her sell the thing to a publisher. It's not my favorite part of the writer's life. But it's what I need to do.

The Dead of Winter

We are solidly in the DEAD of winter. Every year, I reach a point where I proclaim (or mutter or yell, depending), "I'm sick of winter." Surprisingly, it hasn't happened yet this year. All I need to do is look at the news about what the rest of the country is going through--California is burning, snow blankets New Orleans, the southern Atlantic coast is freezing--and then I look out my frosted windows at a mere few inches of snow, which is pretty mild by Pennsylvania standards. Yes, it hit -11 yesterday morning, but I didn't have to go anywhere. Neither did my semi-retired husband. Our furnace kept the house comfy. 

I have nothing worth complaining about. 

Granted, that rarely stops me. 

Today, I do need to set foot outside. I have kitchen scraps that need to go to the compost heap. I have a bag of trash that needs to go out to the can. I haven't made the stroll to the mailbox yet this week. But it's supposed to go "up" to 27 degrees, which will feel balmy. So, I'll wait a while and keep doing what I've been doing: writing the next book. 

Looking Ahead to 2025

There’s a lot up in the air for thecoming year. I have two books (#3 and #4 in the Detective Honeywell series)coming out, but I have no titles, no covers, no release dates. I blogged lastweek on Writers Who Kill about how the only thing we authors have control overis writing the next book. While I will be writing #5 in the series this year,it’s not due to my editor until December, which leaves me with some wiggleroom. As I teased in yesterday’s post, I have a plan. I’ve been outlining andstarting to draft a standalone novel. I’m calling it a domestic suspensewrapped up in a police procedural. My intention is to have opening chapters anda synopsis ready to hand over to my agent in March, so she can start shoppingit around. Then, in April, I can jump back into Matthias and Emma’s world forthe rest of the year.

I don’t have a lot on my “events” scheduleyet. In February, I’m doing a reading with my friend Bill Gormley in Pittsburgh,but I don’t have any real details yet. In April, there’s Malice Domestic and inMay there’s the Pennwriters Conference. So far, that’s about all I know forcertain. I hope to fly out to New Mexico again later this summer or early fall.

On a personal note, I’ve been slackingon the exercise routine, especially yoga, and I’m feeling it. With the husband nowretired, finding and keeping a routine has been a challenge. I will getthat worked out this year. Another personal goal is getting my house in orderon many levels. With fewer books to write, I intend to use a little of thattime to round up the Killer Dust Bunnies.

One of my past goals that I finallyaccomplished and continue to maintain is keeping ahead of my accounting. There’sa reason I’m a writer and not an accountant. I don’t math well. But I’ve scheduledtime twice a month to record all the income/expenses stuff, so tax time nolonger sends me into a panic. Yay me!

Happy New Year, everyone! 

Looking Back on 2024

For the last few years, I’ve beensaying I want—no, NEED—to slow down. I’ve been pumping out books as fast as Icould. Two or three a year. Now, I know writers who write even more than that,and I’m in awe. But for me, the old cliché “all work and no play” was wearingon me. Back on January 1 of 2024, I announced that I was taking measures to letme slow down. And I am. I’ve cut back on travel, although to be honest, a bigpart of that has to do with Kensi’s heart issues and the twice-a-day pill shegets. But the key measure I’ve taken involved turning down a three-bookcontract to continue the Zoe Chambers series.

Okay, don’t cry or send threateningletters. I turned it down FOR NOW. I did not burn bridges. I simply need abreak from multiple deadlines one after the other.

Also back on January 1, 2024, Imentioned a book deal sitting on my desk. As you probably already have heard,that was another three-book offer, this one for the Detective Honeywell series.I’ve already written two of those, which are in the pipeline. The first is thebook that was supposed to come out last week but is now on hold. The second hasbeen turned in to my editor. I expect both to be released later in 2025. I haveone more on that contract and it’s not due until December 1, 2025, leaving mewith plenty of time.

I’ll share my thoughts on what I’ll dowith that time in tomorrow’s “Looking Forward” post.

As for what else happened in my cornerof the world in 2024, I attended Malice Domestic where I received my seventhAgatha nomination and seventh loss. That’s okay. I’ve embraced the nominee role.

Simply the Best Panel: Agatha Best Contemporary
Novel nomineesI also attended and taught at the Pennwriters Conference. 

Dinner with friends at the
Pennwriters ConferenceI flew out to New Mexicofor the first time since before the pandemic to spend time with my dear friendLeta. I did a lot of local personal appearances, talks, book festivals, panels,etc. 

The Greater Pittsburgh Book Festival
Thrillers PanelI taught classes. I celebrated the release of What Comes Around,the 13th Zoe Chambers mystery and the only book I had come out thisyear.

Personally, as I mentioned, Kensicontinues to be a priority. She’s like the Energizer Bunny in that she keeps ongoing. And I treasure each furry moment with her.

The biggest change was my husband’sretirement. I should say partial retirement. After a month, he went back andcontinues to work two days a week, which keeps both of us sane.

As for what’s ahead in 2025? To becontinued…

 

An Early Resolution

Believe it or not, I'm still here! Hard to believe, but it's true. 

First, let me catch up a little. The third Detective Honeywell Mystery that was supposed to come out at the end of this week...isn't. I don't have a new release date. Or a title. Or a cover. 

Which is one reason I haven't posted here in ages. I've been anticipating having something to show for my efforts, but alas, have nothing. My publisher assures me it WILL be released but at a more opportune time than right after Christmas. 

Second, I do have a freebie for my newsletter subscribers. The password to access a brand new FREE Pete and Zoe short story will go out on Christmas Eve. If you aren't a subscriber, you should sign up now by clicking here and filling out the form.

And third, with all the crashing and burning of social media sites, I've decided to shift much of my attention to my blog and that newsletter. It's an early New Year's resolution. If you follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, or BlueSky, I'm still there, but less so. 

I will be here next week for my annual look back at the year we've just survived and then on January first to set my goals for 2025. 

Keeping Busy

When last I posted, my husband's retirement was imminent. Now, we're two months in and both of us are alive and well and still like each other. All good.

I took advantage of having him around by taking a trip to New Mexico in September, leaving Kensi and her pills in his (somewhat) capable hands. She wasn't happy, but he did succeed in getting the pills down her throat. Meanwhile, I had a lovely escape and a nice visit with my dear friend, Leta. It was a relatively short stay and we didn't do a lot of exploring, but we ate out several times including some of the best fish and chips I've ever had. Yes, fish and chips. In Durango, Colorado. Don't judge. I also had chile rellenos and quesadillas in Aztec, New Mexico. I just forgot to take pictures.

After a month of retirement, Hubby decided to go back to work. Parttime. Now, I have the house to myself for two days each week, which is working out well. 

I took two road trips earlier this month, again leaving Kensi with The Dad. First, I headed to Erie for Pennwriters' Writers Road Trip, a fun one-day conference where I taught two workshops. I also drove around the area, doing research for a future Honeywell mystery. Then I attended our Pittsburgh Sisters in Crime chapter's annual writers' retreat in Somerset, PA. Six women crime writers in an isolated mountain cabin. We got a lot of writing done and had a lot of laughs as well. 

But I'm done traveling for a while. Honeywell # 4 is due to my publisher on December 1, so my main focus is on giving the manuscript one final round of polish. I'm also teaching an online writing course for Pennwriters for the first four Saturdays in November. 

Yes, I'm definitely keeping busy.