Annette Dashofy's Blog, page 7

I'm Back. Again.

Somehow, I've once again managed to let several months fly by without checking in here. I could offer up a multitude of excuses, all valid, but instead, let me just do a quick catch-up. 

The garden did extremely well but is done now. 

I've been kept busy doing both in-person and virtual book events. It's been wonderful seeing people in 3-dimension instead of just in a little box on a computer screen.

I got to interview my good friend Liz Milliron during her launch party for Harm Not the Earth at Mystery Lovers Bookshop

Hanging out with Jennifer Diamond after I presented the keynote at the Festival of Books in the Alleghenies
Doing a reading at the Festival of Books in the Alleghenies

One day in September, we had waterfront property, courtesy of Hurricane Ida. Thankfully, the floodwaters didn't quite make it to the house.

Earlier this month, I released my second indie-published book. Not a full-length novel, but instead, a collection of short stories featuring the characters from the Zoe Chambers mysteries.

If you subscribe to my newsletter, you may have already read them. But if you missed one or if you want them all in one place OR if you know of someone who might like a quick read as a Christmas gift, Crime in the Country is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or just about anywhere. You can go to my website and choose your preferred vendor. (Note: you can also support indie booksellers and receive a SIGNED copy if you order from Mystery Lovers Bookshop! Just sayin'.)

Looking ahead, Death By Equine has been picked up by Tantor Media and will come out in AUDIO in March! 

It's also going to be available on the Scream app from Crazy Maple Studio. I'm still learning about this new platform for readers, so stay tuned for updates. 

In the slightly nearer future, there's NaNoWriMo. Last year, I participated and completed a first draft of what will be the next Zoe Chambers mystery, coming Spring of 2022. THIS year, I'm again participating with the hopes of completing the first draft of the manuscript that was placed on the back burner this summer. It still isn't under contract, but I want to see how the story plays out!

Once again, I'm determined to post here more often. Keeping you updated on my NaNoWriMo goals and accomplishments should motivate me!

The Week in Review

As I wrote last month, I was starting a new proposal for a new book and new series. On July 5, I turned those three chapters and a synopsis in to my agent. By the end of that week, she returned them to me with edits. Early this week, I sent the corrections to her along with the other assorted material needed for her to create her query. On Tuesday, she started sending it out to our first tier of editors.

 

Which places me back in the position of waiting for the new round of rejections to roll in.

 

Now you may think I’m sounding defeatist. In truth, I’m anything but. What I am is a realist. I’m shooting for the stars with some of the publishers we’re targeting. This isn’t my first rodeo. I know the story and/or my writing won’t appeal to everyone. There’s no avoiding it. There will be rejections.

 

However, there are a few of those publishers that keep me crossing my fingers.

 

The other thing that kept me occupied this week was More Than Malice, a virtual conference organized to fill the void (and hopefully the coffers) of the now twice canceled Malice Domestic. I was thrilled and honored to be invited to take part.

My panel, “Nice Work if You Can Get It,” also included Hank PhillippiRyan, Tori Eldridge, Brad Thor, and Marcia Clark (of the O.J. Simpson trial fame). We recorded it a couple of weeks ago, which is good because we had some hefty storms here yesterday just prior to its airing. The whole thing was wildly fun.

 

And last night, the Agatha Awards were given out. You would think since I wasn’t nominated this year, I’d have been totally relaxed. But I was still on the edge of my seat, applauding the nominees, cheering my friends, and congratulating the winners.

 

The hugs and celebratory toasts will have to wait until next year. 

Mental Health Day, July 2021

Following up on my previous post, I completed the three chapters and synopsis for another new series proposal and just clicked "send" so it will be waiting in my agent's inbox when she returns to her office tomorrow. 

Saturday, I took another mental health day. I can't even disguise it as a research trip. My husband and I took a day trip east to the Laurel Highlands' Amish Country. 

We did a little shopping and then turned south into Maryland. We had lunch at Penn Alps and then wandered around a while.

It was odd that this is a place I had visited once long ago for a quilt show, but he had never been there. Often, we think there isn't any place within a two-hour drive we haven't seen. More than once. 

We thought wrong. 

After a full day of seeing new sights, we came home exhausted but relaxed. 

Now I'm buckling down to finish another round of revisions on the next Zoe Chambers mystery. And somewhere in the back of my mind, I'm noodling over the plot for the NEXT one. 

Always Beginning, Never Ending

Any time I've been asked to give a keynote address or inspiration talk or been asked for my advice to beginning writers, I've always said the same thing. 

Finish the book. 

So many aspiring novelists get a great idea and start writing. A few chapters in, they get bored or bogged down. Maybe they fall out of love with the idea and come up with a better one. They put the project aside and start a new one. A few chapters later, they encounter the same roadblock to completion. 

These aspiring novelists can have several partials sitting on their computer, but they never reach THE END. And guess what. If you don't have a completed manuscript, even a crappy one, you have nothing to polish and nothing to submit to an agent or editor. 

Hence, FINISH THE BOOK.

Now, eleven published novels in, I've encountered the other side of the coin. As a proven author, all I need these days is a proposal. Three chapters, a synopsis, and a marketing plan. 

For my first couple of proposals, I thought the synopsis was the hard part. And it is! But as the rejections roll in, I'm now expected to create another proposal. No, don't finish that last book. Start a new one. 

What the heck?

After investing months of research and plotting...after getting to know my new characters and hearing them in my head in the wee hours, I now have to put them on hold for goodness only knows how long and start over.

Yes, I know. I can write and self-publish it. A smaller press may want it. But FOR NOW, I've put the story and the characters on the back burner.

I've plotted out yet another story. Created histories for a new set of characters. This week, I started with Chapter One yet again. I love my new protagonist and can't wait to get to know her better. But all I need right now are three chapters and a synopsis.

What I want is to FINISH THE BOOK. 

On the Road Again...Sort of

The last time I traveled was to Dallas in late 2019. While I had plans for lots of trips in 2020, we all know what happened to those.

I had a list of things I wanted to do and places and people I wanted to visit as soon as it was possible. Now that we're fully vaccinated, I've been checking those items off. 

One of the places I longed to return to was Lake Erie and Presque Isle State Park in Erie, PA. I had enough points earned for a free night in a hotel. I made my reservations.

Plans started looking hinky a week ago when Hubby came down with a cold. I was on the verge of canceling, but by mid-week, he was feeling much better. He wanted to go. So I packed. 

Friday, friends we were supposed to meet up with for Saturday dinner got called away on a family emergency. 

Still, we went. 

The weather was lovely. 

There was a Hudson car show in our hotel's parking lot. 

I want one. 

Another friend had arranged for me to meet an Erie detective and tour the police department. Since I'm currently working on TWO proposals for new series and both are at least partly set in Erie, I was excited to delve deeper into my research.

I left Hubby to explore the Maritime Museum and took my tour. I got lots of great info and answers to my questions. 

Erie Police Department

With that done, we were free to spend the rest of the weekend having fun. 

Except in the wee hours of Saturday night, I started feeling crappy. Hubby's cold finally caught up to me. We checked out at 6:30 Sunday morning and were home three hours later. 

I haven't yet mentioned Kensi. She has embraced the idea of having her human home all the time. She was not exactly happy when we abandoned her. As soon as I dumped the contents from my backpack, she climbed in. And this is the expression I've been dealing with ever since. 

I do have more travel plans coming up this fall. And I want to take another weekend trip to Erie once I'm sniffle-free to make up for what I didn't accomplish this weekend.

Sorry, Kensi.

Gardening

As I write this, it's chilly and rainy outside. But for a few days AFTER the dove family moved off my porch and BEFORE the weather turned ugly, I jumped in and got some outdoor work done.
We lowered the porch swing and power-washed it, the porch, and the other outdoor furniture. It looks good if I do say so myself! I also hit the greenhouse and bought some herbs and veggies...and a few flowers. 
The gutters had fallen off our old horse barn. Rather than scrap them, my husband and I came up with the idea of using them for my herb garden. We spray-painted them copper and nailed them up on the framework of the side porch. I planted oregano, thyme, dill, cilantro, parsley, and two kinds of basil. I need to get more dirt to finish filling the gutter/planters, but so far, so good. In my cold frame, the lettuce is about ready to be harvested and the spinach will be ready in a few more weeks. My husband planted tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, peppers, onions, and beets in the regular garden. 
I haven't gotten my impatiens planted yet. I have to wait for a break in the rain. But at least everything is getting watered in really well!
And while it rains, I'm writing a new book! More on that soon.

Empty Nester

During a warm spell last month, I decided to get my front porch ready for outdoor living. We always load our outside furniture onto our oak porch swing up for winter storage and hoist it all up to the porch roof. When I stepped outside one spring day, a mourning dove made a dramatic exit from that stored furniture. Closer inspection revealed not only a hastily thrown-together stick nest but two eggs. 

Well, crap. I couldn't very well disturb them. Even simply coming and going through our front door sent Mama screeching off the nest. 

We started using the side door. Not really a hardship. It's closer to the garage anyway. And the spring weather gave way to a resurgence of winter and rain, so it wasn't like we were missing out on lovely evenings on the porch swing. 

I kept an eye on the nesting mama bird, and she kept an eye on me. 

The eggs hatched without my knowing, since I was trying to avoid scaring the skittish dove. Next thing I knew, there was a baby bird!

But was there only one?

Nope. Both eggs had hatched and both baby doves looked quite healthy. 

Yesterday, Mama Dove decided the babies were old enough and left the nest. The little ones gradually made their way out of the sticks and all the way to the back of the porch swing.

By evening, they moved to the porch railing where they were still perched before dawn this morning. 

When the sun came up, they were gone. 

Have a great life, baby doves! 

Meanwhile, now that I'm an empty nester, I'm reclaiming my porch swing...after I power wash it.   

Release Day!

It's finally here. 

Over the last few years, I've averaged a book release every 8 or 9 months. The time from story concept to publication has been reasonably short. My first published novel, Circle of Influence, took seven years to make it from me typing "Chapter One" to finding a publisher to hitting the bookstore shelves. 

Death by Equine has languished for SIXTEEN years. I wrote it a couple of years before Zoe and Pete hatched in my brain. I signed with an agent for it. It didn't sell. The agent and I parted company. I put it aside, started, and completed Circle. Another agent expressed interest in Equine (although it was called something else back then. Even the title has been on a twisty path to publication). Zoe and Pete were shoved to the back burner while I revised Equine. Still nothing happened publication-wise. I put it away once again, found a publisher for Zoe and Pete, and never looked back.

Sort of.

Every so often, someone who'd read and/or critiqued an early version would ask me about that racetrack mystery. Never wanting to say never, I hemmed and hawed and kept dodging the question.

After Til Death, the 10th of the Zoe Chambers mysteries came out and my contract was up, I puzzled over what was next. I decided it was time to revisit Dr. Jessie Cameron and the old racetrack mystery. 

After passes through my critique group and freelance editor, I deemed Death by Equine ready for primetime. And for my first foray into indie publishing. 

Here we are. Release day! Jessie, Meryl, Greg, and Daniel have set out into the world. So far, the early reviews have been encouraging. 

If you haven't read it, I hope you will. If you have read it, I hope you liked it. 

Now, back to work on the next Zoe Chambers mystery.

Books!

The arrival of THE box of books--the first bulk order or the first shipment from a publisher--is always a reason for celebration. 

Death by Equine is my eleventh novel, but this part of the process never gets old. 

The official release date is less than a week away. If you haven't registered for my launch party, hosted by Mystery Lovers Bookshop on Zoom, you should do so now. You can order a signed or inscribed copy there while you're at it.

The Triple Crown

For those of you who aren't familiar with horseracing, the first leg of the Triple Crown is tomorrow (Saturday, May 1). With the exception of last year, which was...after all...LAST YEAR...the Kentucky Derby is run on the first Saturday of May. It holds the distinction of being the longest-running sporting event in the United States, dating back to 1875.

My personal history with the race doesn't go back quite that far. As a horse-crazy kid, I'm sure I've watched it every year since I was born, thanks to my dad, who was a sports aficionado. But my first memory of it was 1971 when a longshot by the name of Canonero II came charging from the rear of the pack to win. 

Everyone thought it was a fluke. Until he repeated the feat to win the Preakness, which is the second leg of the Triple Crown and is run two weeks after the Derby. Not a lot of time for a horse to rest up between races. It had been 25 years since the world had seen one horse sweep all three races. I remember the excitement and expectation when three weeks later, everyone waited to see Canonero II, no longer a longshot, take on the longer distance of the Belmont Stakes, the third of the Triple Crown races.

Alas, he did not win. In fact, he finished fourth. 

Such is horseracing. 

We did finally get another Triple Crown winner two years later in the form of the mighty Secretariat. His Belmont Stakes win is the most incredible thing I'd ever seen and remains so. It still reduces me to tears, watching that beautiful animal run.  

Will there be a Triple Crown winner this year? We'll all have to wait and see, but I doubt it. What I've learned during my time working with Thoroughbreds while researching Death by Equine is how many factors play into (and against) the chances of one horse winning three grueling races within five weeks.

It makes the race captured in that video all the more impressive.