Annette Dashofy's Blog, page 9

Looking Ahead...2021

I gave up making resolutions decades ago. Those wishes that sound good on January first but that have no solid plan to accomplish. "I want to lose weight" or "I want to get published" just don't work without hard work and deadlines.

Last year, I made plans and goals and...well...we all know what happened there too! 

This year? I have a combination of concrete goals and hopeful plans. My goals look like a production schedule. 

January - send manuscript to freelance editor, start drafting new manuscript, contact cover artist about the manuscript being edited, continue second draft of the next Zoe mystery.

February - receive manuscript back from editor and begin final rounds of revisions, continue drafting new manuscript and second drafting next Zoe mystery, solidify cover art, begin putting marketing plan in place.

I was going to go on, but frankly it's boring. Besides, you get the idea. Concrete goals are the things I know I can do to move the process ahead. They also include stuff like preparing the book proposal for the new book while I'm still working on its first draft and collaborating with my agent on that proposal. I have plenty to keep me focused on what I can do instead of lamenting what I can't.

As for the hopeful plans, those are dependent on how soon I can get the vaccine and what conferences actually get to happen this year. Malice Domestic, the Pennwriters Conference, and Bouchercon are on my hopeful-plans list. 

I'm not all work and no play though. During all the nonsense of 2020, I rediscovered my meditation practice. I intend to keep up with that. And I intend to drag out my old Nikon DSLR and see if it still works. I've been using my phone's camera lately, but I think it's time to get back to my old photography passion. And I really hope to be able to take my annual trip to New Mexico at some point this year.

That's what I'm looking forward to in 2021. What's on your list?

Looking Back: 2020

I've been dragging my feet about writing this post. Let's face it. Most of us would much prefer to forget about 2020 rather than look back at it. But I don't think we can do a good job of looking forward without acknowledging what we've been through.

I released two books in 2020. Under the Radar came out in late February. I had lots of travel plans, book festivals, mystery conferences, and book signings lined up. I managed to squeak in my launch party, a joint event with pal Liz Milliron at Mystery Lovers Bookshop. 

But the rest of my plans fell, one by one, like dominos. 

My second 2020 book, Til Death, came out in June. 

My launch party and subsequent appearances were virtual. My sales took a hit, but not as bad as I'd anticipated. Folks were stuck at home and reading more. Plus, with no travel expenses, my finances balanced out. 

Still, my writing career seemed to be in freefall for much of the year. Til Death was the last book of my contract. As I wrote it, I thought it might be the end of the Zoe Chambers series, so I wanted to wrap up all the threads for my loyal readers. However, I left the door open for more. Never say never. 

I'd hoped to sign with an agent I'd been communicating with for several years. COVID changed all that. The hoped-for offer of representation fell through. With no contract, no agent, and no deadlines, I floundered. I started querying other agents and received some lovely rejections, but they were still rejections. I tried making a plan. Actually, several. Plans A, B, C, and D. 

Finally, near the end of October, I received an offer of representation and signed with an agent I adore! She got busy and landed me a three-book contract for more Zoe mysteries, which I signed at the end of November. As is so often the case...at least in my writing journey...everything moves at a snail's pace and then BAM! 

I'm ending the year on a high note professionally. I once again have a contract and deadlines. I think I'm on Plan E at this point. 

No, 2020 did not go as I'd expected. I suffered the loss of a dear friend (I miss you, Ramona) and watched several friends and family members battle (and thankfully survive) COVID. But I'm still here. Tomorrow starts a new year and I'll post about my goals for 2021 then. 

Happy New Year's Eve!   

Happy Winter Solstice

I can't bring myself to celebrate winter. I've never skied. My sledding and inner-tubing days are long behind me. I used to attempt skating, but the memories of landing on my backside keep me from ever trying it again. 

Nope, I don't do winter. 

But I love Winter Solstice. It's about looking forward to more hours of daylight. This is it. We've bottomed out on the darkness quotient and are heading toward spring!

We had snow last week. It was pretty. Yes, although I don't do winter, I can appreciate the beauty of Mother Nature painting the world in black and white. 

Ask me again in January or February (or March!) and I won't have anything nice to say about snow. But it's the week leading up to Christmas, so I'm okay with it.

Ha! As if I get a say!

The longest year in the history of the world is winding down. I'm cautiously optimistic about the New Year, although I have no illusions about things suddenly becoming rosy just because the ball drops at midnight. It'll take a while, but hopefully, the vaccine will gradually bring us back to something resembling our old normal. 

As for me, I'm working on another round of revisions for the racetrack mystery. I'm also still juggling title ideas for it. On January 2nd, I'll ship it off to my editor. Also in January, I'll start working with my cover artist. This will be my first self-published book, so I'm excited and nervous about the process. Lots of unknowns. 

I'm also starting the first major round of revisions on Fatal Reunion, the next Zoe Chambers mystery. And soon, I'll get back to drafting the first in the new Lake Erie Mysteries series! I'm excited to get to know this new cast of characters.

Those are my plans for the immediate future. Oh, by the way, I'll be sending out a newsletter on Christmas Eve, and it will contain the password to access a brand new Pete and Zoe short story on my website! If you haven't subscribed to my newsletter yet, go here and do it now! If you sign up before the 24th, you'll get twice the free short stories, because there's one on the Subscribers Only page now and the password will come to you in the welcome email. Then you'll get the new one on Thursday.

Happy Solstice and happy reading!  

At Long Last

In writing and in life, patience is not only a virtue, it's a survival necessity. Being doggedly stubborn also helps.

Almost twenty years ago, when we last had the roof on our log cabin replaced, I wanted GREEN. Preferably green steel. But the menfolk in my family solidly refused and I ended up with brown shingles. 

Blah.

I'm not usually a nag, but ever since, every time I see a green roof on a log home, I point it out to my husband in the most obnoxious manner possible. Believe me, he got the point. 

Three years ago, we installed new entry and storm doors. I insisted on green for the storm doors. So they'd match the green steel roof I would one day have.

Two years ago, we had a garage built next to our house. It was my husband's dream, and I let him pick all the details...except for the color. And yes, the roof was green steel so it would match the green steel roof I would one day have on the house as well.

This spring, we had a horrendous hailstorm. It put huge divots in the garage roof and pounded the heck out of our ugly brown shingles. 

Yesterday, we got new roofs on both the garage and the house. The garage looks exactly the same, minus the hail dents. But the house? I am thrilled to announce at long last, I got my green steel roof!   

Before...
And after!

Patience and dogged determination win again!

Not According to Plan...

My much-anticipated writing retreat didn't quite go off as planned. I lost two days helping a friend deal with a family health emergency (NOT COVID) and then Hubby returned home early from his hunting trip. As a result, I had only one full day of blessed solitude to write.

I did, however, make good use of it. I completed a very rough first draft of Fatal Reunion (Zoe Chambers #11) as well as another round of polish to the thoroughbred racetrack mystery I plan to release in May 2021. 

I had one other "distraction" but it was a good one. Yesterday, I signed a three-book contract with Level Best Books to continue the Zoe series! I'm thrilled to have found a home for the Monongahela County gang. It will be a while (spring 2022) before Fatal Reunion hits the bookstore shelves, but such is the publishing business. 

As for NaNoWriMo, I did not technically "win." But seeing as I managed to produce a completed manuscript, I definitely don't see it as a loss. Would I ever do it again? I doubt I'll have the opportunity since I'm back under contract and working with a production schedule that probably won't allow me to block off a month to JUST WRITE. There are all those other pesky tasks like revising and marketing and promoting that normally eat up chunks of my day. 

Today? Yeah. We have snow. I'm thinking it's a good time to settle in with a book. 

Thanksgiving Retreat

 I hope you had a nice Thanksgiving. Yes, it was definitely different this year, but it was still nice. There was just my husband, his mom, and me. And plenty of food. 

As is the family tradition, this morning, Hubby and the Nephew headed off to hunting camp. That will be different too since there will only be three men sharing the camp. 

Meanwhile, I have set aside the next few days as my own personal writing retreat. No packing, no driving. Just me, Kensi, and my computer.

And a big pot of chili. Hubby dislikes the stuff, so once a year, I cook up a batch and eat it until the hunters return home. 

My plan is to use the retreat template my dear friend Ramona Long used when we all gathered at the Clare House near Philly. 

The Retreat House


Retreat buddies, Martha Reed 
and Edith Maxwell
My writing space on retreat

Meditation and some yoga in the morning. Coffee and breakfast. Writing. Coffee and lunch. A walk. Writing. Maybe a nap. More writing. Supper. During and after supper, there would be wine and socializing with the other retreaters. No socializing. Instead, I'll be reading. And wine is more fun with friends, so I'll probably finish the apple cider instead.

Home sweet home writing retreat

My goal is to complete the first draft of Fatal Reunion, the eleventh Zoe Chambers mystery, and to polish the final chapters of the standalone racetrack mystery to send to my critique group on Sunday. I might even start giving some thought to the next WIP. 

As for NaNoWriMo, I'm going to be shy of my 50,000 words, but I will have a completed manuscript, which really was the reason for signing up. I call that a win. 

I'm Back!

I tried using the blog feature on my website, but it's just not working for me. I'm still at Writers Who Kill, although only once a month now. And things are starting to happen in my world, so here I am. 

At some point late in October, I decided to do NaNoWriMo AKA National Novel Writing Month. The idea is to write a complete 50,000-word novel in one month. It happens every November, and while I've used the group energy to boost my word counts in the past, I've never done it on an official basis before. Two incentives pushed me into it. One: I needed a distraction from the political overload steamrolling our way in November. Two: I was 35,000 words into my current manuscript and was floundering. I figured 50K more would give me a completed first draft. 

As of right now, I'm at almost 42,000 NaNo words (77,000 manuscript words) and the end is in sight. 

In other news...

Right after signing up for NaNoWriMo, I signed with an agent! Dawn Dowdle of Blue Ridge Literary is now representing me! It's such a relief to be able to hand over the reins to that part of my writing business. Plus, she's been querying the 11th Zoe Chambers Mystery, since I'm no longer under contract with my old publisher and within a couple of weeks, we've had TWO offers! I have until the end of the month to make up my mind, although I'm pretty sure I know what direction I'm going. 

Stay tuned! 

 

  

New Kid on the Murderous Block

Life and deadlines have kept me from posting here lately. Seems I need a deadline to get anything done. Well, I have one now. I'm the new kid in the group blog, Writers Who Kill and today is my first post there.

I'll continue to post every other Sunday, and I hope you'll follow me and the rest of the group.

Today's post is about Selective Deafness--sifting through the noise and clutter of life to find what's really important.

April Update

My Uneasy Prey blog tour is pretty much done, but the links are still up on my website if you want to see what you missed. I do have a couple more guest spots coming up including this Friday with the Wicked Cozies... always a fun stop!

This morning I turned in my revisions for Cry Wolf , the next Zoe Chambers Mystery coming this September. And I'm working on the NEXT next Zoe Chambers Mystery.

In my "spare time" (cue the laughter), I'm updating my "Avoiding Emotional Cliches" workshop, which I'll be teaching this Saturday at the Writers Project Runway IV conference in Leesburg, Virginia. If you're a writer or aspire to be, you should check this out. It's an awesome line-up.
And we'll be signing books later in the afternoon, so if you're in the area, stop by!

New Release and a Great Deal

It's been a crazy busy couple of months leading up to TODAY. Uneasy Prey is now available! It felt like a long time coming for this one, and I'm pretty proud of it.

"From USA TODAY bestselling author Annette Dashofy, comes the latest in her multi-award-nominated Zoe Chambers mystery series. And this one’s a page-turner.

On the way to the emergency room, an elderly woman regains consciousness long enough to inform paramedic Zoe Chambers that her fall down the basement steps was no accident. Before she can say more, she succumbs to her injuries, launching Zoe and Police Chief Pete Adams into the investigation of a burglary ring targeting the area’s vulnerable senior citizens.
Zoe—in spite of Pete’s objections—takes it upon herself to act as protection detail after the con men, disguised as water company employees, set their sights on Zoe’s beloved former landlady. It’s a decision that eventually puts Zoe in harm’s way.
With Zoe already recovering from one close call, Pete must race against time to stop the crime ring—and a dangerous killer—before they strike again."
Sound interesting? You can order it through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and iBooks. 
Want a signed copy? Email info@mysterylovers.com and request one. 

Or maybe you're new to the series and want to see where it all began. Well, you're in luck. For a VERY limited time (until Thursday, March 29) Circle of Influence is available for 99 cents in all e-book formats: Kindle, Nook, Kobo, or iBooks. 
Happy reading!