Joyce Harmon's Blog, page 7

THE END

And there it is! A complete first draft of Bidding On Death!

(Oh, Jaaaaane, about that cover art…)

 

Back to work!

I’m just back from a refreshing mini-vacation, all ready to keyboard the thrilling conclusion to Bidding On Death. And Jane started work on the cover art, which is gonna be awesome!

The Engine Light rant

Today I drove in to the Big City for some shopping (okay, to Fredericksburg to trade in my CO2 canisters for my Sodastream, if you must know), and hurray – the engine light went off! My car had been sick, but now it was healed!

Seriously, I hate that stupid light. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of warning lights. The other warning lights. Because they make sense! They warn you about a specific problem and you know exactly what to do to fix the problem. You need to fill up the gas tank, you should add more oil, you ought to fasten your seat belt, and hey, did you mean to leave the lights on?

But the engine light? It sounds so serious, you know – OMG, the engine! Butbutbut – what's wrong with the engine? It doesn't say. So vague, and yet so ominous.

This is a recurring issue with my car (which is getting a trifle elderly, to tell the truth). Last fall, the engine light kept coming on, and the nice man at the garage couldn't find out why. He told me that 'ninety-nine times out of a hundred' the problem was something to do with emissions.

I hate having those conversations because I know I sound like a dithery little old lady. "But is it safe to drive?" And so on.

I had a break from these concerns through the winter; the engine light stayed off the whole time. So I didn't have to fret about 'service engine HOW soon, specifically?' But this week, the dreaded light turned back on.

Oh, hey!  I think I've solved it! Look at the evidence. Lots of engine light issues in the fall, which vanished in the winter and returned in the spring. I'll bet it's pollen! That's got to be it.

Yes — my car has allergies.

 

Argh! Anachronism!

I'm reviewing what I have so far on Bidding On Death (and no, I haven't written the ending yet – but I'm close), and just realized I'm going to have to change some stuff because it's taking place in 1998. (Why 1998? Because Died On The Vine takes place in 1996, that's why.)

You know what? It's not easy to write something that takes place in the recent past, and keeping ages and technology true to the era!

 

Marketing!

This week I'm spending more time marketing book one than writing book two (though I do see a vague shape looming ahead that appears to be the SOLUTION to book two,  so don't lose heart about that!) – I've been sending free copies of Died On The Vine to book bloggers who've expressed an interest in reading and reviewing it.

Did I miss anyone? Do you have a book blog and would like a review copy? If so, let me know!

I'm also seeing in all the marketing advice that I should make myself available for interviews, which makes me feel all self-conscious and rather silly. But hey – I guess I'm available for interviews as well.

 

The mystery writer’s lament

Why is it that it’s more fun to write about the heroine’s efforts to find a new home for the murder victim’s chihuahua than it is to write about her attempts to solve the murder?

The mystery writer's lament

Why is it that it's more fun to write about the heroine's efforts to find a new home for the murder victim's chihuahua than it is to write about her attempts to solve the murder?

WHY do I always wait till the last minute to deal with my taxes?

Every time! And honestly, all I have to do is round up all the bits of paper and take them to the Tax Guy. How hard is that?

Yet, every year, I tell myself, "this time I'll get my taxes in early", and every year, I'm racing around searching for the bits at the very last minute.

 

Best of the Ebooks – English Village Cozy

Whenever someone asks me what a 'cozy' mystery is, I tend to say it's a mystery with an amateur sleuth. Turns out that's an over-simplification. Oh, all right – it's not true. Sure, a lot of cozies have amateur sleuths, but not all. So what makes a mystery 'cozy'? I'm still working on that. What they're NOT, as a rule, is 'gritty'. Or 'noir'. Or hyper-violent. There's a focus on people and the relationships between them. There is often humor.

A good example of a mystery with professional sleuths that I would classify as a 'cozy' is this one – Death of an Old Git. It's set in an English village, a good hint that it's going to be cozy. The sleuthing pair is humorously mismatched, and the large suspect pool of village characters keeps you intrigued.

The titular 'Old Git' is Reg Morley, the most irritating man in Castle Farthing. Morley is a petty thief, a peeping tom, and a quarrelsome troublemaker whose hobby is making life miserable for as many people as possible. So when he turns up drugged and strangled, the problem for the authorities is – too many suspects!

Assigned to unravel the mystery is Detective Inspector Harry Falconer, well-educated, smooth and proud of his sartorial elegance. A manpower shortage teams him with well-meaning bumpkin Acting Detective Sergeant Carmichael. The assignment puts Carmichael in plainclothes for the first time in his career, and his garish, mismatched, and generally horrible attempts at plainclothes is just the first of the crosses Falconer must bear.

Death of an Old Git is available at Smashwords and all its affiliates, and also at Amazon. There are two more Falconer and Carmichael mysteries, which I've added to my Must Read list. And they're all just 99 cents apiece!

Etch-A-Sketch memories

The venerable Etch-A-Sketch being back in the news brings back childhood memories. We got an Etch-A-Sketch when they were newly released, the hot new must-have toy. (I know, I'm dating myself.)

Could anyone else draw with the darn thing? I sure couldn't. What I liked to do, though, was 'clear the board'. Anyone else do that?

What you did was draw a straight line across the board, then come back and draw another line parallel to the first one. If you're doing it right, you don't have two lines, you've just thickened and broadened the first line. Then you go back and forth doing the same thing, making your line broader and broader, clearing off the silvering from the entire screen.

It's a long and tedious process.  But once you have a large enough clearing – you can see inside! And you can watch the mechanism working.

For some reason, that always fascinated me. Not sure what it all means – you think there's a metaphor in there somewhere?