Patricia Rice's Blog, page 2

Home again!

As reported last month, I was dreading a long trip and a conference. The conference is now over and I’m glad I pushed myself from my cozy nest. I had a lovely time, and I’m utterly wiped. Amazingly, I enjoyed talking with other authors far more than learning about promotion. Who knew? While I was there, I had new headshots taken. What do you think?

The conference sponsors encouraged us to put our books into our own stores on our websites—have you seen mine?

 

Traveling Post-Covid

Since the Covid shutdown, I have not attended any conferences or conventions. Most of the ones I used to attend are gone now. But I have a favorite writer’s conference I used to attend faithfully since the inception of the organization, and I miss my pals there. It’s held in Florida every year and flying east is a horrible hassle.

But this year, I’m going to take the dive and attend a very busy conference after all these years. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone. But when you haven’t done something for a long time, you forget how, right? There are so many details to remember and plan for and I’m already fretting that they’ll find me wandering around the airport, helpless, days later. Or that I’ll end up hiding behind a potted plant, because that’s what I do in crowds.

But the important point is. . . like my heroines, I’m gonna try. How about you? Are there things you’re afraid to try?

Critters, Rodents, and Vermin .��.��.

As I may have mentioned, we���ve always kept a vegetable garden. My spousal unit relaxes by beating hard soil with a hoe and ripping out and crushing dead stalks. Admittedly, the hunting and gathering of beautiful vegetables is soothing. Unfortunately, the beneficial side of gardening meets its match in rodent damage. I���m pretty certain the villain is a tree rat. He likes to taste all the tomato

Book cover for Magic in the Stars

es before hauling one off to his favorite eating spot.

I���ve managed to save enough tomatoes from the villain for salsa, but the ravaged seeds of salad tomatoes will be coming up all over the yard next year!

And a head’s up, for limited time only, my Victorian Scotland romance MAGIC IN THE STARS will be free at all retailers!

 

Critters, Rodents, and Vermin . . .

As I may have mentioned, we’ve always kept a vegetable garden. My spousal unit relaxes by beating hard soil with a hoe and ripping out and crushing dead stalks. Admittedly, the hunting and gathering of beautiful vegetables is soothing. Unfortunately, the beneficial side of gardening meets its match in rodent damage. I’m pretty certain the villain is a tree rat. He likes to taste all the tomato

Book cover for Magic in the Stars

es before hauling one off to his favorite eating spot.

I’ve managed to save enough tomatoes from the villain for salsa, but the ravaged seeds of salad tomatoes will be coming up all over the yard next year!

And a head’s up, for limited time only, my Victorian Scotland romance MAGIC IN THE STARS will be free at all retailers!

 

Current Writing News

  I have been effectively writing three books a year since I started writing full time back in the last century (I love the way that sounds. I’m historical now!). Because publishers are slow, a third of those words seldom saw the light of day until e-books came around.

Writing, I can do. The business part. . . I need the summer to catch up on.

That means The Dilemma of a Dead Scholar, Gravesyde Priory Book #6 won’t be out until January. It’s a better month for publishing and gives me a breather to catch up on business. And an excuse to really dig into the research on the spinoff to the series, which naturally doesn’t have a name yet!

In the meantime, sign up for my newsletter for FREE books, cover reveals, and SALES you won’t find elsewhere!

Timelines

While Making Stuff Up, I have eliminated an entire century. No one minds if I kill time, do they? You do? Oh, well, back to smashing words instead of atoms…

SUMMERTIME, AND THE LIVING IS . . .

You fill in the blank. Me, I love the warmth. I’ve been waiting for months for the coastal fog to lift so I can sit in my garden and write. I even prepared for it by buying a tablet I can write on in bright sun, one that translates my scribbles into text. (It does a pretty good job but it hasn’t figured out the difference between small and capital T’s yet.) But we went from foggy 60 to sunny 80 overnight, so I’m sitting in the shade. Life takes twists, you know?

If you had signed up for my newsletter, you could be reading about foot corpses and Regency drunks right now! And getting specials from my bookstore. . . The sign up is on the front page of the website, right beside this blog!

SUMMERTIME, AND THE LIVING IS .��. .

You fill in the blank. Me, I love the warmth. I���ve been waiting for months for the coastal fog to lift so I can sit in my garden and write. I even prepared for it by buying a tablet I can write on in bright sun, one that translates my scribbles into text. (It does a pretty good job but it hasn���t figured out the difference between small and capital T���s yet.) But we went from foggy 60 to sunny 80 overnight, so I���m sitting in the shade. Life takes twists, you know?

If you had signed up for my newsletter, you could be reading about foot corpses and Regency drunks right now! And getting specials from my bookstore. . . The sign up is on the front page of the website, right beside this blog!

Paris! Clothes! Panic!

According to astrology charts, I���m a Leo with a heck of a lot of Cancer in me. This means, among other things, that I���m a clothes horse who likes to be prepared. I am obsessed with colors, fabrics, and design, and if I���d had an iota of talent, I would have been a clothing designer. And now I am preparing for a tour of France, with nearly a week in Paris.��.��. the epicenter of clothing design. How can I possibly dare to sit in a restaurant or walk into a hotel there unless appropriately attired?

But my closet is sadly filled with a writer���s clothes, the shabby jeans and shorts I wear around the house.�� My travel clothes are basically what a friend calls landfill lining���unnatural fabrics that don���t wrinkle, in basic black.

Yes, I suppose I could buy a few elegant pieces while there, but there is very little point in buying clothes I���m unlikely to wear again. So this is me, panicking.��.��.

 

Whale Watching!

Ever try to take a picture of a sea lion feeding frenzy?

This time of year, off the SoCal coast, the whales are returning to Alaska from Mexico, and whale watching tours are a way of life. It���s fun to have a leisurely luncheon overlooking one of the harbors, then hop on a boat that takes you onto the whale highway. They���re never too far off the coast, which is why we have our local whale watching parade to celebrate their return.

So that���s what we did last week. The boats can locate sea creatures simply by watching where the pelicans and gulls are diving��� because that���s where the fish are. And wherever large schools of fish are, all the other creatures show up. The sea lions were in a feeding frenzy when we arrived. They look like giant slugs on shore, but in the water, those suckers are fast! Then, of course, the dolphins joined in. They are so graceful leaping through the waters, and they love to play in the boat���s wake. We were told that if we see a hundred on the surface, there are probably three times that many that we can���t see.

And then there they were��� the blows of three fin whales, the second largest creature on the planet! They���re not as graceful as the dolphins when they surface, but they are magnificent creatures. Of course, I didn���t even try to get photos. They���re gone before I can focus. I guess I need to learn to video���

Have you bought your copy of The Secrets of Wycliffe Manor yet? Book Three, The Bones in the Orchard, will be out in a few weeks. The books stand alone (unlike the dolphins and sea lions!) but it���s fun to watch the characters grow and the manor transform with them!