Getting ready for NaNo

Stacked to Death: Who is the Stacks S... Guest post at Whitley Gray’s blog!

Getting ready for NaNo

This will be my third year of NaNoWriMo. Yep, I’ve signed up again. Every year when it’s over I think, “I’m not sure I ever want to do this again!” But when the following year rolls around, I find that I have something that I want to get written. Both Researched to Death (Jamie Brodie Mystery #4) and Psyched to Death (#6) began as NaNo projects.

This time I’ll be writing #9, with the working title of Talked to Death. Jamie, Liz and Jon are presenting a talk on the use of library research in law enforcement at the California Library Association annual meeting; Pete is there to cheer them on. The conference takes place in Oakland, at a big hotel/conference center. The victim is one of the presenters, a library director disliked by nearly everyone who knew him. All kinds of people had motive and opportunity – but who actually killed him?

Talked to Death takes place over the shortest period of time of all the books so far – 48 hours. I got the idea for it a year ago, when I was at a conference myself, sitting in the hotel lounge, watching all the different groups of people interact. I think a conference is a great place for a murder.

Before November 1 I’m finishing the rough draft of Stoned to Death, which follows the just-published Stacked to Death. I’ll set Stoned to Death aside for the month of November then return to it once NaNo is over.

I think it’s time to update the list of Jamie’s adventures…

1. Cited to Death

2. Hoarded to Death

3. Burdened to Death

4. Researched to Death

5. Encountered to Death

6. Psyched to Death

7. Stacked to Death

8. Stoned to Death – tentative publication date February 2015

9. Talked to Death

10. Avenged to Death

11. Played to Death (that title may change to Scored to Death)