Josh’s Comments (group member since Jun 17, 2010)

Josh’s comments from the Q&A with Josh Lanyon group.

Antonella wrote: "1. a surprise package...
2. ... containing my first Advent calendar ever!
3. a long phone call from Australia where one of my best Italian friends is spending two months with her relatives which em..."

Oh so much goodness in this list!

Antonella, I was thinking of you as I read this article:

Issues such as free museums and safeguarding heritage are splitting the opinions of two officials in the Brothers of Italy party which swept to power in September

https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2022/...

The return of the Advent Calendar! :-D (Why do I feel like Steve Martin crowing about the new phone books?)

https://joshlanyon.blogspot.com/2022/...

Karen wrote: "It's the last day to vote in our January 2023 BOM poll. The winner will be announced tomorrow (11/29). Thanks to those who've already voted. :)

https://www.goodreads.com/poll/list/3......"

Oops. Did I miss it? Add one to Harper's column!

Karen wrote: "Josh wrote: "1 - When the holiday prep frenzy is behind us and everything is ready and prepared and the house is so cozy and festive and for five minutes or so, it feels like I'm living in a Hallma..."

Today is my BRACE YOURSELF HOW MUCH IS LEFT TO DO day.

It turns out, there is a LOT left to do.

Karen wrote: "Jordan wrote: "1. pizza (pepperoni & green peppers) and a bottle of Mexican Coca Cola
2. My fandom (Oh God, I just joined Tumblr this week... what have I done?!?! lol)
3. A good hairstylist... I mi..."

You are so right! That was the work of the Office Elf. I think it was one social media bridge too far, although every so often I pop in to post something.

Jordan wrote: "Josh wrote: "I've been pretty scarce the last couple of weeks, despite my best intentions.

I need to learn--well, l need to accept--that this time of year is very bad for writing. Not because I d..."

That's really the best way: consider the needs of the story. To do the story I'm planning, it's needs to stay tight and focused because there's more suspense (and mood) than plot. That's simply the kind of story it is.

Karen wrote: "Josh wrote: "... I'll be sporadic in my visits for the next week or so, but I'm planning to be back in time to read An English Murder by Cyril Hare
(I started it a couple of nights ago, and it's q..."

GULP.

The moment you realize YOU'RE the older generation. :-D

Marge wrote: "Josh wrote: "The story was originally published through Samhain, so it's kind of possible, you lost it from your device when Samhain went under. I believe they gave everyone warning that would like..."

Everything is relative. ;-D

Jordan wrote: "Josh wrote: "Jordan wrote: "I was wondering what Drew would do for a job after this. Part of me wonders if he might join the show. Getting published just to keep a job always seemed so ... I don’t ..."

I think it would be very uncomfortable. While Noah might not be the spiteful kind, Lionel seems like someone who might not always play fair. And I think Fraser would be working hard to lure Drew over to the dark side. ;-D

Jordan wrote: "Josh wrote: "Jordan wrote: "My first reactions, now that I’m already halfway through the story:

1. Fortune is a dick, but improving very very slowly
2. Noah is a jerk, and not improving
3. I want..."

I'm trying to remember where I read that. Innocents Abroad maybe? Anyway, yes. Pretty shocking.

Jordan wrote: "I was wondering what Drew would do for a job after this. Part of me wonders if he might join the show. Getting published just to keep a job always seemed so ... I don’t know, wrong, irritating, ter..."

He wouldn't have been fired, but it would be a pretty uncomfortable situation unless everyone was ultra civil and mature about everything, Which... sometimes that happens, but it doesn't seem like Lionel was inclined in that direction. Although, if he won Noah back, he might be more gracious,

This remains one of those books that I always wish I had time to go back and write a sequel to. I had a lot of fun ideas for the next one.

Even I can't explain how some plans for books get so derailed.

Marge wrote: "Goodreads tells me I'd read this book back in 2014 and gave it five stars, but I couldn't find it anywhere on my computer or in my Nook cloud. So, thanks Josh for making it 2.99 so I could get it! ..."

The story was originally published through Samhain, so it's kind of possible, you lost it from your device when Samhain went under. I believe they gave everyone warning that would likely happen, but...

Karen wrote: "I re-listened last night. I'm also going to reread the ebook. It's very well narrated, but I'd forgotten how Sean Crisden's voicing of Fraser kind of makes him sound like a big goofball, but ultima..."

If they weren't sleeping together before, they would almost certainly be sleeping together by the end of that evening.

In fairness, Drew would have accelerated that (maybe inevitable) progression with his ultimatum.

Jordan wrote: "My first reactions, now that I’m already halfway through the story:

1. Fortune is a dick, but improving very very slowly
2. Noah is a jerk, and not improving
3. I want Drew to eat something and v..."

Also, yes, about the preservation of the mummy. Yikes. The early years of archeology were a lot more like treasure hunting than protecting and preserving the past.

But, in fairness, it wasn't just on one side. Horrifyingly, at the time the mummy would have been acquired by the museum, ancient mummies were literally being burned in Egypt for firewood.

Jordan wrote: "Not sure how I feel about Noah having dinner with Lionel just yet. I mean, there's nothing wrong with him having dinner with someone else while he's home alone. There's no reason why he can't have ..."

I totally agree about Noah having dinner with Lionel. At least in theory. But Drew's instinct is probably correct. That in the case of Noah and Lionel, having dinner is probably, inevitably going to be about more than breaking bread.

And of course it doesn't help that Lionel is openly antagonistic to Drew.

1 - When the holiday prep frenzy is behind us and everything is ready and prepared and the house is so cozy and festive and for five minutes or so, it feels like I'm living in a Hallmark movie. :-D

2 - Checking another something off that never-ending eternal LIST OF THINGS TO DO

3 - Starting to--cautiously, carefully--plan for 2023

4 - A health scare with one of the sibs that seems to maybe be a warning rather than a catastrophe? Warnings are good. You can work with warnings. You can learn from warnings.

5 - The pleasure of unwrapping fragile, forgotten Christmas ornaments

Jordan wrote: "5. writing... when it flows well. ..."

Isn't THAT the truth! ;-D

https://joshlanyon.blogspot.com/2022/...

A couple of developments since this blog.

1 - I'm going to go ahead and do the Advent Calendar this year.

2 - Thanks to the very kind intervention of Deb McGowan at In Road Publishing, FATAL SHADOWS: THE COLLECTOR'S EDITION has been beautifully formatted for digital and is now up for preorder everywhere but Amazon.

(It'll be live on Amazon on December 15th.)

Jordan wrote: "mwana wrote: "Josh wrote: "Jordan wrote: "Wow, since I'm logged into my Google account, Blogger didn't ask me to do any jumping through hoops to comment. Nice!"

Ha! Blogger is kind of crazy as far..."

I started out strong, but as previously mentioned, this is NOT a good time of year to take on another challenge. I'm already doing 500 words a day on Puzzle for Two as well as working slowwwwwly on Lament for Loon Landing.

But even though my Nano progress has slowed, it's been really helpful in getting me to break the ice of the blank first page, but also for forcing me to think through the story. So regardless of whether I hit the Nano goal (well, I won't because for one thing, this story is no way 50,000 words long), I know I'll be finishing this one up early in 2023--in fact, I've already talked to Kale Williams about narrating it.