family time – Mystery Deb

My Two Favourite Things

Those who’ve been following my blog a while know that my two favourite things in the world are writing and family time. Reading is a close third. Happily, I’ve been enjoying a lot of those activities these past couple of weeks.

As I write the second installment in my urban fantasy trilogy, I occasionally go back and tweak something in the first book. It’s hard to completely put it away. I submitted the first 5,000 words to a writing competition, so needless to say, I went through those pages thoroughly. I’ve also signed up with QueryTracker to help find agents, and submitted my first query yesterday. So, the journey has begun.

I’ve worked with two agents in the past, one in Canada and the other in the U.S. Both were sole operators. The first agent helped me edit my very first book, Taxed to Death, (now out of print) in the mid-1990s. The second agent I acquired around 2008 did no editing but she did receive encouraging responses from large publishers for The Opposite of Dark. I’m looking for larger, more established firms this time. It’ll be a long process, I expect, but I have enough on the go to keep me preoccupied. If I don’t find an agent or a publisher, that’s okay, too. I’ll likely self-publish the trilogy at some point. So, regardless of what happens, it’s all good.

On the family front, we celebrated Easter at our house this year, and held my granddaughters’ first Easter egg hunt. I hid the eggs in only three rooms, and it didn’t take three-year-old Ellie to figure out that there was chocolate inside the colourful wrappers.

I think that the worst of cold and flu season is over in our part of the world, as both girls have been going to daycare every day for the past three weeks, which is a record. Good health is crucial right now, as I have five in-person writing-related events coming up next week. Spring is a busy time in the writing world, but it’s always good to get out there and chat with people face-to-face.

Here’s my favourite photo of the day: A 3-year-old with her Easter duckie on grandpa’s motorcycle, while grandpa keeping a watchful eye. She loves the motorcycle, which doesn’t bode well for her parents when Ellie’s a teen. 😊

Bookselling, Christmas Shopping, and Grandkids

I’m relieved to say that my bout with Covid lasted only ten days before I tested negative, and I was feeling much better before that. The only side effect is more fatigue than usual but that’s fine. I’m a big believer in napping.

Because weekends in November and December are busy with craft fair markets, which also requires some prep time, I’m not writing a lot these days. There’ll be plenty of time for that in January. Right now, I’m happy to spend the occasional Saturday and Sunday, chatting with craft fair customers and selling print books. I meet the most interesting people at the fairs and some incredibly talented vendors, which is where I do most of my Christmas shopping.

Happily, I’ve already started the shopping thanks to last weekend’s fair. I don’t like leaving things to the last minute, but I also prefer to really get going after Remembrance Day, which is almost upon us. We must never forget, particularly in these challenging times.

Best of all, I’ve been spending time with my grandkids, Abby and Ellie, this week and last, which adds a bright light in my life. Really, the smile of a three-month old baby is all one needs to feel better, so I’m sharing a photo . Maybe they’ll bring a smile for you.

Abby’s cheeks are much chubbier than her sister’s were. She smiles a lot and gurgles happily whenever some reads a book to her. She loves book and watching hockey on TV, too. She takes after her grandma!

Ellie loved being a pumpkin on Halloween and insisted on wearing her costume for at least two days after the event.

How I Spent My Break

If you’re looking for free mystery and suspense novels, I have one more BookFunnel promotion I’m taking part in this summer. This one ends on August 1^st and there are nearly seventy authors participating. My Casey Holland mysteries, Deadly Accusations (#2) and Beneath the Bleak New Moon (#3) are also free, but only through BookFunnel’s newsletter campaign till Aug. 1. You can find the whole roster of books HERE.

I’m not sure that writers truly ever stop writing, even while on holiday, but I sort of managed it. I didn’t look at my urban fantasy for eight days, which became kind of difficult after four or five days. The thing is, when your mind is relaxed and all is quiet, ideas pop up.

This is how I found myself working on characters and an outline for the paranormal mystery I’ve mentioned in the past. It was great fun exploring ‘what-if’ concepts and creating characters. It was even more fun coming up with ideas for monsters. I’m trying to stay away from old familiars like vampires, werewolves, and ghosts, at least with this book. Creating monsters is a whole new challenge in my writing life, but I’ve read a couple of good books on the topic.

Speaking of reading, I read a terrific how-to book called Mastering Your Mystery by Cheryl Bradshaw. She goes through the basics of writing a crime novel, but takes it further in the second half of the book by offering helpful advice on marketing, publishing, and promotion. I especially liked that she went the extra mile to provide a list of awards and competitions to submit to, and a list of sites to help promote your work. Although I’ve read my share of how-to books, I always find that reading these books sparks ideas for current projects.

Last, but definitely not least, I spent a great deal of time with little Ellie, who’ll soon be one year old. Last week, she learned to crawl up a couple of steps and had her first ‘swim’ in the lake with her mom and dad. I’m always amazed by the astonishing changes during a child’s first year of life, and can’t wait to see what the next year will bring.

She’s hold a favorite new toy, a bowling pin.

Taking a Break

Summer’s well underway here in the Vancouver area with temperatures soaring as high as 42 degrees Celsius (107 degrees Fahrenheit) earlier this week. As near as I recall, Vancouver hasn’t experienced this in the 60+ years I’ve lived in the west coast.

I have a basement office, which helps, as does the fan by my feet. The oven stays off these days, which is fine because I have a few slow cooker recipes that’ll get us through. I can edit in the morning, but by two in the afternoon, I started to wilt, although that’s fairly normal for me, anyway. Temperatures are easing slowly, thank goodness, as the city’s experienced a high number of heat-related deaths.

Meanwhile, my hubby and son are starting a two-week vacation tomorrow, so we’re taking time off to spend with family. I had my second vaccine on Sunday, a Moderna this time; the first was Pfizer. There were fewer side effects the second time around, which is good news. There’s nothing like having a mild fever during a major heat wave. I’m looking forward to visiting with friends again and entering a store without a mask, which will be optional (depending on the situation) as of July 1^st in our province.

I’ll check my emails, but basically, I just want to take it easy, enjoy some downtime, and read books. What I’ve learned from vacations is that when your mind is relaxed and the to-do list is empty, story ideas tend to pop up, so I’ll keep a notebook nearby. Earlier this year, I began compiling notes for a new series I’m really excited about, but I haven’t opened the file folder in over three months. Perhaps, it’s time. We’ll see.

I’ll be back at it in a couple of weeks, revved up and ready to go!