First of all, my thanks to all who have written to say they like the redesign of my website. I’m particularly happy that I’m now able to blog on this opening page without having to bother either of my web gurus, so if you’d like to ask a question or want to suggest a topic you’d like me to write about — an aspect of the writing life, or life in general — please drop a line.
Second, it was truly gratifying to be told how pleased some of you were to get that update on Sigrid Harald’s life (“Murder at Montefugoni” in the September/October 2008 issue of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine.) My agent and I are exploring the possibility of putting some of the earlier titles back into print. There are so many options these days: from print-on-demand to letting a bookstore do it.
In the meantime, I’ve just been told that Death’s Half Acre, the 14th Deborah Knott novel, is ready to ship and that I should be getting my author’s copies any day now. Even though this is my 24th novel, it’s still exciting to open the box and hold my newest baby. It’s not quite the thrill of that very first book, but it never gets old.
Summer is my best writing time and I’m well into next year’s book. I know some of my friends prefer the coziness of snuggling in to write in winter, but winters here in eastern North Carolina are too nice to stay inside. It’s when the temperature soars to 100+ during July and August that I’m happy to take a jug of cold water and head off to my gazebo, away from the distractions of telephones, eMail, and the Internet. There's a ceiling fan if the wind's not blowing and an outlet where I can plug in my laptop. True, I may get too involved in a hawk’s hunt for field mice in the lower fields or watching to see if the lizard on the screen door is going to catch that black beetle, but on the whole it’s a good place to get a lot of work done.
Speaking of which, if I’m going to make the rest of today’s thousand-word stint, I’d better unplug from the Internet and get to it!
