30 Jan January in the Books
The last few days of January coming to a close. In some ways this is the quickest year ever and in other ways the slowest. I don’t know about you, but now when someone asks me what’s new, I have a hard time coming up with anything. There’s only so many times one can say, “I got up and watched the news. Read. Wrote. Ate supper and watched tv.” (with a few variations, my life in a nutshell.) But I won’t complain too long or loudly. Life could be a hell of a lot worse.
The latest interview with my friend and fellow crime writer Linda Wiken was posted on Monday on the Crime Writers of Canada YouTube site. Linda and I have travelled to a few book conferences together in past years and she’s just a great person. Give a listen to her interview if you have fifteen minutes to relax with a cup of tea (which I know you do) 🙂 This coming Monday, I’ll be interviewing another Ottawa author, Mike Martin. His interview will be posted the following week.
Last Saturday, it was my turn to be interviewed by a Vancouver author/artist, Joanna Vandervlugt for her podcast: JCVArtStudio from the Dressing Room. It was a fun, wide-ranging interview and available today! Pour a glass of wine and put your feet up for this one. (It’s not up this morning as I post this blog but should be up later today>)
I tuned in to a few webinars this week. The first was by the Writers Union of Canada about Indie publishing. It was interesting. I’m looking at Indie publishing as an option and will do a lot more research before deciding whether it’s something I might want to try. The second webinar was Barbara Fradkin’s book launch of her latest Amanda Doucette mystery The Ancient Dead. Rick Mofina interviewed her with questions from viewers. The great thing was that people from anywhere in the world could tune in. It was a good conversation and gave a lot of insight into Barbara’s books and her motivations for this series.
I plugged away on my latest manuscript, doing a lot of fine-tuning as I prepare to finish the last chapters. I’ve also been reading and completed Lisa Jewel’s The Invisible Girl. It was an easy read. A dark psychological study that was a bit unbelievable in parts, but still enjoyable. I’m now starting Michael Connelly’s The Law of Innocence and am already drawn into the story.
So that was my week. I hope you’ve managed more excitement than I have, but no worries if not. Our job now is to stay home, stay well, and stay sane. We’re all in this together and will celebrate like it’s the Roaring Twenties when we can finally get together and raise a glass.
Thank you Grace Johnston for this photo from one of my books, Reading with your feet up! The dedication is to my husband Ted. Grace’s caption is: “Books that are old friends are even better when they remind me of old friends. Stay safe. Stay warm.”
up!