My Colorado Authors Project -- Mike Befeler

I love the authors of Colorado. Once a week I plan to blog about one or more of those talented and friendly folks in the hopes a few more people take a look at their books.

Today I want to tell you about Mike Befeler, a Boulder resident whose first mystery was published in 2007. Retirement Homes are Murder is the tale of octogenarian Paul Jacobson who suffers from short term memory loss. When he finds a body, and is suspected of being the killer, Paul must solve the murder to save himself. Unfortunately, Paul wakes up each morning with no memory of the events of the previous day. This book is full of humor, a few poignant reminders of what aging can do to folks, and a good mystery with plenty of suspense.

Mike's new release, Living With Your Kids is Murder, is available now. I haven't read this one yet, but I trust Mike to deliver a good story. It's definitely on my buy list.

I like to talk about Mike's writing experience when I give presentations or workshops because he's the perfect example of the commitment and time management required to be a productive writer. Mike used the morning pages journaling technique described in Julia Cameron's Artist's Way to write while he held down a full-time job. Each morning he wrote three pages of his novels by hand. When he came home from work, he typed his pages into his computer, editing as he worked. Three pages a day, handwritten.

I'm more of a binge writer, creating large chunks of my story in my head before I sit down and binge type. We all do our thing in our own way. Creativity happens when it happens. But Mike helped his along and has produced more pages of fiction than I have. Three pages a day. I keep thinking about that. Maybe I'll try it. Three pages a day when I first get up . . . but not before coffee.