Bits and Pieces and Little White Lies

Tomorrow's Guest Blogger is . . .

Ta Da! Mystery author Cricket McRae. If you haven't read any of Cricket's home crafting mysteries, you're in for a treat. Learn about her path to publication, her fun series, and her crafty blog tomorrow, right here. Don't forget...


Why You Want to Be Here on Friday . . .

Because an awesome blogger has "honored" me with another one of those awards for outrageous liars and it comes with rules. I have to give you a bunch of lies with one truth in the list, or a list of truths with one lie in the mix, and then you get to guess which ones are fact or fiction. I was going to do that post today, but I just couldn't think of anything truthful that would sound like a lie...or something like that. Whatever!


Our Library at Northern Colorado Writers

One of the great things about our Northern Colorado Writers studio is its library. I was looking through the books yesterday afternoon and found someone had donated a copy of The Wit and Wisdom of Jane Austen.

After reading the many writerly blogs posts on the gentle art of procrastination when faced with distraction, I had to chuckle at this Jane Austen quote:

"Composition seems to me Impossible, with a head full of Joints of Mutton & doses of rhubarb." --a letter, 1816

There's also a section on men and women. Jane says:

"If there is anything disagreeable going on, men are always sure to get out of it . . ." -- Persuasion

I was going to say, "Some things never change," but I didn't want to offend any of the wonderful men who visit my blog and would never think of avoiding unpleasant tasks.


What's Going on in My Writing Life?

I mailed my registration for the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Colorado Gold Conference scheduled for September 10-12 in Denver. I declared my standalone suspense novel, Dead Wrong, finished and signed up for an agent pitch session. I'll participate in the book sale and contribute my volunteer services for some activity, hopefully registration (if they'll have me). Between now and the conference, I'll tweak and polish the Dead Wrong manuscript until the last second.

My historical women's fiction manuscript, Wishing Caswell Dead, has been ready for submission for quite a while. I've been suffering from writer's paralysis, so have put nothing in the mail yet. I'm starting to get writer's itch, however. The kind of itch that won't go away until I sit down and write, query, and submit. When the itch replaces the paralysis, action replaces lethargy. It begins with a nagging feeling that I should be doing something else (other than what I'm doing at the time, which is usually writing blog posts or checking e-mail).

Writers sure are weird.


What I'm Reading

I'll finish Barbara Graham's first mystery, Murder by Serpents, this evening. Next up is a Jack Reacher novel by Lee Child, Gone Tomorrow. My guy and I are trying to read these in order and got a little behind. Now we're playing catch up.

What are you reading?