Gardening, Peace, Books
I love fall.
I love sitting out in my garden and reading, or thinking, or eating chocolate chip cookies, as I take healthy nutrition very seriously.
I hope you have a peaceful week.
Nine Dollars And 99 Pennies
My new book, All About Evie.
Nine dollars and 99 pennies.
Out on October 29th.
For women who like to read about sisters, mothers, and aunts who wear flowery hats and hide terrible secrets.
Counting It Down To All About Evie
Well, I’m counting it down. Less than six weeks before my new book, All About Evie, is out.
Evie owns a book store in the San Juan Islands.
Evie has a little house, right on the ocean, on property her family has owned for generations.
Evie’s grandmother jumped off a cliff, and her mother and aunts always wear flowered hats.
She also has premonitions.
I so hope you like it.
Powells: https://www.powells.com/book/all-about-evie-9781496709851
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07NCPSX2X/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
My Cookbook Story Is On Sale
A 105 year old cookbook.
Six generations of women.
Four countries, four languages
One mystery.
No Place I’d Rather Be is on sale for $2.99 for those who love stories about cookbooks, journeys, families, life. Oh, and Montana.
That Crazy Writing Process
I’ve been asked about my writing process many times, so here it is, short and sweet:
1. First, I think up all sorts of bad ideas for my books. My editor and agent are good enough to tell me that they are bad ideas. I think up more ideas. They’re still bad.
2. FINALLY, I have a good-ish idea. My agent and my editor like it. I celebrate by eating chocolate.
3. I start driving in the country. I garden. I daydream. I walk and walk. Why? I need the first line of my book. I do not write a book without knowing that first line. I wait for it to magically pop into my head. Like a spell. Or a curse.
4. Next, I write 2,000 words a day, 10,000 words a week, or I don’t go to bed on Saturday night. I’ve had some real late Saturday nights. But I have to set goals, or that dang book will not get written, friends, no, it won’t. Why? Because I would rather play than work. I would rather hang out with Innocent Husband and The Kids. I would rather call my laughing sisters and my dear brother. Writing books is haaaard. (Whine, sob, sniffle.)
5. When the first draft is done, I goal set again. I edit five single spaced pages a day. All of those pages are a total, complete mess. They’re an embarrassment. The writing is terrible. I told Innocent Husband that if a gargantuan stork ever carries me off and my book is still in draft form, he is to have a nice bonfire with it. When I’ve edited the whole wretched book at five pages a day, I move to ten pages a day, to fifteen a day, etc. Yes, it is brain-numbing.
6. I edit all my books eight or nine times before they’re off to my agent and editor. Right about the sixth draft I start thinking I should have been a carpenter.
7. I edit again with my editor’s comments, then through copy editing and proofreading. It’s about 12 times total. Did I mention the brain-numbing part?
8. When I finally send that edited book off, I get myself a mocha and sit and relax and go back to day dreaming.
Happy reading all.
A Writer Who Loves Flowers
Some days you just have to go and hang with flowers.
I hope your day is filled with books, flowers, and peace.
Do You Have Premonitions?
One woman on an island who sees things she doesn’t want to see.
Two eccentric aunts in floppy, flowery hats.
One mother who lied. What could go wrong?
All About Evie, out October 29th.
A Scratched, Dented Violin And A New Story
Years ago I was in a dusty, old violin shop in our downtown buying Adventurous Singing Daughter a violin.
She was very young and she loved playing the violin when she wasn’t playing outside. The one we bought was 80 years old. There were a few scratches and dents.
There was a slight stain that looked like blood in a butterfly shape. It played beautifully.
She loved it.
When I left that shop the spark for this story, The First Day Of The Rest Of My Life, was in my head and churning/spinning around.
It’s on sale for less than six bucks now.
https://www.amazon.com/First-Day-Rest-My-Life-ebook/dp/B004SIDTTE/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
Listening To A Cookbook…
My novel, No Place I’d Rather Be, is on sale, as an audiobook, for $3.99.
Do you like cookbooks? Recipes? History?
Then you might like this one. Olivia Martindale finds a 100 year old cookbook in her family’s attic buried in a box. Her ancestors wrote the recipes, and their life stories, within the pages.
Now if only her Grandma would tell her about her secretive past…
https://www.chirpbooks.com/audiobooks/338547?fbclid=IwAR19Alw0ty8wm5cQ-ictizPbbj2Lcai3Yf01SL-dVDaYdT6Kr5uiyB9isUo
