Frost!?

We had a frost advisory last night! In September! The thermometer tells me it went down to 37. Not a frost, thank goodness, because I left some houseplants outside. But they are not going to be happy.

We turned on the heat for the first time since the spring.

I'm ready for the dry, sunny days in the low 70's that are forecast for this week. But I'm not ready for the freezing nights, yet. It looks like last night will be the coldest of the week. Whew. That gives me some breathing room to figure out where I am going to put all the plants that summered on the patio.

New WIP

Now that Truth's Enigma is out with the first round of readers, I am starting on the next mystery. Or maybe this one is a thriller.

The working title for now is Through the Cracks. But I googled it and found a couple of religious books with that title. I wouldn't want any confusion, so I am rethinking it.

Right now, I am putting all of my notes and thoughts and other random snippets into OneNote. I found it extremely helpful for the world building and backstory on TE. Having all the index cards and scraps of paper consolidated and sorted has helped me re-think some things.

TTC is more complicated than White Lies. I had purposefully shrunk that story for it to be more manageable. And I think I learned what I needed to tackle TE. Now I hope I have learned enough from TE that I can tackle TTC. It's a story that I have rewritten at least 4 times and it still doesn't work. I may need to take it all apart and reassemble completely new. But I think the premise is good. And I already have the ending. It's always the middle that gets a little mushy.

The change from science fiction to mystery helps keep things fresh, I think. I am ready to dive back into this story.

First look at a cover

The WIP is now Truth's Enigma.

Here is the latest version of the cover.

I'm not sold on the series name, yet. Still working that out. But I think the image is done. Comments are welcome.

Stevia isn't my cup of tea

I am always ready to try new and healthy things. So when stevia came on the market I put it on my list of things to get around to. Finally did.

After I had tried it, I Googled it to make sure it really was as safe as I thought it was. Sure. The South Americans have been using it to sweeten their morning cup of mate for...centuries? It's all good. However, maybe they haven't been using the processed powder in a packet for quite as long.

Some of the information I read surprised me. It can lower your blood sugar and maybe your blood pressure. Hmm. It only took 3 days of blood sugar crashes for me to wake up. Oops! I must be too sensitive to this stuff. I do tend to be a bit hypoglycemic. One packet in my morning coffee and within the hour I was shaky and dizzy.

Guess it's not for me.

Artwork Post

Today I loaded a very old painting that was suddenly on my mind. I remembered it incorrectly and thought it might work as a bookcover. Nah.

Click the Artwork tab above to see all the work loaded so far

Truth's Enigma has left the nest

Finally got the last draft off to readers.

Woo Hoo!

It is the first book in a series that I still don't have a name for. I am so excited to have it done! Or at least done enough to have others read it. I'm sure it will come back with a few inconsistencies and loose ends to tie up. Then comes the punctuation and grammar read thru.

If all goes as planned, I hope to have it up on KDP and Smashwords by the end of the year.

While it is off being consumed, (well maybe perused) I will work on another mystery that has been lurking in the closet. I've written it at least 3 times. Hopefully this last one will be the charm. Since I've learned a lot more about writing since I last worked on it, I may be up to handling it. Apparently it's more complicated than I realized.