Three days of rain made this week a bit of a washout, but we snuck in a little fun here and there. Mostly, I spent the week adjusting to “normal” life, aka life-when-I’m-not-writing-24/7. I felt unmoored, which of course is bound to happen when a deeply-set routine is upended. Also, I’d forgotten what the “non-productive” phase of the creative process felt like (and how much I always struggle with it).
I’m currently taking a break from my completed WIP before I dive into edits and also taking a break from querying A Party to Murder. Instead, I am incubating ideas for my next book and waiting to see what coalesces. And I am consuming as much diverse media as I can in the meantime because you never know what will spark a connection that brings together disparate ideas into a story.
This week, I read a couple of fantasy mysteries that were pretty fun: Voyage of the Damned by Frances White (think And Then There Were None set on a magical boat in fantasy world, with an LGBTQ romance subplot) and Murder at Spindle Manor by Morgan Stang (locked room-type murder mystery set in a magical inn with a monster-hunting protagonist). I’m still looking for comps for my WIP and neither of these quite fits the bill, but I had a great time reading them. I also read a biography of Casanova (yes, that Casanova) by Ian Kelly, which was excellent, and am currently making my way through a book on the cultural history of St. Petersburg. Variety is the spice of life … and of writers.
My birthday is coming up and I still haven’t decided what I want as my birthday treat(s). I did pre-order the new biography of Gwyneth by Amy Odell, which I’m hoping will be a delight for my inner gossip-obsessed 90s teenager, but that’s all for now. I had a bad experience with Poshmark recently, so I’m a little gun-shy about sourcing there at the moment. (And Poshmark is where I’ve gotten a lot of bday presents for myself in the past.) I do have some fun plans percolating, though, so I shan’t be short of treats, one way or another …
Have a great weekend!
