This was a pretty quiet week. Absolute crickets on the query front, which was both disappointing and helpful. I was able to put a LOT of time towards my current WIP [work in progress], particularly as I ended up taking the whole week off work. I spent most of that time either writing or hanging out with the fam. I went thrifting once, which is definitely noteworthy; if this had been last year, I’d have gone to three or four thrift stores during a week’s holiday. One of the reasons for this change of habit comes down to something that should surprise no one who’s been reading this blog for more than a hot second: I have more than enough clothes already. The bigger reason is, simply put, obsession. I’ll come back to that in a minute.

That said, I am hoping to hit up one or two thrift stores this weekend. Mostly, I’m hoping to find jewelry, which is something I haven’t had much luck with recently. I’ve been getting into a maximalist vibe with my jewelry – but not in terms of size/style as much as volume. I’m really digging the whole rings-on-every-finger / arm parties / necklace stacking lewk. I don’t want super chunky “statement” pieces, but rather unique and interesting ones that can be layered/stacked. I’m also looking for pieces that are at least on the nicer end of costumer jewelry, if not semi-fine (say, silver or gold vermeil). Finding stuff like that at the thrift store is like finding needles in haystacks these days. I don’t mind paying up and buying from the jewelry showcases, but even those are pretty empty slash underwhelming. But … we persist! The treasure hunt is the fun!

On Thursday, my husband and I celebrated our 15^th wedding anniversary. That number’s starting to feel a little more impressive every year. Like, we are getting closer and closer to “old timers” status, LOL! We didn’t anything “special” to celebrate on the day of, but we do have plans for a date on Saturday. We’re gonna go to a vintage car meet-up in my husband’s 1974 Beetle, hang out, and enjoy some bougie burgers. [aka from a place that isn’t A&W.] I still gotta figure out what I’m going to wear, but that should be fun.

Sorta related tangent: we’re going stop by the mall so I can get my fix of Orange Julius’ strawberry banana drink. I’m obsessed! It’s a crime – a CRIME, I tell you – that you can only get Orange Julius in malls nowadays. There’s a DQ not 5 minutes from my house, but they don’t sell OJ stuff in their stores anymore. WHYYYYYYY!?!?

Speaking of obsession. Twice in the last week, I came across Reels on my Insta feed/discovery page that talked about obsession being the key to success. It felt like a sign from the universe, so I’ve been thinking a lot about it. To be clear: in this context, obsession is different from perseverance, passion, or belief (though it involves/requires all those things). Basically, obsession means living, breathing your pursuit – whatever that is – 24/7 to the exclusion of pretty much everything else. You gotta be a cross between a horse with its blinkers on and a dog with a bone. [Or maybe a feral racoon with a piece of cake rescued from the dumpster. Maybe cross-species metaphors are not my forte.] You gotta be stubborn, persistent, and a little bit delusional. Maybe a lot delusional. And you gotta be prepared to make sacrifices.

That part is hard.

I’ve been sitting with that idea a lot lately, as I continue to grapple with both my day to day priorities-balancing act, as well as the bigger picture of what I want my life to look like, now and in the future.

I am not going anywhere with this topic, by the way. Not right now … because, like I said, I’m still sitting with it myself. But if you are also in the midst of tackling huge, lifelong dreams, maybe this will resonate 🙂

Have a great weekend!

I’ve dropped some hints before about my (finished) novel, but I think it’s time I give you a little bit more info. If you’ve been following my journey here and on Insta, you’ll know that it’s a historical romance mystery novel set in 1920s England. The vibes as Golden Era classic English whodunnit – think Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, and Dorothy Sayers. Actually, think Georgette Heyer; she was my biggest inspiration in terms of tone and the romance crossover. I wanted to write a book that was neither pure mystery, nor pure romance, but a mix of both. The mystery provides the framework and main engine of my book’s plot, the romance adds flavour, stakes, and tension.

The title? A Party to Murder.

At the risk of some mild spoilers, the title is an allusion to 1) the setting of the book, and 2) an element of the mystery. The action takes place at a country manor where a large and quirky cast of characters assemble to celebrate an important birthday.  Here’s a very brief synopsis:

It’s the summer of 1922, and preparations for an extravagant party are underway at Cheveley Manor, the Marchmonts’ stately house in the English countryside. Richard Marchmont is fabulously rich, moderately eccentric, and fond of getting his own way – whether his family likes it or not. With everyone gathered to celebrate his 85th birthday, the scene is set for a memorable weekend. But even well-laid plans can go awry. Richard has quarreled with his heirs, whose future prospects will be lot less golden unless they get back into his good graces. The arrival of unexpected guests, return of a long-lost relative, and sundry romantic entanglements only make matters more complicated.

Audrey Tempest St. Clair has just arrived in England to visit her long-dead father’s relatives. On the train, she meets a dashing stranger. Michael Carrington, on his way to great-uncle Richard’s house, will stop at nothing to get to know the mysterious young lady in his compartment, and fate is on his side. Audrey’s cousin Philip just happens to be Richard’s solicitor and Stella’s half-brother, which makes Audrey practically a Marchmont herself.

Stella Marchmont is young, beautiful, and madly in love. Newly engaged, life couldn’t be peachier. There is just one small problem: everyone hates her fiancé, who may or may not be a gold-digging bounder. None more so than her grandfather, Richard, who is determined that she marry her horrid second cousin, Laurence, positively the last man on earth she’d ever consider for a husband. But Stella has a plan, and the birthday party is the perfect opportunity to put it into action.

All roads lead to Cheveley Manor, and when Richard is found dead in his study, a glass of poisoned wine by his side, there is a surfeit of suspects on hand, and the innocent as well as the guilty are caught in a web of deadly deceit. Clever Inspector Hawthorne has his work cut out for him: everyone at Cheveley Manor is hiding something and, for the murderer, the party isn’t over yet. Lies must be untangled, secrets old and new revealed, and hearts broken, before justice and true love can prevail. 

In addition to the murder mystery itself, there are two romantic subplots – one main, and one secondary. Juggling what are, effectively, 3 different plots, along with a large ensemble cast, in a character-driven story required a LOT of very careful plotting. My original high-level outline was something like 10 pages long. I ended up with a nicely paced plot, if I do say so myself. Even so, my first draft came in at something like 150,000 words. For reference, current industry guidelines for mystery novels range from 70,000 to 110,000 words, and many agents and publishers don’t even look at anything over 100,000 words. During the initial editing stages, I was able to cut back to 135K words, and eventually to 129K. Still on the long side … and I did get at least one form rejection on that basis.

However, this is the point when I started to query my book. Was it the right time? Probably not. Like most new writers, I made the mistake to going to query too soon. I had great beta reader feedback, and I felt confident that the book was polished, so I went for it. Now, in some ways, I’m glad I did. Pulling that trigger for the first time is hard, and I did it while I was riding a wave of excitement and hope, which is what you need – in spades! – to put yourself out there. And I learned a lot more through the process of actually querying than I would have by reading about querying; that’s just how my brain works. But there was also a downside. As it turns out, my book wasn’t quite as polished as I thought it was … which means that the writing samples I sent with my first 10-20 queries don’t represent my book as it currently stands. I subsequently ended up doing another major edit, cutting, tightening, and fixing some POV issues. My book is now 115K words and, in my biased opinion, considerably stronger than before. Good news for new and future queries; not-as-great news for my older queries. Basically, I didn’t put my best foot forward with the first agents I queried. Chalk that up as a lesson learned (the hard way).

So what happened between the start of my query journey and now?

In a nutshell: I wrote 2 more books. Writing those books polished up my skills in every core area, from plotting to characterization to dialogue. Once I finished the first drafts of those 2 books, I went back to A Party to Murder … and saw a lot of room for improvement. The good news was that the plot, structure/pacing, and characters were all solid. The book didn’t need a full developmental edit. It needed tightening up. Yes, the very thing I was convinced it didn’t need back when I first started querying. Sigh. There was backstory bloat; scenes that needed to be shortened and/or reframed; some POV hopping that needed to be fixed; and a lot of extraneous “telling” that just needed to be cut, period.  At 115K words, A Party to Murder is still a bit longer than genre guidelines, but more in line with those expectations. For reference, books #2 and #3 are currently sitting at 85K and 80K respectively (the latter will expand a bit during edits, I’m sure). One of the lessons I’m learning as a writer is how to say more with less.

A Party to Murder lives in my head as the first in a series of interconnected standalone mysteries — think the Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple series — but its future remains to be determined. I’ve got a general idea of the first 5 or 6 novels (and, as mentioned, have written 2 more of them), but for now, I’ve decided to put this mega-project aside and focus on “diversifying” my writing portfolio. The reality is that, if I am not able to get agent representation for A Party to Murder at this time, then it’s highly unlikely I’ll have better luck with the other books in the series given that they are in the same genre, style, and “universe”. I am getting myself ready to pivot, if necessary. That means writing a different book (still a mystery, but not historical) and taking that to the market. If that ends up getting me an agent, then I can see about getting A Party to Murder back on track.

While I am happy with this current plan, it does leave me in a position where I may not be able to get A Party to Murder into readers’ hands for a long time. There are many reasons why self-publishing isn’t a good fit for me (and there’s isn’t enough space here to get into that) which doesn’t leave me with many other options. But I *am* still thinking about options, including (possibly) Patreon. For those who expressed an interest in reading A Party to Murder, I’ll keep y’all posted!

Also, this is probably a good time to drop this in: if you would be interested in being a beta reader for my books, send me an email and tell me a little about yourself (including your likes and dislikes as a reader).

Lastly, if you’re a writer currently working on a book, or starting a book, or thinking about starting a book … I would love to hear from you. Let’s connect!

Another week, another heartbreak. Here’s your regular reminder that writing is fun but trying to publish sucks. The agent who requested my full manuscript reached out this week to let me know they would be passing; while they found A Party to Murder “very clever and fun”, it was too similar to an existing client’s MS. How’s that for a gut punch? I sent a bunch more queries out, and also got a bunch more form rejections, so the universe balanced each other out, I guess *shrug*

Thank goodness I had some good distractions. My husband and I went to a wedding last weekend, and got to catch up with some of his old coworkers, who were lovely. Also, I will always get dressed up for a good buffet. Actually, I will get dressed up for any and all reasons. I had too many options to choose from (my formal dresses don’t get much air these days but I miss them!) and making the final decision was HARD. I need more of my acquaintances to get married, ok? Loved the final outfit I chose, but you’ll have to hang tight another week or so; I haven’t posted it on Insta yet, but it’s coming.

The kids had their last day of school, and I’m still trying to wrap my brain around how my daughter is heading into junior high next year. Like, HOW?! She’s just a baby!! OK, so she’s nearly as tall as I am and twice as sassy but … SHE’S MY BABY *ugly cries* Also, my son turns 14 next month and keeps talking about getting his learner’s (driving) permit and *ugly cries intensifies*

I’m getting super engrossed in my current WIP, which is currently at that fun stage where I’m excited to write every day because I can’t wait to find out what happens next. [Like, I know what happens, but I’m excited to read about it, if you see what I mean.] It’s another genre-crossing mystery, but completely different from A Party to Murder and its interconnected non-sequels. I haven’t quite landed on the genre description, but I’m calling it a paranormal mystery for the time being.

As part of some background research, I read/am reading a couple of super interesting books by Ronald Hutton – one on the history of modern Wicca, and one on the history of witch trials. Yes, that is a hint … but only a very small one … about my new book. Sometimes, it’s helpful to submerge yourself in “lore” that is only tangentially related to your story; even if only a couple of tiny bits make it into the narrative, it still adds depth and richness to the tapestry.

I also managed to squeeze in a bit of BritBox this week (first time in months!) because I saw that Outrageous is now streaming episodes. Here’s a little-known fact about me: the Mitford sisters are one of my historical obsessions. I’ve read pretty much every book that’s ever been written about them, including The Mitford Sisters by Mary S. Lovell (one of my fave non-fiction writers) which inspired this show. I’ve only seen 3 episodes so far, and there are 3 more yet to be released, but I’m enjoying it. It looks great and it’s well-acted. As far as substance goes, it’s … OK. It oversimplifies and glosses over a lot of stuff, which is to be expected for this genre of “inspired-by-real-events” series, but I haven’t seen any egregious errors or inventions yet. I could quibble with the characterizations of the sisters, but again, they’re not egregiously terrible.

I really like the actress who plays Nancy, although they’ve made her too much of a sad sack and not sparky enough; the real Nancy was famous for her sharp wit. Diana looks great but has been reduced to a paper-thin “ice queen” stereotype, presumably because the writers/producers were afraid to glamorize/humanize a N*azi-sympathizer. Which, fair enough. I am finding the performances of the actresses playing Unity and Jessica the most compelling, perhaps because they have been given the most interesting material to play with. The show’s Unity, in particular, is such a fascinating character because they’ve not shied away from exploring her trajectory from slightly odd English aristocratic young lady to fanatical H*tler-lover. Her dynamic with her “twin”, the Communist Jessica, is also super compelling as (at a superficial level) a microcosm of the political and cultural crosswinds sweeping through 1930s Britain. Since we’re now living in what feels like a re-do of that era, I think it’s a period worth re-examination. Obviously, this show is just light entertainment … but if you watch it and like it, give Lovell’s book a try.

Have a great weekend!