Coming in 2019, I’m going to start putting out a quarterly newsletter – in March, June, September, and December!

It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a while, and if you pay attention to the “common wisdom” in the independent publishing world, it’s something I should have started doing about four years ago. So, yeah, that needs to happen.

Shoot, I don’t even have a mailing list or anything. Let’s get that going first: Here’s where you click to sign up!

But hey, you’re not sure if you want a newsletter or not – that’s fair. So here are some ideas about what might go in it that you don’t already see here.

A typical newsletter might include:

– An in-depth look at one of the book locations, a visit to a small Texas town, or the like. With lots of pictures – I’ll probably make my husband take those because he’s a better photographer than I am.

– An excerpt from an upcoming book, or notes about what I’m working on, or a scene that got cut from a previous book. Maybe even an original, exclusive short-short-story. But definitely something writing-related.

– A recipe. Because I like to cook, my friends like to cook. We all like to eat, and there’s plenty of recipes going around. Lots of them are for pie.

– A picture of my cats, because that’s what the internet is for. Seriously, if you don’t want to see any pictures of my cats, don’t subscribe. But you’ll be missing out on gems like this:

A quick note before we get started: This is the first in a series of posts about locations that appear in the Jake & Boo books. I’m going to try to give you a little information about each location, show you some pictures, and talk about that location’s significance in the books. I’ll do that last bit in as non-spoilery fashion as possible. But if you don’t want to know anything about the story, or you’ve got an image of what places look like that you don’t want changed, then by all means give these posts a miss. But I hope you’ll take a look, and that seeing these locations will make Jake and his world more alive and relatable to you.

See that picture up there? The one of the Houston skyline as seen from a bridge?

That’s one of the hike/bike trails in Houston. This photo was taken from the middle of the old train trestle bridge that goes over White Oak Bayou.

This particular photo was taking on July 4, 2018, during Houston’s July 4th Flood. You can see that it’s flooding if you look down at the lower left corner. See how the bank looks like grass? It shouldn’t look like that. The bayou is usually a trickle running through a concrete trough. Like in this photo by Patrick Feller from Humble, Texas, USA – Old MKT Railroad Trestle over White Oak Bayou, near Studemont & I-10, Houston, Texas 1405091104bw, CC BY 2.0, Link“>:

That’s a view of the bridge from, as far as I can tell, Studewood Drive.

Going back to my picture at the top, see that red sculpture, also on the left? You can also see it in the first few seconds of this video:

New York Times Harvey Video

You can see the trestle bridge at the 0:13 second mark – just clearing the water.

This is the video I couldn’t stop looking at last year while I was in Miami. I was supposed to be enjoying my vacation, but I was stressed out because I couldn’t get home and the flooding looked like that only half-a-mile from my house. My house was fine.

In case you haven’t heard, Houston floods. A lot.

But what’s so special about this bridge? This is the bridge where Jake and Don found the three-legged kitten who would become Don’s little buddy, Bridger, in Not a Werewolf.

So, I mention in the back matter of my books that locations are either real places, real places with their names changed, or have some kind of inspiration in actual locations. This is one of the first kind – a real place, depicted as accurately as possible.

So, I’m not so much setting deadlines as estimating targets, I guess? I’ve got four big projects I want to get out over the coming 12 months (that’s a year, I double-checked).

Not an Elf: Jake & Boo’s first Christmas, we meet the Petreski family (there’s a lot of them), and eat a bunch of pie.
Target: Publish October 2018
Progress: Outlining is almost done, the intro has been written.

Love Letters: Cable’s Bend 2 – sequel to Saving Grapes, the story of Ben’s father.
Target: Publish early December 2018
Progress: Story points and characters done, writing ~25%,

Not a Witch: Book 5 of Jake & Boo. Jake & Don return to Mesquite Springs, the Hill Country town from Not a Werewolf. Introduces Talia Sharpe, niece of an old friend of Miss Nancy’s.
Target: Publish late March 2019
Progress: Characters, notes, underway.

Book 1 of A Hill Country Witch: A new series! Talia Sharpe doesn’t believe in magic and always rolled her eyes at her aunt’s eccentric ways. But now the family shop is hers, and she finally has to admit that not everything can be explained away as coincidence or intuition. Now Talia’s got to decide if she’s staying in this weird little town where the oddball residents make her Aunt Ellie look downright normal.
Target: Publish early June 2019
Progress: Notes and character sketches started.

So here’s the thing – just because you can figure out whodunnit when you’re watching your favorite BBC mystery doesn’t mean you can concoct a plot yourself. I totally get that, and plotting has always been my weakness.

When I write, it is character-driven and dialogue-heavy. I think linearly, and write the same way. I like to put my characters in a situation, get inside their heads, and turn them loose to see what happens.

Outlining does not come naturally to me. Oh, no, not at all. Time to learn new skills, right?

So I’ve got an outline to put together. And I’m doing it right this time. Not that there’s any one right way to outline, of course.

But I’m determined the next one will have better twists, more mystery, and more cats. Lots more cats.

Not an Elf is up next, and I want the mystery to be more mysterious this time. I hate hackneyed phrases like “honing my craft”, but that’s what I need to do. So I’m reading and practicing and doing this $&^# outline business.

And I need to find some beta readers who’ll be honest with me about my weak points.

Believe it or not, I pushed the “Publish” button on “Not a Zombie” yesterday. It is not available everywhere yet, but Kobo readers are in luck – which I gather means mostly Canadians. Yet another reason to wish we were Canadians these days, right? Other outlets should be going live over the next 48 hours. Paperback, if all goes well, in about two weeks.

Now that the third book is done, I need to start looking more at ways to promote the books, build my social media presence, and write another one.

I’ve been tossing around a few ideas. I know I want to write one more Jake & Boo book this year – a Christmas-themed story called “Not an Elf” – but I also want to write something else. Should I go back to Cable’s Bend? I think I might be ready. But I’ve also got an idea for a small-town witch series set in the Texas Hill Country.

Also, I need to revamp this website, big time. I’ve got plans for content and stuff. I think I’m back to 100% at long last!