The Latest Title

I've been writing a little about the third novel lately and it occurred to me that I haven't revealed the title of it yet. Are you interested? Read on!

I was doing a reasonable job of keeping the title a secret until a couple of people asked me flat out what it is ... so I told them. Now it just doesn't seem fair to keep it to myself any longer.

Here goes: the title of the third novel is In The Shadows.

As you might guess, I play around a lot with darkness and light in this one. You might recall that Penumbra, the name of Lamont's ship, means an area of shadow that's between the darkest shadow and the light, so it made sense to me that I should explore that a little more.

I'm still rewriting, which is the fun part: I get to play around with scenes and words to see what I can come up with. Eventually, however, I'll have to decide that I've done what I can and it's time to format the final product.

Stay tuned!

How Many?

I got a reminder this past week of how important it is to proofread a novel several times. I can read over the same thing three, four or five times before I catch an error. As it turns out, I can fix the error and still have a problem ...

I was reading over an action scene in the third novel. It's one of those scenes with a bunch of characters all moving at the same time, so I knew I had to keep careful track of who was doing what. I'd already mapped out the scene once before, but I apparently made some changes after that because when I read it this time, I realized something was wrong: I had someone appear out of thin air!

That's right. The scene takes place in a closed room and when I walked through the actions of the characters, I got one person too many. It was frustrating because I couldn't make it work the way it was written.

Time to rewrite.

I finally got out some colored paperclips and arranged them on a chair to visualize which character was where as I worked through the action. I think it works now, but I might put it aside and reread it in a few days to see if that's true.

And that's one of the reasons why I don't release a novel every few months! I can only imagine the stupid mistakes I'd find if I rushed through the process.

Speaking of stupid mistakes: the next time you have a few minutes, check out "Weird Al" Yankovic's video "Word Crimes." Even if you don't recognize the song it's based on (I didn't), it's a lot of fun. Grammar counts!  Here's a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Gv0H-vPoDc

Morningside

This week I'd like to give some recognition to my alma mater, Morningside College. Since they were kind enough to mention me in their latest issue of the alumni magazine, I'm returning the favor.

 I spent four good years at this small college in Sioux City, Iowa. I wouldn't be half the person I am today without those four years of education, friendship and discovery.
I want to thank my former professors for their patience as they tried to give me some understanding of how much I still had (and have) to learn. They imparted much wisdom and insight to someone who had none at the time (and could still use more).

It's been a while since I was there and I want to go back. I've been told that I'll hardly recognize the campus, which is probably true. I dug out an old photo from back in the day (I'll just keep the year to myself).

Charles City and Lewis Hall



I met my future husband at Morningside. I got to be an assistant editor of the campus newspaper and a DJ on the campus radio station. I made a lot of good friends.
I learned a few things, too.

Thank you, Morningside!

Slow

These are certainly the lazy days of summer. Book sales seem to be at a standstill, and so is the third novel.

Slow sales are to be expected, at least until Oprah or some famous movie director discovers Outsider. In the meantime, I'd like to thank Amanda and Vintage Stock in Joplin for continuing to carry copies of both novels. I did sell one copy there last month and that's definitely better than none!

My vacation sort of threw a wrench into the progress I was making on the third novel. After you've been staring at mountains, it's harder to stare at paper (especially paper holding words you've seen several times before), so I'm a little slow on that. In order to keep from feeling stuck, I've been trying to work on what I might want for the cover image for this one. You would think it would be easier than the second novel, but it most certainly is not! I have a vague idea and I'll see if I can run it by the artist in the near future to see what she thinks. (I have a verbal agreement to work with the same artist who did the cover for Another Shot.) Let's hope she thinks my idea is feasible and not ridiculous.

In the meantime, I hope everyone in the U.S. had a fun and safe Independence Day. Everyone have a great summer!