Left Coast Crime, Here I Come

From March 20 - 23 I'll be in Monterey for Left Coast Crime, the West Coast's annual mystery convention that bounces to a different location each year.

If you'll be there, you can catch me on two panels:

Thursday, March 20

10:45 a.m.

Leap of Faith: Writers Who Took Alternative Paths to Publication

With Charles Rosenberg, Barbara Hodges, Claire Johnson, and Cindy Sample

Saturday, March 22

9 a.m.

Mystery Far Afield

With Jeffrey Siger, Lisa Alber, Aileen Baron, and Anne Cleeland

I didn't do an official book tour for Pirate Vishnu after the book came out last month, but after the book launch party I had the opportunity to do three joint events with friends. And you know what? I'm now completely convinced that doing joint events with friends is the way to go. It's not only that we can draw a bigger audience and help readers discover other books we love--it's the fact that it's so much more fun. In our interactions with each other, we chat about things that are entertaining for both ourselves and the audience.

With Sophie Littlefield and Rachael Herron at Read Booksellers in Danville.

With Terry Shames at Orinda Books.

With Juliet Blackwell and Penny Warner at the Alta Mira Scholarship Tea in San Leandro.

My Evolving Path to Publication from 2012 - 2014

Next week, I'm attending Left Coast Crime, the west coast's big mystery convention. One of the panels I'm on is "Leap of Faith: Writers Who Took Alternative Paths to Publication." I love this topic, because the more I talk with other authors, the more I'm convinced that nobody's path to publication is the same. It's a road of unexpected twists and turns, and if you don't speed too quickly and rush the process, it can lead somewhere great.

In 2012 I self-published my first mystery novel (details here). It was the right decision for me at the time, and it's what ended up kick-starting my writing career more than I anticipated. But at the same time, acting as my own publisher pulled me in more directions than I wanted to deal with.

Some writers find self-publishing empowering and fun; I agree it's empowering, but for me it wasn't so fun. I missed being able to focus my energy on writing. That's why I was thrilled to receive offers from two publishers for three-book deals in 2013.

It's now been exactly one month since my second novel, Pirate Vishnu, was published with Henery Press. I'm now even more certain it was the right decision to sign with Henery Press (for the Jaya Jones treasure hunt mystery series) and Midnight Ink (for the Accidental Alchemist series). I'm gobsmacked--gobsmacked!--by the month I've had. A few highlights made possible my kick-ass publishers:

Hitting the USA Today bestseller list! 

(It was the extended list, but I was next to James Patterson!)

Climbing the Amazon charts.

Receiving these reviews: 

“Pandian’s second series entry sets a playful tone yet provides enough twists to keep mystery buffs engaged, too. The author streamlines an intricate plot….[and] brings a dynamic freshness to her cozy.”
—Library Journal

“A delicious tall tale about a treasure map, magicians, musicians, mysterious ancestors, and a few bad men.”
—Mystery Scene Magazine

Plus a feature in Mystery Scene.

Getting great feedback on my next book, The Accidental Alchemist, from my editors at Midnight Ink. 

And now that I only have two jobs (my day job and this writing job) I have time to make revisions this spring as well as finish a draft of Jaya Book 3! The winding path continues, and I love the curve I'm on right now. 

Pirate Vishnu Book Launch Party Photos

Last night, fabulous independent bookstore A Great Good Place For Books hosted the book launch party for Pirate Vishnu. Thank you to the dozens of you who braved the rain to come to the party! Everyone who knows me knows I prefer the rain to sunny weather, so it was the perfect dark and stormy night to launch for my newest mystery.

To keep the formal part of the program entertaining, Juliet Blackwell interviewed me. 

I love throwing a good party, so in keeping with the spirit of the book (set in Barbary Coast San Francisco and India), drinks included San Francisco craft beer and beer from India. 

The giveaway for the evening was a pirate treasure including a pirate Scooby Doo. 

Several Pens Fatales were in attendance. 

One of my earliest critique readers made it as well! 

As did far-flung friends. 

 

I signed stock with the few books that remained at the end of the night -- and found myself realizing how strange it is that I now use industry terms like "signing stock" without thinking about it. 

The party was two days before the official book release day for Pirate Vishnu, so there's more celebrating to come this week! 

The End of My Sabbatical as a Full-Time Writer

100 days ago, I began the grand experiment of being a full-time writer. I was eligible to take a sabbatical at work, so I took the opportunity to finish writing The Accidental Alchemist. 

Last week, I turned in the novel. Whew!

Finishing a novel: laptop, coffee, notebook, research books, critique reader notes, printed copy with scribbled notes, another notebook...

And yesterday, I went back to my day job!

I'm so excited about this book, but even more excited to go back to my normal life balancing two jobs that I love.

The sabbatical taught me some surprising things about writing, which I shared on the Pens Fatales blog last week. And here are my biggest personal takeaways from the sabbatical:

1. I'm not someone who wants to be a full-time writer.

Some people are cut out to be full-time writers. I've learned that I'm not one of them. I'm not giving up writing. On the contrary, I'm more committed to it than ever. But I want to write as part of a more balanced life.

I didn't enjoy the unstructured life that came with writing full time. Similar to my experience during graduate school, I felt like I always needed to be working. My regular schedule, in which I write for several hours three mornings a week plus plot on the train during my commute, works much better for my brain.

2. Writing to a deadline is awesome.

I knew this to some extent already, because I've successfully completed the National Novel Writing Month challenge several times.

But a messy NaNoWriMo draft is very different from a polished manuscript. Now I know that I can work toward a serious deadline and turn in a good finished product — which I did two days shy of my deadline.

Now that I'm back to my normal life, I'm looking forward to plotting my next novel in a paper notebook on my commuter train on the way to work, and happy that I know I'll meet my next deadline. 

My Surreal Life: An Agatha Award Nomination!

Earlier this week, the list of 2013 Agatha Award nominations was released. My locked-room mystery short story "The Hindi Houdini" has been nominated for an Agatha!

Thank you to everyone who has congratulated me this week on the nomination! The whole thing is a bit overwhelming (I'm still pinching myself), so I didn't take a step back and post the news here on the blog until now. Here's the scoop:

The Agatha Awards are given out at the Malice Domestic mystery convention that takes place every year in Bethesda, MD. The convention celebrates the traditional mystery — i.e. mysteries typified by Agatha Christie and other authors who wrote when puzzle plots were at the heart of mystery stories, and no gratuitous sex or violence was on the page.

My pet gargoyles with the anthology featuring my story.

This is my genre of mystery. I grew up devouring the books of prolific traditional mystery writers Elizabeth Peters and Aaron Elkins, who were writing clever twisty-turny plots with characters I adored. Books like that are why I wanted to become a mystery writer. And that's why this nomination means so much to me.

My nominated story, "The Hindi Houdini," is an impossible crime story starring Sanjay Rai, Jaya's magician best friend from the Jaya Jones treasure hunt mystery series. As a magician, he's the perfect person to solve locked-room impossible crimes, which he does in Fool's Gold as well. This story was published in Fish Nets: The Second Guppy Anthology by Wildside Press in April 2013.

The Agatha awards will be given out on May 3, 2014, at the banquet at Malice Domestic. I love this convention, and this year it'll be even more fun!

Pirate Vishnu: The Treasure Hunt Begins in One Month! In the Meantime, Fun is Afoot

Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt Mystery #2, Pirate Vishnu, hits shelves in exactly one month, on February 11. Leading up to the launch, here's some fun: two giveaways, a free short story, and a book launch party two days before the official book release!

Two chances to win one of two signed copies of Pirate Vishnu along with an India wall-hanging that has a pocket to hold letters or magazines. 

Chance #1: Sign up for my email newsletter by February 10. All subscribers are automatically entered.

Chance #2: Like my Facebook page by February 10. All new Likes are entered, and all existing fans who comment between January 1 and February 10 are also entered.

Giveaway: Signed copy of Pirate Vishnu in a wall-hanging from India.

Download my locked-room mystery short story "The Hindi Houdini," available FREE for the month of January 2014. 

The story features Sanjay Rai, aka The Hindi Houdini, Jaya's magician best friend who plays a big role in Pirate Vishnu, so I thought you might like to check it out before Pirate Vishnu comes out. 

(Normally you can buy the story in Fish Nets: The Second Guppy Anthology, a mystery anthology full of lots of great stories.)  

 

And if you're local, join me at the book launch party!

Sunday, February 9

6 p.m.

A Great Good Place for Books

6120 LaSalle Ave., Oakland CA

(in Oakland's Montclair Village) 

The event takes place at the fabulous independent bookstore that hosted the book launch party for Artifact. That party was a blast, so I hope you can make it to this one! Drinks, snacks, prizes, good company, and you can buy Pirate Vishnu two days before its official release. 

More party details are on Facebook, where you can also let me know if you plan on attending. 

It's such a strange time leading up to a book release. I've only done this once before, so it still feels so new! I love this book, so I'm excited to share it with the world.

A Look Back at 2013

If 2011 was the year of cancer and 2012 was the year of recovery, 2013 was the year of seizing the day. I was looking over the blog, and wow did I jam a lot into 2013. Some highlights:

January: Showed my agent a book proposal for a new mystery series, a paranormal mystery featuring female alchemist Zoe Faust and her sidekick, a gargoyle accidentally brought to life by a French stage magician.

My own gargoyle: stuffed animal Dori.

February: Received my first royalty check from Henery Press (for Other People's Baggage). I knew I should do something fun with part of the money, so I bought this super-cute pair of glasses I'd been eying.

Cute new glasses!

March: Attended mystery convention Left Coast Crime, held in Colorado Springs in 2013. Had a great time both meeting readers and catching up with writer pals I only see once or twice a year. 

April: Wildside Press published Fish Nets: The Second Guppy Anthology, featuring my locked-room mystery short story "The Hindi Houdini." I love this story because I pulled off writing a true locked-room mystery like the classics I love, plus it features Sanjay from the Jaya Jones series in his first starring role.

The anthology includes "The Hindi Houdini."

May: This was the month that began to me wonder what my life had become -- in a good way.  Not only did I get to interview one of my all-time favorite mystery authors, but I also went on a last-minute trip to Europe, tagging along with the husband on a business trip of his (a business trip???). If you'd asked me about either of these things just a couple of years ago, I wouldn't have expected either of them to be in my future. (The surreal events of my life were to continue, especially in June and September.)

Attended Malice Domestic -- with a surprise highlight of being asked to step in for Barbara Mertz and conduct the Aaron Elkins Lifetime Achievement Award Interview!

Tagged along with the husband on a business trip to London with an excursion to Lisbon.

I can never resist a trip to the British Library.

Spent my birthday exploring Moorish castle ruins outside of Lisbon.

June:  Signed a three-book deal with Henery Press to publish the Jaya Jones treasure hunt mystery series!

Gorgeous new book cover from Henery Press.

July: Wrote an outline of Jaya Book 3 for Camp NaNoWriMo.

August: Henery Press published the new edition of Artifact.

September: Signed my second three-book contract of the year! After reworking the book proposal I gave my agent in January, the series sold in a three-book deal to Midnight Ink. The new series takes place in Portland, so I have plenty of excuses to visit.

October: Began 100 days of being a full-time writer, taking a sabbatical from my beloved day job to meet my writing deadlines.

November: Traveled to France on a trip that was half book research and half romantic vacation.

Participated in NaNoWriMo and attended the Night of Writing Dangerously.

December: Learned how to balance writing and life as a full-time writer.

It took a while, but I was finally finding my groove by December. My sabbatical ends at the end of January, coinciding with turning in The Accidental Alchemist to Midnight Ink. It's going to be a fun and intense January, but I'm also looking forward to getting back to my regular schedule. I've learned that I love having the structure of my day job (it helps that I love the job and my coworkers), which has been a wonderful thing to realize at this stage of my writing career.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Gigi

The 2013 Night of Writing Dangerously Write-A-Thon

I didn't know if last year's Night of Writing Dangerously could be topped, but this year's National Novel Writing Month write-a-thon was a great night. The event raised money for the Office of Letters and Light, which funds literacy outreach like the Young Writers Program. 

In addition to being a good time for a good cause, the evening turned out to be surprisingly productive! In between catching up with other writers and dining on the tasty vegan dinner and donuts (don't worry future NOWD attendees, vegan was only one of many options), I wrote 3,000 words in the next Jaya Jones novel.

San Francisco's Julia Morgan Ballroom was packed with 250 writers for six hours of writing and other shenanigans. Writing is often such a solitary pursuit that the energy of events like this is invigorating. The theme of the evening was "noir," so we dressed accordingly.

With the Herron sisters, Bethany and Rachael.

Writing beside my partner in crime who I've been writing next to for 9 years!

The San Francisco Bay Area chapter of RWA had a great showing.

The Julia Morgan Ballroom during the Night of Writing Dangerously.

15 Days in France

I kicked off my sabbatical with 15 days in France. I wasn't playing hooky from my 100 days of being a full-time writer. True, I'm definitely still in post-cancer seize-the-day mode. But in addition to being a fun vacation, the trip also served a practical purpose as part of my sabbatical: it was a research trip for two books I'm working on right now.

Jaya Jones Book 3 takes Jaya to several destinations in France, a country she's never been to before. And in The Accidental Alchemist, the first book in my new mystery series, American-born Zoe Faust lived in Paris for many years before ending up in Portland, Oregon, and her sidekick Dorian the gargoyle is from Paris. (Dorian is related to my stuffed animal gargoyle Dori, who stowed away in my luggage on this trip.)

While my critique partners are reading a draft of The Accidental Alchemist this month, I'm writing the next Jaya Jones book for NaNoWriMo. I finished an outline for the book over the summer, so this trip was exactly what I needed to fill in some details and get inspired to dive into the book. Here are a few highlights from the trip.

Les Machines de l'ile of Nantes

The old shipping warehouses of this port city along the Loire have been converted into a mechanical wonderland based on Jules Verne and Leonardo da Vinci.

Les Machines de l'ile (The Machines of the Isle) includes amazing creations including the Great Elephant that roams the park, and a carousel straight out of a fantasy novel. If you're into the steampunk aesthetic, you'd love this place. I'd never been here before, but after I stumbled across it last year when researching France, I knew that I wanted to visit and that it had a part to play in the next Jaya book. 

The Great Elephant at Les Machines de l'ile in Nantes, France.

A sign warns people to watch their children while the Great Elephant roams.

Clisson Castle

No trip to Europe would be complete without a day trip to castle ruins. Clisson is a medieval town not far from Nantes with a wonderful castle. 

Dori the gargoyle exploring Clisson Castle.

Clisson Castle.

Mont Saint Michel

When we arrived at Mont Saint Michel, the small island off the coast of Normandy, it was Halloween and a storm was approaching. That made for an amazing Halloween to explore the cobblestone streets and ramparts as the clouds rolled in.

Mont Saint Michel with a storm approaching.

The storm also gave me a perfect opportunity to kick off National Novel Writing Month on November 1 while sitting inside a cozy hotel room with my paper notebook while the storm raged outside. Our hotel room was a converted fisherman's cottage high on the mount, overlooking the quickly-rising tides. 

View from the hotel room, overlooking low tide in the Mont Saint Michel Bay.

I first visited Mont Saint Michel when I was backpacking after college and I knew I wanted to return. It's such an amazing place full of history and mystery that it's going to get blog posts of its own -- not to mention being an important part of the book! (One of my favorite mysteries, Old Bones by Aaron Elkins, also has two scenes at Mont Saint Michel.)

Mont Saint Michel on a foggy Halloween night.

Exploring the Mont Saint Michel Abbey.

Paris

Eating out in France is fun, even for someone like me who gave up meat. I enjoyed many meals before we got to Paris, but it was wonderful to rent an apartment and do some cooking! I love going to the markets in foreign countries to try new things that aren't available at home. The shallots in France are heavenly and my favorite snack was chocolate-covered rice cakes.

The Louvre is in the new Jaya book, so I visited twice, once during the day and once at night. Nothing as dramatic happened as when I visited in 1998, but it still provided much inspiration.

The Louvre at sunset.

The Musee D'Orsay.

I stopped by to visit my old friends at Notre Dame.

Dori the Gargoyle Exploring Paris 

My stowaway Dori had fun, too. (Dori is distantly related to Dorian, the gargoyle in The Accidental Alchemist, but Dori is much fluffier.)

Dori the gargoyle at the Eiffel Tower.

Dori the gargoyle at Notre Dame.

Dori the gargoyle exploring the Marais neighborhood.

Dori hiding out in my luggage.

Time to get back to work on those books the trip inspired!

A Full-Time Writer for 100 Days

My life has some big changes coming. Tomorrow I begin a 3-month sabbatical from my day job. For 100 days, I'm going to be a full-time writer!

I hadn't originally planned on using a sabbatical to write. My current work/writing schedule works for me. It isn't, however, conducive to writing both the next Jaya Jones book and finishing The Accidental Alchemist with the deadlines I agreed to. I want to both have fun with the books and give myself the time I need to make them good. Thus the sabbatical.

In my life right now, I love how I have structure. It helps my productivity. Without structure, will I be productive or will I become a procrastinator? Only time will tell...

If all goes well, at the end of January I'll have a good draft of the first book in my new series for my editor and a full messy draft of Jaya Book 3 that I can revise. I find myself tempted to do things like fix up the house, which I know is more procrastination than anything. So I'm relying on these guys to keep me honest.

I'll post updates here and on Facebook and Twitter to let you know how it goes!

Post-Chemo Hair Update: The Last Three Months

My last hair update was August 1, so it's time for a new one. When my hair was beginning to grow out after chemo in the spring of 2012, it made sense to take weekly photos so I could keep track of what it looked like at each stage, to remember if I liked a particular length. But now that it's getting longer, I can no longer observe changes from week to week, so I've been taking monthly photos instead. Here's August, September, and October.

Cover Reveal: Pirate Vishnu

The folks at Henery Press have come up with an awesome book cover for my new Jaya Jones treasure hunt mystery!

A century-old treasure map of San Francisco’s Barbary Coast. Sacred riches from India. Two murders, one hundred years apart. And a love triangle… Historian Jaya Jones has her work cut out for her. 

The treasure hunt begins February 2014...

Read more on the Henery Press website or on my website.

A Three-Book Deal for a New Mystery Series!

I'm thrilled to announce the news that Midnight Ink has acquired my new mystery series in a three-book deal!

The Accidental Alchemist is the first book in a new mystery series about alchemist Zoe Faust and her gargoyle sidekick, Dorian, who was accidentally brought to life by a French stage magician. It's set in Portland, Oregon, but like my Jaya Jones treasure hunt mystery series, this one also involves a lot of history from different parts of the world.

I wrote the first draft of The Accidental Alchemist for NaNoWriMo two years ago, while I was going through chemotherapy. I'm sure I was subconsciously thinking about the Elixir of Life from alchemy as subtext, but what I was consciously writing about were things I felt passionately about: my life-long fascination with gargoyles, my new-found love of cooking, and my passion for twisty puzzle-plot mysteries.

As a kid, I always joked about having a pet gargoyle. It was never going to happen in real life, but why not in fiction? As for cooking, I never thought much about it until my cancer diagnosis. But once I started learning how to cook, I learned how absolutely amazing vegan food can taste and how much fun cooking is! Cooking from scratch has become so much a part of my life that it made its way into this series. So as I craft this complex mystery plot, I'm weaving in my other passions. It's a lot of fun to write -- and once it's out I hope you enjoy the finished product!

Dori the gargoyle with my NaNoWriMo mug filled with a homemade smoothie.

Memories of Barbara Mertz / Elizabeth Peters, 1927 - 2013

I can't imagine the world of mystery novels existing without the dozens of books written by Barbara Mertz under her pen name, Elizabeth Peters.

Barbara Mertz passed away on Thursday, August 8, 2013, at the age of 85. She brought readers countless hours of joy through her amazing books, plus inspired so many of us to become mystery writers ourselves. I doubt I would have discovered either the joy of reading or tried my hand at writing if it hadn't been for her.

I started with the Vicky Bliss mystery series when I was in high school. American art history professor Vicky Bliss traveled to foreign lands on mysterious and romantic adventures that were fun, incredibly clever, and full of memorable characters and settings. That was the gateway series that led me to the Amelia Peabody Egyptology mysteries set in the late 1800s, and the Jacqueline Kirby (intrepid librarian) series. Not to mention her stand-alone novels... It's no wonder I've devoted a full shelf, two rows deep, to fit her books on my bookshelf.

Shelf devoted to Elizabeth Peters books.

This shelf of Elizabeth Peters books is two rows deep.

In 2012, the Malice Domestic mystery convention honored Barbara with the Amelia Award, a new award created in honor of the Amelia Peabody character she created. She hadn't attended the convention in several years, and I had never previously met her. It was incredibly meaningful to meet her in person and tell her how much her books had meant to me.
 

Barbara Mertz signing books at Malice Domestic 2012.

As I stood in the signing line, I learned that my feelings were far from unique. One woman even burst into tears upon meeting her. I wasn't quite that demonstrative, but I admit I may have babbled. Yet you'd never know it based on the gracious reaction from Barbara Mertz. She congratulated me on Artifact and signed my beloved old copy of Borrower of the Night, the first book in the Vicky Bliss series, that I've held onto for decades.

 

My beaten-up old copy of Borrower of the Night that I've read countless times.

I'm saving this book forever!

Meeting Barbara Mertz at Malice Domestic 2012.

If you've never tried one of her books, here are a few that are good ones to start with:

• Borrower of the Night (Vicky Bliss Book 1)
• Crocodile on the Sandbank (Amelia Peabody Book 1)
• The Murders of Richard III (Jacqueline Kirby)

She will be missed by her family and friends as well as the scores of readers whose lives she brightened. Her marvelous books live on.

Book Launch Day!

It's book launch day!

Today the Henery Press edition of Artifact comes out. This is the same book that I released last year, with three differences:

1. It's got a gorgeous new book cover.

2. There's an Author's Note about the Scottish and Indian history in the book.

3. A Reader's Discussion Guide is included for book clubs.

For those of you who already read Artifact last year, I've got some fun things planned so you won't feel like you have to wait quite as long until Pirate Vishnu comes out in February 2014.

This October I'll be emailing my newsletter subscribers a Halloween-themed Jaya Jones mystery short story.

And if you haven't yet read "Fool's Gold," the novella that's a prequel to Artifact (Jaya and Sanjay solve a locked-room mystery at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival), the eBook on sale for only $.99 cents this week.

I'm not doing any in-person events right now, but I'm appearing at various online venues over the next six weeks, starting today with an interview for Henery Press and a memoir-y post on the fabulous blog of one of my favorite memoir writers, Rachael Herron:

• Today: Interview on the Henery Press website

• Today: Talking about lessons learned from cancer on Rachael Herron’s Yarn-A-Go-Go blog

UPCOMING ONLINE EVENTS

• August 9: Interview with character Jaya Jones on the Self-Rescue Princess blog

• August 16: Talking about creativity in a high tech world on the Guppies Anthology blog

• August 19: Talking about classic mysteries on the LadyKillers blog

• September 7: Talking about researching Scotland and India on Poe’s Deadly Daughters

• September 11: Interview on Writers Who Kill

• September 14: Talking about childhood adventures on Jungle Red Writers

TWITTER CHAT with two mystery novelists who write about Scotland

Friday September 6

Noon-1pm PT / 3-4pm ET

Anna Lee Huber, author of the Lady Darby historical mysteries (Mortal Arts, Sept 3 2013)

Gigi Pandian, author of the Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt Mystery Series (Artifact, August 6 2013)

Use the hashtag #ScotlandMystery to join the conversation

Whew! It's a good thing I eat so healthily now so I've got the energy to do all this while still working on the third Jaya Jones book! And of course I've got my little gargoyle helpers...

Post-Chemo Hair Growing Out and a Clean Bill of Health

Life is pretty damn good these days. The Henery Press edition of Artifact comes out next week, I finished a rough outline of the third Jaya Jones book a few days ago, and I got a clean bill of health at my annual post-cancer doctor appointments.

Still... I couldn't help grumbling about how long it takes hair to grow back! I've been taking weekly photos of my hair as it grows out, and tracking my progress has made it feel sooooo sloooooow.

But then I took a step back. Looking at photos from every other month during the past 10 months, it's easy to spot the change from a super-short pixie cut to whatever you call a big curly swirl of hair that the wind is constantly blowing into my eyes. Cancer can't stop either me or my hair.

 

Completed Camp NaNoWriMo

On July 25 I completed my Camp NaNoWriMo July goal of writing 25,000 words in the next Jaya Jones book. (Apparently I forget all about blogging when I'm in the midst of writing a novel!)

The novel is a mess right now, but I've learned that's an important step in how books start to take shape. By signing up for National Novel Writing Month's summertime virtual camp with a publicly-declared writing goal, I was able to write some scenes and plot twists that I never would have thought of if I waited for inspiration to strike. Inspiration isn't a muse. It's the dedication of setting an alarm and getting started writing.

Camp NaNoWriMo

I'm participating in Camp NaNoWriMo this month. It's a virtual writing camp, but it's effective—and a lot of fun—all the same.

Camp NaNoWriMo grew out of the original National Novel Writing Month, which takes place each November. November isn't the best month for some people to write a 50,000 word novel draft, nor is 50,000 words a good goal for everyone. That's where Camp NaNoWriMo comes in: it's in both April and July, and you set your own writing goal.

My goal: to write a 25,000 word outline/draft of the third book in the Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt Mystery Series. (Book 2, Pirate Vishnu, is already in my editor's hands, and is scheduled for a Feb 11, 2014 release.)

Why am I going to a virtual camp to write the book? Yes, I know I could sit down and write the book on my own, but I'm someone who benefits from structure. Without it, I'm likely to struggle with a certain scene or plot point that isn't working, rather than moving forward and fixing things during revisions. And most importantly: some of my best ideas come when I'm writing quickly without censoring myself.

Here's what the "camper" page looks like. You enter your progress so you can see it visually (another helpful feature for those of us right-brained writers). I'm writing in Scrivener and upping my usual three days a week of writing to four days a week. This time, Jaya heads to France...

A New Book Cover for ARTIFACT!

I'm so excited to see the amazing cover Henery Press created for the re-release of Artifact!

Henery Press acquired the Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt Mystery Series in a three book deal, beginning with a re-release of Artifact later this summer, on August 6. The new cover design captures the spirit of the book perfectly. I can't wait to see it in print!

Here’s a look at the original book cover from 2012.

Signed a Three Book Deal for the Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt Mystery Series!

The contract is signed, so I can officially share the news: Henery Press has acquired the Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt Mystery Series!

From my experience with the Jaya Jones novella "Fool's Gold" in the Other People's Baggage collection, I knew the Henery Press publishing team was fantastic. I'm excited to be working with them on the rest of the series. 

If you follow my blog, you know about my publishing journey (you can read some of the story here and here). My life has been full of so many twists and turns the last couple of years, and in spite of the bumps it's been a wonderful ride. I've learned so much about the publishing industry and about myself: 

• The mystery writing community is amazing. 
• I'm good at sticking to a disciplined writing schedule. 
• Cancer can't stop me from completing NaNoWriMo.
• I love writing mysteries of all kinds.
• Writers have so many publishing options available to them. 
• There's an overwhelming amount of publishing information out there. 
• If you present yourself professionally, you'll be treated as such. 
• I don't enjoy the back-end details of publishing.
• A scary health diagnosis helps set priorities, and enjoying life comes out on top.
• My characters have many more stories to tell. 

Those bullet points add up to being thrilled to receive this offer from Henery Press. I'll have more details to share in the coming weeks, but for now I wanted to share the exciting news with you!

My office: Dorian the gargoyle (and friends) and my Henery Press mug.

Book deal celebratory shoes: new Fluevogs!

p.s. You'll notice that links to buy Artifact and pre-order Pirate Vishnu have been taken down from my blogs and website. Artifact is being re-released by Henery Press on August 6, and Pirate Vishnu will be out in early 2014.