I’m back, baby! Back from the most amazing book tour and from taking the kids to a curling training camp in Ontario. (They got to be coached by Olympians! How cool is that?)

Thank you for Book Passage, Banter Bookshop, Firehouse Bookstore, and Barnes&Noble Littleton for all the love. It was wonderful to see old friends and make a lot of new ones. Here are some photos from my trip.

It was home for about two weeks before I disappeared to Canada with the boys. While I was in a condition of childlessness in Ontario I had a DIY writing retreat to finish the rewrite of my third book. Here was my amazing, glamorous room.
 

I stayed in Grand Bend, a beach community on Lake Huron. It was lovely even though I only left my room twice a day for food. But on the last day I finished all my rewrites and was able to buy a fried pastry called a Beaver Tail and walk to the beach. There were waves! Big enough for surfing! I hadn’t been expecting surfable waves on a lake. (Although Lake Huron is bigger than some seas. Perhaps Lake Huron needs better PR people.)

   

 
Worth it.
 
Now it’s time to get back into the routine.
 
Schooling.
Working.
Mom-ing.
Wife-ing.
Writing.
 
Oh, yes. I’ve already got a new project bubbling around in my head. Sure, I’m still technically working on book 3 and book 2 is still lurking out there as my publisher decides if it’s the right book to follow Her Dying Day, but I have an idea and so it’s time to play.

Starting a book is my favorite part of writing. It really is playtime. I get to figure out who my characters are and what kinds of trouble their going to get into. There are no rules to follow. Anything can happen.  Possibilities are endless.
 
I’ve also been on a podcast. The aptly named I Should Be Writing Podcast hosted by author Mur Lafferty. It’s a great podcast for writers of all genres and experiences. She has a yearly rejection count that she keeps from herself and her listeners. She says we need to take pride in our rejections because that means that we’re writing; we’re producing work and sending it out into the world. That’s what counts.

In my episode, we talked about developing characters. She found my characters in particular to be dynamic, three-dimensional people so we talked what kinds of things I do to make that happen. The conversation was so fun I had no idea that an entire hour had passed. You can listen here.
 
Friends have also been sending me photos of my books “in the wild.” Pictures of my books on bookstore shelves, reading my book at the beach, or park, or airplane, or even pictures of the perfect drink to have with my book.

 

Send me your photo and I’ll share it on my Instagram, Twitter, or here!

You can order my book at Swamp Fox Books, an independent, family-owned  book store! Or Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or any of your local bookstores, but if you order from Swamp Fox you get a signed bookplate and a cool bookmark.