Mindy Carlson

2023 snuck in on me, like one of Dad’s farm cats that has decided being outdoors is for suckers and they’re going to get in on that comfy couch action.

But before I start to enjoy what 2023 has to offer, I wanted to give a brief hurray to what an incredible year 2022 was for me. My first novel HER DYING DAY was released in June! I went on an incredible book tour that all of you attended (THANK YOU), wrote two more books that are in the process of being rewritten/edited and hopefully submitted to a publisher this year, and went to three different writers conferences. I was even on a couple of panels. Not to mention the podcasts I guested on.

Speaking of podcasts, I was just on the Game of Books Podcast this week! I listened to myself, which is always hard, but this one was especially funny and fun as I was with 3 other mystery novelists to talk about our writing craft. Have a listen.

This year isn’t going to feature a book release, but I am going to focus on craft. In fact, that’s my word of the year.

I want to work on the craft of my writing, how I craft my stories (so I don’t have to go through 15 rounds of edits every time), playing with crafty things like knitting, and crafting the kind of life I want to live – a life to my standards and no one else’s.

[BTW – I knitted a sock. Just the one so far. The mate will be attempted soon.]

The theme of CRAFT for the year comes with some lofty goals, or intentions as some people are now calling them. I don’t like the word “intentions.” Intentions is a word that feels like a shiny ripe apple hanging from a branch just out of reach. I intended to get that apple, but I didn’t quite make it. Oh well. A goal easily shrugged off. I don’t want to be able to easily shrug of these goals.

But intentions also has a spiritual or holy feel. In Catholicism an intention is “an act of the will by which that faculty efficaciously desires to reach an end by employing the means.” There is a power outside ourselves—or maybe even manifested within the deep, unknown reaches of our psyche—that lifts us up within reach of the apple so that we are able to pluck it. Perhaps that’s the sense of the word I carry with me, but for now it’s not.

Regardless, we have cracked open a fresh and luscious new year piñata and the possibilities have come spilling out. Scoop up what you can and enjoy every morsel.

If you need inspiration, I highly recommend my first read of 2023 – Becoming Duchess Goldblatt. I liked it so much I’m thinking of picking it for my bookclub read.

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.