Hello!
January sure got away from me, but I’m making progress, and there’s lots to catch up on! And February is all for the love of books!
I hope you enjoyed my December video update and my Christmas Light Tour video, which was posted below the update! If you missed them, they’re still available to view on my blog. And, if you’d like more video updates in the future, let me know.
Santa Comes Through
First off, I have to say Santa was very good to me! Not only did I get a copy of Agatha’s Midwinter Murder, I also received The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding, which is a collection of Poirot stories with one Miss Marple thrown in for good measure. And they were both hardcover! Score!
Birthday Celebrations
Also in the news, to celebrate my new membership in Sisters in Crime, by beautiful daughter gave me this awesome sweatshirt for my birthday! I feel so official now.
My husband, daughter, her best friend, and I enjoyed a wonderful (but cold) birthday weekend in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, one of our favorite places. Gracie spent most of her time in her favorite antique shop, where she found just the right tiara for a character in her YA fantasy series.
One Step Closer
On the writing front, despite a mountain of obstacles, I was finally able to get my manuscript for Promise of the Day Devotional for Victorious Living to my editor. My new editor. Yes, one of those obstacles was losing my original editor, who is in her final semester of grad school. I’m very happy for her but finding a good editor can be time consuming and stressful. I think I found a great fit, though, so I’m thankful for that.
Other fun on the road to publication included my ministry site, watchgodwork.com, taken out by malware, then my RSS feed broke, then my SEO plugin broke, then a reviewer on Amazon wrote a review of my short story, “The Uninvited Guest,” which was in complete violation of the copyright and Amazon refused to take it down! So, I did. Yes, I unpublished my own book.
But I have overcome!
My devotional will be available for preorder next month and is scheduled for release on April 15, 2022! Just in time for Passover! Hopefully, the companion Journal will be out then, too.
My mystery is still in revision, thanks to all the time spent trying to sort out my website and editorial problems, but I’m still working away.
Oh, yes, and I completed my short story challenge for NYCMidnight. I couldn’t believe I was actually assigned the mystery genre. My story had to include a joiner and an evacuation theme, and I’m pretty happy with the result. I’ll get the results in April. What fun!
Confessions of a Bibliophile
I love books. Especially old books. Someday, Gracie and I hope to get to a big book sale in New York, but for now, we hit antique shops and book sales in the great Pacific Northwest. Last weekend, it was the AAUW book sale. God was smiling down on us. I scored an entire set Nathaniel Hawthorne from 1882!
I also purchased a pile of classic children’s lit, including an 1981 edition of Journeys of Frodo: An Atlas of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, by Barbara Strachey, and a 1952 edition of The Wind in the Willows, complete with original artwork!
Of course, those went immediately to Gracie’s bookshelf! But that’s okay, I got them for her anyway. She’s pretty awesome.
Featured Author
Kudos to my friend and fellow author, Kady Hinojosa, who recently
released the second book in her action-packed Mali Hooper thriller series, #JusticePrevails! This series will make you look at the internet in a whole new way. You may start looking over your shoulder and possibly sleeping with the lights on! But a heads up to readers who prefer clean fiction. This series does contain homosexuality, strong language, and sexual content. If none of that bothers you, buckle up and dig in.
That’s my news for now. Until next time…
Happy reading!
Rebecca