After the Hiatus

Although I’m tagging this as a Writing Diary entry, it’s more of a post about writing-related things I’ve been doing this month.

The biggest accomplishment, of course, was writing, revising, proofreading, and publishing Bury Me Not, the second novel in my Rainbow Ranch Mysteries. This was a difficult book to write. I think it’s because I’m excited by character growth more than the puzzle of a mystery story now. Unless, of course, the solving of the mystery also involves character growth, like that of Titus Strong and Elisabeth in the Shipwreck Point Mysteries.

If you read the African Violet Club series, you know that Lilliana had a definite character arc that came to an end in Holly Green Murder. I thought I had an idea for a new arc for her in this series, but that wasn’t prominent in Bury Me Not. I’m going to have to think long and hard about the future of this new series.

The second thing I’ve been working on is designing and developing my new website. That’s been both a lot of fun and a lot of work. Fun because I enjoy doing computer stuff. Work because I’m learning a new program to do the site, and I have to create all new graphics to suit the sizes of various images on the new site. To be honest, one of the reasons I’m writing this blog post is because I want to test what it’s like to post a blog on the new site. (Don’t try to find it. Since the site isn’t published yet, it won’t show up in any searches.)

And last, but certainly not least, I’m starting to plan my writing for next year. One of the things I want to do is try a new genre. I’m not going to say much about that other than because it’s so different from my mysteries, I’m going to use a pen name on those books. (Notice the optimism. “Books,” indeed!) I’m also going to write another Shipwreck Point book. I’m eager to get into the research for that one.

And that’s all for now.