Now Available on Audiobook
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Mask or Raid: Kiki Lowenstein Mystery #17
As if this writing, I’m 9,000-words into Mask or Raid: Kiki Lowenstein Mystery #17. There’s an outline done already, so that’s good. I have a strong sense of how this particular book starts, so I’m feeling confident as I write. Zinging right along. However, like all my books, I’m sure this one will present its […]
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The Friday Night Mystery Club
I’m often asked, “How long does it take you to write a book?”
The answer is, “Depends on the book.”
The Friday Night Mystery Club took me thirty years. I don’t know why. I don’t have a good reason.
No, that’s not entirely true. As I recall, I submitted it to my (then) agent, and she wasn’t impressed. I now know that agents aren’t always good judges of what will sell. Some, I assume, are. Especially if it means “will sell to a traditional publishing house.” But others aren’t. The world of indie publishing has proved that, time after time.
When I revisited The Friday Night Mystery Club, I’d expected to have to tear it apart. As it turned out, the book simply needed a good polish. As I read it, memories came flooding back. I set the book in Decatur, Illinois, a place where I lived briefly. Included is the milieu of the daily newspaper where I worked as an ad rep. As I re-read the book, I could see the newspaper bullpen, I could feel the rubber cement we used, I could hear the noises of the reporters as they gathered stories for publication, and I could sense the bustle that was so much a part of a news organization.
But The Friday Night Mystery Club is a stand-alone. At this point, I cannot imagine turning it into a series–although anything is possible! So the question was, what do I do with this beast?
