I haven’t posted in a while … I guess I’ve been too busy and distracted. But in good ways. My oldest is about to turn eighteen, and he constantly reminds me of that Alice Cooper song. “I’m a boy and I’m a man. Don’t always know what I’m talking about, feels like I’m living in the middle of doubt.” Those exciting teen years, where everything is exciting, and new, and an adventure. And I wouldn’t go through that again if you paid me.
I spent my first fifteen years in Allegany, NY, and the next four at a university three miles down the road and across the Allegheny river. And then, at nineteen, I went to Pittsburgh for grad school at Carnegie Mellon … and that’s where I finally grew up. Pittsburgh will always be special to me for that reason, for the places I haunted back in the mid-90’s, and for the friends I made there. I suppose that’s why the Thomas Vale character is based out of there. Right what you know, after all.
Lately, the heat waves of summer have made for good writing weather. I have a lot of writing plates in the air right now, including working on Book Three, i.e. “Drawing Dead,” which will complete the opening trilogy of the Thomas Vale series. Of my current ventures, this series is the most important to me, but somehow that translates to “hardest to focus on.”
Because it matters so much to me, I can’t just sit down anywhere, anytime, and just spew words. I have to be in the right mindset with a decent block of time, and that’s hard to manage sometimes. So I end up editing other projects, writing crossword puzzles, and other things I can do without my full focus or the right mood.
That’s fine, as long as I eventually circle back to Drawing Dead. I’m supposed to have that book ready for release by February, and I’m a little behind at the moment. What I really want is to have hard copies available for sale at live events by Christmas season. I’m really going to have to pick up the pace for that. Writing takes a long time when, you know, an actual human is doing the writing.
Hopefully the doldrums of July will help. In the last few months I had big days at a couple of boozy book fests and a Lavender Festival, but all I have planned for July is a few farmer’s markets and a street festival next Thursday and Friday in Port Huron which I suspect will be a lot like a two-day farmer’s market.
The only unusual thing this month is that I have a podcast appearance coming up at some point. It’s a weekly author interview show, and this month’s theme is mystery, so that’s how I fit in. I’ll announce it here when it drops, and also put a link on my Appearances page (you can see/hear most of my other interviews there).
That’s all for now. I hope everyone’s summer beach reads have been satisfying!