How on earth did it get to be December so quickly? Of course, I’m still wondering how it got to be 2016! Time seems to be just zipping by! Anyway, I’ve got a lot of news to share.
First of all, I have finally begun a newsletter, please sign up. It’s going to be a casual thing, sent out only when I have a new release or something really exciting to announce. In the spirit of research I subscribed to a number of author newsletters and was astounded to see how often some send them out – believe it or not, some writers send mailings three and four times a week! How do they find that much to say? Or find the time to do it? Or find any time to write after doing it? No way – I’ll never do anything that over the top. If you’re interested – and I hope you are – there’s post above that will get you on the list.
Three exciting things happening right now. For a couple of years I have served as the Director for Texas on the Board of the Southwest Region of Mystery Writers of America. There’s an election coming up, and MWA has asked to run for the office again, which I am both happy and honored to do. If any of you are MWA members I surely would appreciate your vote!
Secondly, MURDER IN DEATH’S WAITING ROOM, the new Flora Melkiot story, should release in a week or ten days. Poor Flora had just the tiniest auto accident – a bump on the head and a broken wrist – but it was enough for her painfully conventional daughter Clarissa to swoop in and carry her off to a nursing home in San Antonio for rehab. Clarissa hopes to convince (or perhaps coerce) Flora into selling her Dallas condo and moving in with them, where Clarissa can control some of her mother’s wild escapades. Flora will have none of it and is furious when she finds that her daughter has obtained a temporary guardianship guaranteeing that Flora will stay there as long as her doctor and Clarissa say. Of course, there is a series of murders, which – to Clarissa’s consternation – Flora feels constrained to solve. It was a fun book to write – Flora is arrogant, opinionated, self-assured and occasionally prickly. I love her.
The third wonderful thing is truly spectacular.
NOW…!!! For some really exciting news! You may remember in March of 2015 The Husband and I were invited to come stay in the El Kab archaeological headquarters (‘dig house’) in Egypt so I could do a mystery set there. In March 2016 A KILLING AT EL KAB was released.
A couple of days ago I was contacted by the Boekhandel De Kleine Johannes (which according to my pretty much non-existent Dutch means Dear John’s Bookstore) in Louvain, the university town of Belgium. The Boekhandel is having a literary evening on December 14. The speaker will be my friend Dr. Dirk Huyge, Director of the Belgian Archaeological Mission to El Kab and Curator of the Royal Museum of Art and History in Brussels, who invited us to Egypt in 2015. He will be talking about excavating in Egypt… and about how he showed up as a character in A KILLING AT EL KAB! The Husband and I looked into going over for the event, but it was just impossible, both financially and logistically. I am, however, going to appear via Skype!
Isn’t that just too cool? I’m still sad that we couldn’t go over in person, but one must be sensible, no? Sometimes I’m not quite sure why, though…
Anyway, that’s all for now. Between finishing two books, getting two more ready for release, and releasing yet another one, plus all the preparations for the holiday, I am almost overwhelmed. Almost. Everything that needs to be done will get done, I’m sure… I’m just now quite sure how… but it always does!
I wish every one of you the very Merriest of Christmases and the Happiest of New Years!