9 April - Week Behind and Week Ahead -

The winner of a copy of The Hudson House Murders is Lynn. An email will be sent to her soon and the book sometime this week.

Last week found me sending off a contract for A Surprising Seduction and working on The Micro-manger Murder. I managed to get about halfway through the story and completed the plot draft. There are not so many holes. Now they're about motorcycle size for driving through. One of the things I discovered is when one is working on a series and begins a new one, there are things from the past books that need to be located. Names. Since Katherine is getting married there are people from the past who need to make an appearance. Would have been nice to keep a list of who the characters are in each book and their names. Spent time looking over the books to find everyone. Another thing hit me. Read the first chapter to my critique group. Some of the comments made me take another look at the books and I discovered two things. The writer's voice shone clear but I'd forgotten the voice of the character and the voice of the story. Fortunately I'd read an article there and managed to start a new first chapter. Katherine always manages to ease into her story so the action needs to be woven in. Managed this and then found a new note I had to address. In The Hudson House Murders Lars intended to arrive in August but this was the date set for the wedding. I needed to add a bit to the first chapter.

Now for the coming week. I'm working on the Setting draft to make sure the reader will see where the character is. Am up to Chapter 3 and will continue to do as much as I can. I will be signing books on Sunday at the Rockland County Historical Center and this should be fun since there will be other local authors there. The usual features will be on the blog this week. I was interviewed at Jaleta Clegg's blog.

I've an interview up here. http://jaletaclegg.blogspot.com/

I also have an interview up here. http://roseannedowellauthor.blogspot.com/2012/04/welcome-janet-lane-walters.html