Finished!

Finished. Hooray! We are packing to go home, so I don't have time to post more until we land (Monday night).  But I am so happy.

Still Writing

Yup. Still writing. This re-write business takes longer than one would suspect. Almost done, though.

Nose Still to the Grindstone This Week

A most uncomfortable position in which to work.

The last scenes are always the hardest in a rewrite, I think: There's this desire to finish, finish, finish pushing at one, but the ending chapters need to be as clean as the opening chapters, which means slowing down and getting really picky, picky, picky!

Hope to see you soon. Maybe next week.

A Day Early Or A Week Late?

I know it's not Friday, but I'm celebrating two interviews and a road trip, along with the fact that I've finished 15 chapters of my rewrite. I've passed the halfway mark, yippee!

Last week I was interviewed by blog hosts, Geri Schear and Don Smith, about writing in general and my interest in Sherlock Holmes in particular. It was fun to answer their questions, and I also became interested in following their blogs, because they interview a lot of authors and explore all things Sherlock.

You can read Geri Schear's Interview HERE: and Don Smith's interview HERE:

The road trip was to Asturias, a part of Spain known for its cheeses. Lovely scenery and charming little villages all along the way. (As you can see by the pictures above.)

This Celebrate the Small Things blog hop is co-hosted by Lexa Cain at: Lexa Cain,  L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge , and Tonja Drecker @ Tidbits Blog. You can go to any of these sites to add your name to the links, if you want to participate. I recommend it, because it's always fun to see positive news that others are celebrating, and to share your own as well. 



How about you? Are you a Sherlock fan? Do you like to travel? What is your favorite country (away from home)? And, now that I think about it, do you do interviews?

Four Things to Celebrate

 
As many of you know, my husband and I come to Galicia spring and fall -- usually the most comfortable seasons in Galicia, although this time they have had a delayed spring, so it's been rainier and chillier than usual. Always beautiful, though, as you can see. Meanwhile, our wonderful neighbor is looking after our house in Sacramento, so we are very grateful.

I'm also celebrating the fact that I've rewritten the first five chapters of my mystery novel. It was worth the wait, once I'd had it critiqued. Some of you may remember it looked like this:
 

There was much to think over, as you can see, and I'm glad I didn't just jump in and start revising right away. I've a much better idea about how I want to handle scenes and characters, and if I'd started too soon, it would have been like knitting rows and rows on a sweater and then needing to rip them out again. Now the book knows where it's going. (At least so far.)


A third thing to celebrate: I've mentioned before the Kickstarter campaign for coming anthology, Beyond Watson, in which twelve stories involving Sherlock Holmes will use differing viewpoints than the traditional Dr. Watson perspective. One of my stories starring Imogene (& Rusty) will be included.
The Kickstarter campaign was a huge success. The book will be coming out in June, and you can expect to see this cover again (as well as read some teasers) in the next two months.  Meanwhile, if you have projects you'd like funded, by all means visit KICKSTARTER to learn more about what kinds of projects they fund and how to go about starting a campaign of your own.

Last, but not least, we were fortunate last night to hear the great María do Ceo, a renowned fadista, perform in a concert in the Casa da Cultura in Sober (an interesting town few miles away that offers many musical and cultural events.) She lives in Galicia but is originally from Portugal, the birthplace of Fado. I originally heard her sing in August of 2013, when friends Terri & David took me to a performance at Rectoral de Castillon. (I blogged about it HERE ) Rajan and I were taking turns in Galicia that summer, while the other took care of our sick dog, so I was alone on that particular trip, but that was when I discovered Fado.

The following April, we went with friends, Craig and Melanie to hear María do Ceo sing at a town called Quiroga, an hour away, and I blogged about it HERE.  That was when Rajan discovered Fado,  too, and we've both been hooked every since. We've hoped many times to catch another performance in Galicia, but she has always been singing somewhere that would involve a very long drive in an unfamiliar location for us.

But: three days ago, our friends, Craig and Melanie, alerted us to the concert in Sober, and we all went together last night to hear her. She was marvelous, as usual. She was featuring songs from a new CD -- which we bought, of course, and had her autograph. She's a very gracious lady and even remembered me from before, which was so nice!

Here she is, kindly allowing me to have a selfie with her:


If you have never heard Fado before, listening to her singing is a wonderful introduction. You can go to here WEBSITE 

And this is her new album:

 How about you? Do you have a favorite singer you go out of your way to hear? What is your favorite music? Are you involved in a rewrite of a story or book?  How do you approach your own rewrites? Do you have to mull them over for a long time? Or can you jump right in after you've have feedback? 

Meanwhile, 

Celebrate the Small things is a blog hoop co-sponsored by Lexa Cain at: Lexa Cain,  L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge , and Tonja Drecker @ Tidbits Blog. You can go to any of these sites to add your name to the links, if you want to participate. I recommend it, because it's always fun to see positive news that others are celebrating, and to share your own as well. 

I'm a bit late celebrating this week, as life has been pretty busy. But I always like to join in this celebration when I can. Celebrate the Small things is a blog hop co-sponsored by Lexa Cain @ Lexa Cain , L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge , and Tonja Drecker @ Tidbits Blog. You can go to any of these sites to add your name to the links, if you want to participate. I recommend it, because it's always fun to see positive news that others are celebrating, and to share your own as well. 

Today I'm celebrating the Kickstarter Campaign I mentioned last week for the anthology of Sherlock Holmes stories that will be published in June.  The campaign started last week and has been amazingly successful so far. It runs until the end of this month, and if you join in, you can win prizes -- among them, a copy of the book when it comes out. If you go to THIS SITE and scroll down the page, in the right margin you will see what the prizes are for each level of support. The book will have 12 original tales about Sherlock Holmes, told from different perspectives  than Dr. Watson. (Thus the title -- Beyond Watson).

I'm also celebrating my niece's new CD, Enjoy the Ride, that will be released April 8th. She's a blues singer (Debbie Bond) and lives in Alabama with her husband, Radiator Rick. I'm a proud auntie, for sure. At this point, in the States, they play mainly on the east coast, but they've toured in Europe several times, and we are hoping to get them out here to California some day. You can hear a teaser from the album HERE, and learn more about her at her website HERE.  Go have a listen.

Happy Easter, and may you have a basketful of things to celebrate!

This is kinda big, actually

 Celebrate the Small things is blog hop co-sponsored by Lexa Cain @ Lexa Cain , L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge , and Tonja Drecker @ Kidbits Blog, and you can go to any of these sites to get all the links and add your name to the links, if you want to participate. I recommend it, because it's always fun to see positive news that others are celebrating, and to share your own as well. 

Today I'm celebrating the launch that begins tomorrow of a new anthology, Beyond Watson, coming out in June. It will have 12 original tales about Sherlock Holmes, told from different perspectives, the majority not Dr. Watson's. The anthology comes out in June and will be a real keeper. A story by me -- "Kidnapped" -- will be included, and it was so much fun to write.


But I've had the good fortune to read some of the other stories, and they are just delightful. One such story is "Mrs. Hudson's Lodger" by Geri Shear, which tells how Mrs. Hudson met Sherlock Holmes.

Here's a little taster: It was the spring of 1877. I was with my friend and neighbour Mrs Prescott and we were examining some ancient manuscripts. Such pretty illustrations. Suddenly she froze. Mrs Prescott, I mean, and hissed, “Oh dear, come quickly into another room, Mrs Hudson. I cannot bear to see that insufferable young man.” The young man in question is Sherlock Holmes, new to London, and already set on solving crimes. And a very interesting crime indeed has been visited on Mrs. Hudson. 

The anthology comes out in June. Watch for it. Beyond Watson, published by Belanger Books.

What are some of your favorite anthologies?