New in AUDIO! LAMENT AT LOON LANDING

 Good morning! 

What a crazy month. Very creative. Very productive. I'm way behind on updates. Way behind on any social interaction at all, I know. There are simply not enough hours in the day. Or enough days!

Anyway, LAMENT AT LOON LANDING is now available on Audible (and soon to be on iTunes and Amazon). Matt Haynes returns to give us another brilliant and quirky reading of Ellery Page's sixth adventure. 

Oh, and good news for my Dutch readers: UITGEVERIJ DE FONTEIN, a division of VBK Media, has just contracted books 6 and 7 in the series (which means audio there as well).

Fakes, folk music, and ghost fires

 

When legendary folk singer Lara Fairplay agrees to make her comeback debut at Pirate’s Cove’s annual maritime music festival, everyone in the quaint seaside village is delighted—including mystery bookstore owner and sometimes amateur sleuth, Ellery Page.

Better yet, Lara is scheduled to perform a recently discovered piece of music attributed to “The Father of American Music,” Stephen Foster, which will hopefully bring large crowds and a lot of business.

Several mysterious accidents later, Ellery is less delighted as his suspicion grows that someone plans to silence the celebrity songbird forever.

NOW ON AUDIBLE

What I Did on My Summer Vacation - 2022

 

Other than nearly slicing my thumb off Tuesday night (ugh, don't ask) all is well in the land of Lanyon.

Unlike last year, this summer has been both creative and productive and, better still, pretty much drama-free. I completed The Movie-Town Murders, Death at the Deep Dive, and Hide and Seek. 

The sibs and I are rehearsing and performing again--and batting around the idea of producing an eighth album. 

I've got lots of audio coming, new translations, etc.

Currently, I'm working on Puzzle for Two (for Patreon) and Lament at Loon Landing (Secrets and Scrabble 6) with no hard ETA on either. 

That's pretty much the update. I KNOW. THRILLING STUFF. :-D

My social media presence is pretty minimal right now. I guess I'm choosing to be present in real life as opposed to the virtual space where I spent the last twenty years? These last precious days of summer are being spent on swimming, gardening, experimenting with cocktails (hey, someone's gotta do it) playing with the pups, reading a little, writing a lot, and watching a fair bit of TV (I'm probably consuming more news than I should, but the midterms are coming and I want to brace myself). I got my first hair cut in three years and my first facial in six months. 

We've had houseguests and family get-togethers. Life is returning to normal. This weekend we're getting our next booster shot.

The new normal. 

You really can't ask for more than that. Yes, everything is different now. The pandemic years changed... everything. Changed me. But I'm happy and I'm more creative (and more productive) than I've been in years, so it's all good.

And what did you do on your summer vacation? 

Life as We Know It

 I'm trying to figure out what the heck I've been doing for the last couple of months that's taking up so much time...

OH YEAH, WRITING.

And yet, I seem to have so little to show for it. 

Of course, writing is not all I've been doing. We had our very dear friends from Finland staying with us for a few days. We had the preparation and celebration of our annual 4th of July party. I had rehearsals for our gig in Pleasanton this September (for those who don't know, in my other life, I'm in a Celtic band and we've started accepting gigs again WHY????????? But anyway...)

One thing that slowed me down was finishing up Hide and Seek. It turned out to be way longer than I'd anticipated AND the edits were more extensive. So I started Lament at Loon Landing late (try saying that fast three times) but quickly--though not quickly enough--realized I wasn't going to finish in time to  be able to start Death at the Deep Dive so as not to also miss that deadline (and lose all my preorders).

So now I'm working on Death at the Deep Dive (which I'm LOVING) but that means that Book 7 in the series will come out before Book 6. 

I know.

But here's the thing, I could pretty much change the book numbers and it wouldn't make much difference except that the way I'm doing the series is each book is set in a particular month based on what's going on on the island (the real island, Block Island, I mean). AND I wanted a book in between Body at Bucanneer's Bay and the plot point resolutions of Death at the Deep Dive. It's not crucial, but as far as the pacing of the series overall, I feel like that's important. So yes, the first few thousand readers won't have the benefit of that elongated pacing, but the first few thousand readers probably feel I'm overthinking it. ;-)

As far as overall story arcs, nothing that happens in Book 7 affects the mystery stuff in Book 6. 

There are some other developments that will be slightly out of order, but in the long run, nothing major. Or at least, I don't think it's anything major. HOW SHOULD I KNOW?

Oh, and as for when Book 6 Lament at Loon Landing will actually come out? 

Here's the thing. After I finish Death at the Deep Dive, I need to promote and catch up everything else for a day or two (because it's like weeks since I've responded to email or messages) and then rehearsals and then I have to get my booster shot so that I've got as much immunity as possible before we do this Labor Day gig. Having had Covid once, I'm really, really, REALLY eager not to contract the BA.5E = mc^2 variant. But I do seem to get knocked on my ass by the boosters, so I'll lose some writing time there. Then there is the gig itself (which is roughly five days including travel and prep).

I'm trying to be realistic, and realistically, it's probably going to be mid-September. 

And honestly, that might be optimistic, because sometimes I get tired.

Sometimes, every month or so, I need a rest. 

But anyway, I know the updates have been few and far between, so I figured I better explain myself before the confusion about release dates reaches critical mass.

OH! Next week, I've got something special planned for the blog! A "conversation" with the wonderful Aki Fuyuto, who does the Japanese translations for my books with Shinshokan, and Yooichi Kadono, the brilliant artist who does so many of the illustrations.  I found it so interesting, and I think you will too. ;-) 

LAMENT AT LOON LANDING Playlist

Just wanted to reassure everyone that although I did delete the preorder for Lament at Loon Landing on Amazon, the book is still happening. Because I'm writing so slowly, I needed a few more weeks to get it done, that's all. 

In the meantime, I've been listening to the playlist I made for the book, and you might enjoy it as well. 

Because this installment takes place during a maritime musical festival on Buck Island, you'd probably expect to hear more (or some) sea chanteys, but somehow that's not happening. 

The Kathleen Edwards' songs seem to represent the character of Lara Fairchild, and her character is changing as I write. She's more complicated and more of a catalyst than I originally thought.

Also, Jack and Ellery are pretty solid at this point. They don't have an official commitment, but they're obviously committed to each other despite their occasional clashes. I mean, occasional clashes are a fact of any long term relationship. In book time they've only known each other a few months, so they're actually moving pretty quickly. If this was real life, the people closest to them would be telling them to pump the brakes. Not counting the islanders, of course, because they can see what's what. 

Anyway, the playlist...

Goodnight, California - Kathleen Edwards

Shape of You - Ed Sheeran

Butter - BTS

Riptide - Vance Joy

Shooting Star - Owl City 

In State - Kathleen Edwards

The Dark and Rolling Sea - Al Stewart

All In - Lifehouse 

Shoulder - Ed Patrick 

Back to Me - Kathleen Edwards 

Even if it's Lonely - Hazlett

It was twenty years ago today, Sargent Pepper taught the band to play...

 

Okay, no, it was last year, and I sincerely wish Sargent Pepper had been there in time. 

Anyway, what a difference a year makes. Last Memorial Day was the weekend everything started to go off the rails, and it went downhill from there. But the good news is this year we have running water, air conditioning, no sick doggies...no drama and no trauma. Yes the people in the house of doom did nearly start another backyard fire with their barbecue, but this time one of their guests saved the day. I just can't...

DID I MENTION I ACCIDENTLY DELETED MY MAILING LIST?

I mean, it wasn't totally by accident. I detest Mailchimp and pressing that DIE, DIE, DIE button was SO (momentarily) satisfying. And I did preserve all the names and emails of my little bitty list. I just haven't had time to do anything with them. YET. Obviously, I'm going to fix that. 

So the good news is The Movie-Town Murders (Art of Murder 5) is out and available.

THAT DIDN'T TAKE SO LONG, DID IT?

Ouch.

And Hide and Seek is just about complete. This month for sure.

But given the fact that I now write five words a day (KIDDING, though there are days it feels like it) I had to remove Lament at Loon Landing as a preorder on Amazon. I can't write a book in two weeks. Yes. there are them what can and yay for them. I need more time. 

Plus, I haven't had massage/physical therapy in over two years and, no surprise, my achy-breaky wrists are feeling it big time. So I'm aiming for the end of June for Lament at Loon Landing. Basically, we're looking at two weeks longer than originally planned? Fingers crossed.

From that point on, I might actually be able to stay on schedule. I mean, stranger things have happened.

There is a LOT of catch up needed on a LOT of things, but at least I'm writing again every day and the books are coming, slowwwwwwly but surely. 

More news to follow. ;-)