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Showing posts with the label new ideas

Drat! Another Idea

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  People often ask authors, "Where do your ideas comefrom?" Answers will vary. Ideas come from the present. The past. The news. Local gossip. Ancient stories. Out of nowhere. I hit a kind of hiatus this week. The next Maggie Pill book is done, at least until my eagle-eyed beta readers get their hands on the author copies and make their corrections. The next Peg Herring book, tentatively called Aunt Marge, needs time to rest. I believe that, like a roast just out of the oven, a book requires "sitting time," a period where the author puts it away and thinks about something else. In a month or six weeks or whatever, it will read differently, which will bring about all kinds of tweaks and improvements. At least, that's what I preach and practice. Those two things mean, however, that I have nothing to write at present, and nothing to edit either. I had told myself I'd concentrate on reminding readers about my older books as well as helping "Maggie" pus

Which Book Was That?

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 It happens to me sometimes. A reader mentions a character or a scene in one of my books, and it takes me a second to find it in my memory. Oh, right, Caroline, the protagonist in Somebody Doesn't Like Sarah Leigh. I remember her--kind of. https://books2read.com/u/4AgVOq The thing is, authors move on. We have new ideas. We dream up new people. But there's no way to tell when a reader will find a book, read it, and get excited for more. My first book was published in 2006. I just saw online where someone ordered it. Yay...but how much of Macbeth's Niece do I even remember? https://books2read.com/u/m0xYdY My newest book, Deceiving Elvera, released on Friday. There are ads for it everywhere, and the introductory price is a bargain, so readers are talking about it. One beta reader suggested I could make it a series. Um, no. Some books are meant to be stand-alones, and this one is...big-time. https://books2read.com/u/38RZoB The other day a fan wrote to say she wished Maggie P