Laying the Groundwork

Today is Shallow End's official launch date although it has been available for over a week now and advance reader copies went out about six months ago. The reader and reviewer feedback has been terrific to date - thank you everyone for helping to spread the word about this series. A special thank you to British crime writer Ann Cleeves who read an advance copy and gave a lovely endorsement. Ann writes the Jimmy Perez Shetland series (on Netflix) and the Vera Stanhope series, great reads all.

I'm plugging away on book six in the series and just over 8000 words, aiming for 10,000 by the end of the month. I'm struggling with the premise but am feeling better about the direction the plot is going. These first chapters are setting the stage and normally take me a lot of time, thinking and revising. Laying the groundwork and hoping it's fertile enough to grow some strong plotting.

I've also been working on a few sample paragraphs for my Grass Roots Press workbook project. The writing has to be at a grade 4/5 level based on the Frye readability graph ... not as easy as you would think. Anyhow, I've been back and forth with the publisher, spoken with her twice on the phone, and I believe I'm on the right track. I'll be settling in with the research and writing this week. I have to write 35 main idea paragraphs with 35 different topics with three deadlines throughout the spring and summer. I like a challenge :-)

And aside from writing, I've been sending out e-vites to the Shallow End launch on April 7 at the Heart and Crown. The thing I like about these launches is seeing everybody once a year - some friends I wouldn't see otherwise as we're all in different parts of the city with busy lives. From initial feedback, there should be a good crowd!

Let's hope it warms up before the launch. Today, we're having a record low temperature for March 11, currently -19 C and feeling like -31 C. Makes you want to curl up with a space heater on high. The snowbanks are lower than a week ago but still very much in evidence. Hard to believe it was +18 C last week in St. Catharines with the grass greening up. Mother Nature likes to keep us on our toes.

More coffee I say. Another cup and then time to get this frosty Saturday underway. 

Good week everyone.