Wednesday, January 02, 2019

IWSG: 2019 begins

I'd like to share that 2018 ended beautifully. It sort of did, if you set aside the residue and hard work involved in moving from one apartment to another, and nearly two months of very bad colds. Thank goodness for Sudafed!

My BookBub promotion paid for itself and ACX kicked in an unexpected sales boom, but marketing overall has slowed nearly to a stop as I work on a new genre -- romantic suspense set in Edinburgh and Paris.

In The Seventh Tapestry, American archivist and investigator Sandra Robertson comes to Edinburgh to track down a pattern of missing artifacts at the Museum of Medieval Art. Along the way, she finds a historic and undiscovered 15th Century tapestry and is drawn to Neil McDonnell from Edinburgh's Art Crimes Unit. I'm about 40K into the story. Just this month, I decided to switch from third person to first person, mostly because I feel closer to my main character and the details of the story flow more easily (Yes, I have my storyboard up and mapped out) -- even including the seasons.

Winter in Edinburgh (Source: edinburgh.org)

Least favorite question: When will this story be done? Published and ready to read? I say 'least favorite' because I'm more of an intuitive writer and do lots of research. I'm never quite sure when my story is finished!

Most favorite question: I love X character because . . .  Why did character X do this? Will another book follow these characters? How did you find the research that supports this story?

Happy New Year. May 2019 be filled with good reading, lots of writing, good health, and a few adventures to keep things interesting!

With special thanks to Alex Cavanaugh and this month's hosts: Co-Hosts: Patricia Lynne, Lisa Buie-Collard, Kim Lajevardi, and Fundy Blue! Why not visit the Insecure Writer's Study Group and see what other IWSG writers are up to?


6 comments:

  1. Happy New Year!
    In many ways we have lots in common. I am an intuitive writer also and do a lot of research on my book. So I can never say it's completely finished until it's finished.
    Wishing you much success on your switch in genres. I like the idea between Edinburgh and Paris. It will be a great romanic suspense story.
    Wishing you all the best for 2019.

    Shalom aleichem,
    Pat G @ EverythingMustChange

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    1. Thank you, Pat, for your good wishes and for sharing you are an intuitive writer as well. From the outside, we may look very well organized, but I'm happy to follow where images, words, memories, research, conversations, and books lead me to new connections. May you have a wonderful year ahead of writing!

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  2. Happy New Year, Beth! As always, you seem right on track.

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    1. Always wonderful to hear from you, Liesbet. I'm wondering what you'll be doing in 2019, where you'll be staying, and what you'll be writing. May 2019 be very, very good to you!

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  3. Beth --- Many years ago I moved to England to write the novel I self-published two years ago. Now I live in Oregon and write about......Oregon. Meanwhile, you live in Washington and write (and research) about Scotland and Paris. How fair is that?

    And now I fear this new IWSG involvement may become more expensive than I expected. About five minutes after landing on your website Standing Stones is now loaded on my Kindle. I don't remember that was part of the plan.

    Happy 2019

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    1. Hello, Gil. What interesting intersections! To write Standing Stones, we did travel in Scotland for research for about 2 months, but we lived in Oregon in the mid-Willamette Valley for 26 years with a summer month-long trip to Paris about 10 years ago. Now retired, we live in Washington, close to grandchildren, whose antics fill me with amazement. Thank you for your interest in Standing Stones; I will be delighted to hear what you think. Also, I couldn't find that novel you wrote just two years ago, although Amazon has a fascinating list of books (especially the October Years series). Could you send me more info? May 2019 be very good to you . . . Best, Beth bluebethley@yahoo.com

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