Something New Is Coming!

 

And something else new is already here! I’ll give you that one first. Emily Dunn is doing recordings for The Write Focus on podbean. She just started doing interviews and I’m honored to be her first! She and I talked about a lot of things, including my new People of the Wind, Neanderthal book, my Imogene series, my cozy books, and my short stories. This is only half of it, too. The next half will be available next Wednesday, and an audio of the whole interview will go up then, too. Each half is about 30 minutes.

 

https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2022/06/kaye-george-cozies-and-neanderthal.html

 

She’s also doing a series on writing, which you can access at the side of this page.

 

Here’s the other new thing, which you may have already caught wind of, a new People of the Wind mystery, from Untreed Reads, DEATH IN THE NEW LAND! This follows the Neanderthal tribe to the place they ended up, which is modern-day New Mexico, around Tucumcari. I hope my efforts to describe this remarkable landmark paint a picture of it for the reader. I also hope, of course, that my readers can envision Enga Dancing Flower’s tribe and travails they go through when they meet other peoples who are already inhabiting this new, strange-to-them land.

 

This book will officially be published July 19^th, but you can preorder now from Untreed Read. For a little something special, the code KRL when you’re checking out, will give a donation to Kings River Life magazine, the place that carries my reviews and lots of other great stuff. There are some sales on this and my things at this link, also.

 

https://www.untreedreads.com/author/kayegeorge/

 

Social Life and Other Elusive Things

 

I’ve been battling a condition caused by a combination of my scoliosis (which never gave me a moment’s trouble before August of 2019) and the aftermath of my hip replacement surgery (coincidentally, in August of 2019). I won’t bore you with the many details, but this happened yesterday.

 

I started back with the Physical Therapist I was with in March of 2020, the one I had to quit for the pandemic. They start everything over after a 6 month hiatus, so I filled out the form again. There was a section asking what things are affected, and how much they’re affected, by my pain. The part that made me laugh was “social activities.” They wanted to know how my social activities are impacted, things like dancing and sports.

 

Hilarious! Dancing? Sports? They’re dealing with a woman who is happy she can walk. In discussion with another writer about my age, we both laughed about the social life thing. She thinks it made the pandemic easier on her to not have one in the first place. Nothing to miss. I might agree with her on that.

 

The only part I lament is my inability to handle my flowerbeds over the past couple of years. I can hire people to weed (after trying to find them for a long, long time), but they don’t weed like I would. They don’t do it right! I just discovered there’s a big pokeweed and several baby maple trees growing in my beautiful rhododendron right now. I broke off the pokeweed, but also need to cut off the trees. It would be best to dig them out, but I’m not up to that!

 

I count myself lucky that I haven’t had trouble concentrating on my writing during the plague. I know lots of writers have had that problem. Maybe I had good practice using my writing as escape in other situations in past years. Whatever, I’m so happy to be able to work on my projects and to even get some of them published.

 

Do you have leftover trauma from the pandemic? Or are you able to do things better now than you could during the shutdown? Or was your life mainly unaffected? We’re all different!

 

Rhododendron and bookshelf photos by me

Other images from pixabay.com

The Old and The New

Our government is gearing up for big changes and so are many of us. My own changes should not prove as tumultuous as the national ones, but one of them is giving me trouble, never the less!

 

The old, for me, is finishing up the Vintage Sweets series. The contract with the publisher, Lyrical Press, was for three books and the third is coming out in March. My writing work for this project is done, but now I need to do some promotional work to make sure the readers of the first two will notice it’s there. They came out in March and June of 2020, so it’s been a while! Just a few days ago, the cover for INTO THE SWEET HEREAFTER was finalized. I’ll share it here—and everywhere else I can think of, since the book is available for pre-order as an e-book right now. Soon, the paperback version will be listed. Then, eventually, audio.

 

I’ll admit I’m proud of this book. Well, I’m proud of all of them, but I stretched for this one and learned a lot about a grave problem affecting a lot of people, which I hope I can draw some attention to. No, I won’t discuss it here—until after the book is out. You have to read it to find out.

 

The new is also old, I guess! I put out two books in my Neanderthal murder mystery series, called the People of the Wind series, in 2013 and 2016. These books take a long time to write, as they require tons of research. I’ve had plenty of time to add a lot of research since 2016! I also have helpers who I appreciate so much. Several of my readers and friends make sure I see new articles that come out about that time period, 30,000 years ago, and about the beings and animals that lived back then. The research has been ongoing ever since 2016, even if the writing hasn’t.

 

You know, though, I’m finding it hard to get back into this project! You really should NOT let 5 years elapse between books in the same series! I’m finding that I have to go back and read the second book so I’ll remember what in the heck was going on with these people. I’ve started doing that and find that I love them just as much as I always did. Maybe, in a year or so, DEATH IN THE NEW LAND will join the other two books. I hope so!

 

Covid nights and days

Covid nights and days

 

How are you holding up? I think I’m barely making it and I think that’s true of a lot of people. I recently complained, online, about my weird sleeping habits lately and the likelihood that they’re related to depression and anxiety. I’m thankful for all the responses, which were so encouraging and sympathetic. I now know that I’m not alone in this. (It’s good to be a complainer sometimes.) My practice, when I’m down, is to make a list of good things. So, here goes~~ 

 

GOOD THINGS

The election

 

The vaccine

 

Two potential publications (those will turn into bad things if I get rejects, but I’m used to those)

 

My family (I dare anyone in the world to say they have a better one than I do)

 

My friends (ditto above)

 

My readers (I don’t even know all of them, but do hear from some of them sometimes—those are golden spots)

 

My present occupation/career/work, writing mysteries

 

My colleagues/fellow mystery writers, many of whom are friends, all of whom, as a group, are the best co-workers anyone could hope for

 

My health, such as it is. Good for my age, is what they say, I think. This includes my mental faculties, such as they are, too. Also good for my age.

 

My overall situation, being able to afford eat, drink, shelter, some presents for my kids and grands

 

Feel free to add to this list, or, better yet, make your own!

photo from morguefile.com

 

 

WRITERLY INTENTIONS

 Somewhere down the line, after a writer gets asked, “Where do you get your ideas?” we get the question, “What makes you do this?”

 

I sometimes ask myself the same question. “Why, oh why?” I could be dusting, keeping up with the dishes, sweeping the front sidewalk. Oh wait, maybe that’s why—to get out of all that stuff.

 

Seriously, though, the writers I know are almost all doing it for the same reason. The writers I know are mystery writers, mid-list (which means we’re not famous world-wide and we don’t make enough money to hire a staff); good, competent writers, some with agents, some self-publishing; all with some fans and avid readers waiting for the next book. We’ll never get rich doing this, and most of us will never make enough money to live on without a job or retirement income.   

 

I recently read a comment that prompted me to think about this. The person, a fairly new mystery writer, said she was going to have to change her goals. She would give up thinking she could make money doing this and would have to come up with other reasons.

 

She already has them, I’ll contend. She just has to dig down and discover them.

 

People write because they are compelled to. It’s in our makeup. We can’t not do it. And, most of the time, we love doing it. The main reward is to have written, to have gotten something published, and to know that someone read it.

 When someone can learn something, or expand their thinking through my fiction, that’s a huge bonus. 

Beyond that, there are tremendous rewards. The best is when someone reads our work and likes it. And says to. Either in a review or in a direct communication with the author. For me, this is all worthwhile because of those times when someone says one of my books got them through a tough time. Or got a relative through a tough time. And those times when I get a rave review. And those times when I get an email or direct message asking me when the next book in a series is coming out. Nothing could be better for a writer than all those things. Except being on the NY Times Bestseller List, of course. But we take what we can get, and an occasional bit of coin for our troubles.

 

 Images from Pixabay