Desolate looking houses and writing

I’m working on Jill Quint series book 16, Sable Point Murder, as I mentioned in my last newsletter. The case is going to be set in an abandoned house in my neighborhood. No sooner had I written the opening chapters when someone began work on that house and they spent the first two dumpsters emptying stuff out of the house. I chatted with my neighbors during my dog walks and they said the house was going to be demolished. I was sort of bummed because that house has been motivation for different angles in the story. Then to the neighborhood’s surprise, a new roof was put on the house and today there’s someone working on the siding.

Book cover with winter house

Apparently, the family is planning to sell the property with a house on it. We’re all surprised because we understood the basement to be cracked, which is a near impossible thing to fix cheaply. The house dates back a few decades, and when Bones lived in the house, in the winter time, he allegedly only lived in one room where he had a space heater. That tells me that the family will likely have to add an HVAC system in order to sell it. I think I’m mostly glad that the house is still there because it’s inspiration for my imagination for the story.

I just returned from a writing retreat this week in Galena, IL. One of the things I was hoping to learn was how to write faster. During the Covid lockdown, I joined a lot of online writing sprints and produced four books easily. My pace has dropped to three books a year. I think I learned the secrets of greater productivity, and I hope to produce more stories.

Here’s the link for book 16, which will be released November 30, 2025. You can pre-order it now by following this link.

Cheers,

Alec