I’m working hard on POISONOUS MURDER which is scheduled for release later this month. I may not make my deadline and might have to extend the release date by a month. I’ve mentioned in the past that I am a pantser writer meaning the story comes to me as I’m creating it. Despite reading numerous books on the subject, I’m unable to create an outline at the start of the book. As I’m typing words, I’m imagining Jill and Nathan having a conversation in her open floor plan kitchen. Jill is running out of clues to follow to find Mary Niles’ killer. When Jill is stumped, I’m stumped at writing. Late last week I ran out of clues as to who the killer was. Fortunately, over the weekend, a new clue entered my brain, and Jill is back out there trying to solve the case, lol.
I’ve also been trying to learn new stuff. I always learn new stuff when I’m writing a book. While my current book is my second of fifteen books for the victim to die from arsenic poison, the two stories are very different as one is acute poisoning and the other is chronic poisoning. So I’ve had to learn new facts about arsenic for this book.
On a completely different note, I’ve attended a few lectures on subjects I know little about. I went to a lecture on Green Bay becoming an estuary registered with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. I also learned about a lighthouse on Lake Michigan and a Life Saving station. I didn’t know we had such stations and since we have over 600 shipwrecks in Lake Michigan, I guess they weren’t too successful at the Life Saving part. I even attended a zoom lecture on 5 secrets to make your food better by a culinary school teacher. My character, Jill Quint’s cooking ability is a mirror image of my own cooking abilities. I learned that in culinary school you get graded on chopping carrots into various shapes and sizes, and how to wield a knife so your fingers aren’t damaged. Unfortunately, I was bored by the cooking lecture and didn’t make it beyond the knife lesson. New knowledge is never wasted so my takeaways from these lectures will likely end up in future books, lol.
Hope you all are having a wonderful fall. My thoughts go out to those affected by Hurricane Helene. I’m used to see damage on the shoreline from hurricanes, but the damage so far inland is heart-breaking.
Take care of yourself,
Alec
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