I hope everybody's doing well. We just finished Halloween and Thanksgiving is around the corner in the U.S.. Stores everywhere have their Christmas stuff out. I think having Christmas stuff before Halloween makes it feel like time is flying. At least we get to listen to Vincent Price chortling in the Thriller song through Halloween.
I'm working on finishing the third Michelle Watson series book. It is on pre-order for December 26. I'm going looking write a short story that will be a freebie to people on this newsletter list. I think I've mentioned before that I'm running out of creativity with names of the characters in my stories. I've created two to three hundred names in the 22 books I've written. If you would like me to name a character in my next story after a friend or family member of yours, please drop me a note with their name. Keep in mind that people die in my books and so it's not a good idea to suggest someone's name for the bad guy or even the good guy that accidentally dies. However, I always have extraneous people in my stories and it's safe to name a friend after one of them. Since I don't want to get in trouble in the future for using someone's name, it would be best if the name you volunteer is a fairly common name like ‘Lucy Jones’. ‘Hermione Granger’ on the other hand would be a terrible choice, LOL.
By the way, you may notice that I'm putting out newsletters more frequently. I have on my calendar to release them on the first and third Wednesdays of each month. I plan to talk about my books, my characters, my pets, and any travels. I'm staying away from anything remotely contentious, just happy news.
Last month, you met my cat who is not my writing partner. Here's a picture of Daniel, who is my writing partner shortly after I adopted him when he was 55 pounds and he's continued to grow. He’s having his seventh birthday in December. I adopted him from a shelter when he was six months old. He chewed like eight pairs of shoes, and the corner of my dining room table, and has dragged me to the ground countless times in aid of reaching a squirrel or cat. Here is a second picture of when we went to see the wildflowers at Carrizo Plain National Monument outside of Paso Robles, CA. It remains the longest car ride he has been on.
I've had to switch from using Dragon Dictation to the dictation software associated with Google Documents. Daniel is 92 lb of love, but when he's snoring, Dragon dictation software gets confused. It thinks I'm saying something and it's just him (the dragon) snoring. So I get the message to repeat what I’m saying, even though I haven’t said anything. Argh.
I have interviews coming up with Jill Quint, Damian Green, and Michelle Watson in my next couple of newsletters so you’ll hopefully find something new about them.
Cheers,
Alec