On Friends, New Books, and a Case of Mistaken Identity

Welcome. Hello! So glad to see you!

Hey and welcome to a whole slew of new subscribers. I’m grateful you’ve decided to stop by.

Hmmm. That gets me thinking. How many, exactly, is a slew? Like any self-respecting journalist, first I Googled. And I learned that, among other things, a slew can be a batch, deal, flock, good deal, great deal, hatful, heap, lot, mass, mess, mickle, mint, mountain, muckle, passel, peck, pile, plenty, pot, quite a little, raft, sight, spate, stack, tidy sum, wad. Which, any way you slice it, is a pretty ambiguous number.

What it really means is, whatever the case, I’m so grateful you’re here!

Horsin’ Around

Right now in my little world, everything is coming up horsey. It’s just extraordinary that it’s all happened in this way.

On October 17th (next week!) Wild Horses: Running Free will be published by Orca. It’s non-fiction for middle school-aged readers and if you’re expecting yet another book about wild horses, you will be surprised: there is a lot here that is controversial and outside of traditional thinking about this subject, at least as things relate to wild horses in North America.

Along with photos by the wonderful and renowned equine photographer Lori Sortino, the work of a host (not a slew) of other talented photographers is represented, and there are even a few taken by yours truly. Plus, in the introduction to the book, you will find a photo of me on horseback taken when I was around 12. The same photo was used in a recent article in the Autumn 2023 issue of BC Bookworld, and so I am thus immortalized in print, forever cute and precocious. There are worse fates!

If you’re in BC, and see the issue, grab it: you’ll see crime fiction pal Sam Wiebe (newly minted Writer-in-Residence at SFU) and me, right on the cover! We’re there on the bottom. Activist and journalist Angela Sterritt, who is SFU’s Non-Fiction Writer in Residence, has top spot and that’s a great piece about a terrific book, as well.

The Setting Is the Thing

Setting in fiction is one of those topics those of us with fiction on the brain talk about pretty endlessly. What makes it? How do you create it? What do you do with it or without it? For some of us, setting is everything (eg: Ray Bradbury in “There Will Come Soft Rains”.)

I’m feeling super lucky because I get to talk about all of that this coming Saturday (Wait. Is that tomorrow?) with Grand Canyon Writers and friends. You can access the registration page here:

https://grandcanyonwriters.com/

Just scroll down until you see my smiling mug. I’m speaking from 10:30 AM PST/1:30 EST until whenever they make me stop.

Listen to This

Just as I was putting these words together, I got a note from my publisher that the audio book version of Dead West is now on sale wherever fine audio books are sold. You can grab it right now from your favorite audio book place, or here.

Writers on the Trail

Back in September, it was my delight to attend Bouchercon in San Diego. Bouchercon is the largest annual gathering of crime fiction fans and authors on the planet. My brand new novel, Dead West, the third book in the Endings series, came out a few days after Bouchercon, so I got to sign the very first copies of the book.

It was great to catch up with old friends, make some news ones and also spend some quality time with my Sisters in Crime sisters, who were there en force, of course.

I was staying on the 16th floor of the convention hotel, the San Diego Marquis, a Marriot right on the water in San Diego. Several times, when venturing to and from my room, I ran into a very nice man staying on the same floor. We’d share a friendly word on the elevator. He was never wearing a name tag, but somehow I figured he was connected to the convention anyway. I imagined that, maybe, he was there to offer support to his wife. Maybe she was a struggling cozy writer and he wanted to be there for her, but was still going off on convention-time adventures of his own. I remember thinking he seemed very sweet. And how nice of him to be there for her! Doing everything he could to help her struggling new career. (Sorry. I’m a storyteller. I make things up.)

So imagine my confusion and surprise when, at the closing ceremonies, I see my floor mate up on the dias, cheerfully fielding questions. It took me a second to put aside my assumptions (where was he cozy writing wife, anyway?) and realize that the man I’d felt sympathy and admiration for because of the stalwart support of his crime writing wife was ill-placed. Because, of course (have you figured it out yet?) the object of my sympathy was none other than crime fiction superstar David Baldacci, who just happened to be the 2023 Bouchercon Lifetime Guest of Honor.

I felt a little silly, but also amused because that’s a little of who Baldacci is: a superstar, with millions of books sold and he is so charming and self-effacing one could easily mistake him for the staunchly supportive husband of a much less well known author. He seems like a good guy, is what I’m saying. And it seemed too good a story not to share. And so here we are.

Here Comes NaNoWriMo!

A lot of people I know — yours truly included — are gearing up for National Novel Writing Month, also known as NaNoWriMo. It begins November 1st.

Until last year, I’d never done anything with NaNoWriMo beyond write about it. But as part of my involvement with Sisters in Crime, I agreed to host Write In events during NaNoWriMo in 2022… and I fell in love.

NaNoWriMo is maybe more than it’s cracked up to be. The flagship program of the non-profit NaNoWriMo organization is an annual, international creative writing event. Participants attempt to write a 50,000-word manuscript during the month of November. Sisters in Crime is one of the sponsors of the event, and also gets involved on a very grassrootsy level by holding actual Write In events for people to come on in, sit down and… write. I host some of those.

While Write Ins can provide structure in the writing life, Sisters in Crime is just so much more than that.

Wanting to feel supported in your creative and writing business life? SinC can help. Wanting to be introduced to new writers working in the crime fiction genre? Sisters in Crime can help with that, too. SinC proves, time and time again, that all of us are more than the sum of our parts. We really are better together. You can find membership information here. Tell ‘em I sent you.

In this issue:

So many books, so little time, right? Here are books by the authors mentioned in this issue of my newsletter. Choose any or all: you’ll have no regrets!

The Edge by David Baldacci (November 2023, Grand Central)

Sunset & Jericho by Sam Wiebe (April 2023, Harbour Publishing)

Unbroken by Angela Sterritt (May 2023, Greystone)

Dead West by Linda L Richards (September 2023, Oceanview Publishing)

Wild Horses: Running Free by Linda L. Richards (October 2023, Orca Publishing)