I’ll be at the Northern Colorado Writers Conference tomorrow and Saturday. I love writers’ conferences and mystery fan conventions and wish I could attend them all. This year I’m sticking to the NCW conference this week and the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Colorado Gold Conference in September (registration for this one opens soon).

Cats and dogs are soothing, entertaining, distracting, demanding, and sometimes just plain crazy. They take tons of time away from writing, so why do so many writers have one or more furry critters in their homes? Apparently we need soothing and entertaining…and the excuse to not write because we have to play with the cat or walk the dog.

I’m hoping to receive a contract soon for my historical mystery, Wishing Caswell Dead. This novel started out as a short story from one character’s POV and grew into a multiple POV novel. I love this story  and will be a very happy little writer if it finally gets published.

In addition to the novels and nonfiction books I’ve been reading (a bunch of mini-reviews coming soon), I’ve returned to Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way for another round of morning pages and artist dates. Cameron’s book is the true classic guide to discovering (or rediscovering) and channeling one’s creativity into productive work.

That whole exercise of handwriting morning pages is a reminder that writing with pen and paper leads to a different and probably more introspective result than typing into the computer. The same applies to reading/revising from printed copy as opposed to the page on a computer monitor. A local college professor had an article in our newspaper this morning that proposed we stop worrying about saving paper and focus on the benefits of the written word as opposed to the digital word. There is a time to hand write and a time to type…

The sun is shining today so I know I’ll spend some time outside. A little bit in a lawn chair reading The Artist’s Way as well as the first book in Laura DiSilverio’s YA dystopian trilogy, Incubation. A little bit of time doing garden prep and yard cleanup. A trip to deliver recyclable electronics to a free recycle day location.  Do you see a space in there to fit in a little writing or revising? The story of my writing (or not) life.

Just heard the pantry door creak and paper rustling noises. The dog is right here with her head on my foot, so apparently Katie Cat discovered a partially open door and went in to explore the place we keep animal foods and treats. See you later…