I had a hole in my guest calendar this week and I never got around to filling it. Time has thrown me a couple of curve balls, so I didn’t even realize my guest Thursday had come and gone with no replacement post. Now here it is, Friday already.

I have a good lineup in August, including my own guest post about living with chronic pain which will appear on Colleen Story’s Writing and Wellness blog. And in September, I have three UK thriller authors on the schedule which is a special treat for me and I hope for you.

Meanwhile, I’m back to work on my suspense/mystery in process, tentatively titled Searching for Harriet. This one has already changed titles three times since I wrote the first word, so I’m not sure if this new name will stick or not. I made a few big changes to the plot, and had to move some scenes and chapters around due to a messed-up timeline. I’m now working on putting that timeline on paper so I can make sure all the sections are in chronological order. This is one of the tricky parts of writing from multiple points of view. In this novel, I have three POV characters. One stays put in her city, one travels from one state to another, and the third character is on the road from the beginning of the novel to the end. I’m never satisfied with doing things the easy way: one POV character who stays put in one location.

I guess that’s why it takes me so long to write a book. If I’m not making it hard for myself, then I’m not having fun.

The de-clutter and clean up project is still going on. The guest room and my office are next. Getting rid of two bookcases and a lot of books was a big step. Now I must keep reminding myself not to buy even one more book unless I have an open space in the remaining bookcase. That’s not likely to happen too soon because I really have a lot of books jammed in there.

I’m starting to go out again in public, using a little makeup to dull the shine of the ugly purple-now-turning-yellow streaks remaining around my eyes and cheeks from my nose-fracture accident. I tried to wear sunglasses inside a store a couple of days ago, but I couldn’t see squat. Finally I just shoved my glasses up on my head and went about my business as though my face didn’t look as though I’d been in a brawl. The bridge of my nose is still really sore and I suppose that will bug me a little longer. Ice helps more than anything else, so I have a small bag of peas and carrots in the freezer that works best. Veggies are good for us in more ways than one.

As a political junkie, I watched all of the main speeches for both parties — and I used the Direct TV special channel that broadcast the events as they were with no media commentary. It was like CSpan but in HD. Then I’d listen to the media report on the speeches and see how cleverly they twisted words, took comments out of context, and got things so wrong so often.  Thanks to Direct TV for offering this outstanding service.

So, back to work I go. A little de-clutter, and now that the two conventions are over, I have more writing time. I want to pitch this novel at the Colorado Gold Conference in Denver in September, so I need to get it finished.