Spring is Early!
March News
Spring is here early this year, but that’s perfectly OK, Mother Nature. While we were away at Left Coast Crime in San Francisco, blossoms burst on the ornamental plums and greeted us when we came home.
The whirligig in the island stood still for this photo, but it’s been spinning more often than not. Spring winds have arrived on the Olympic peninsula.
The weather in San Fran was gorgeous, and we enjoyed walks to the ferry dock and down by the bay while there.
Our panel, Crime in the Great Outdoors, was fun. We shared information about our books and our writing life. Scott Graham, Nicole Maggi, and Jeff Ayers write mysteries and thrillers set in national parks, and Maria Kelson and I use forests and the great outdoors to challenge our characters where they live. Please find more about these great authors and their books on their websites.
I also had some time to visit with friends, and I met fellow Blackbird Writer Sheila Lowe in person for the first time. I’m not good about taking photos, but at least I got a few.
There was one thing I finished before my trip—copy edits. This is the last editing round in which I can make major changes, and I did my best to make sure the prose was tight and easy to read, the police procedure was accurate, and the plot flowed smoothly. We’d made some changes in the previous two rounds, developmental and line edits, so this was my chance to make sure those changes made sense. I’m grateful that Bill Hazard, a relative from my hometown of Saguache, Colorado, helped me with this round. A retired school teacher, he’s great at spotting awkward sentences and typos.
And the first day back, the first pass pages of the entire book hit my inbox. I worked at proofreading this past week and am almost done. There were still a few pesky typos lurking in the print. How do those slip by us after three rounds of editing? Sheesh!
BOOK NEWS
We have a title for this year’s book! FIGHTING EDGE. Fingers crossed that I have a cover to share soon. FIGHTING EDGE comes out September 8, and I’ll be planning book launch events soon. I’ll keep you posted.
BOOK GIVEAWAY
I don’t have discounts to announce this month, so we’ll give away a couple books instead. Let’s give away two.
To enter, click on reply and type “Enter Giveaway” by March 16. I’ll contact the two winners by email for their mailing addresses next week; no need to provide your mailing address when entering. Both of these books are signed copies.
SinC COLORADO HIGH CRIMES CHAPTER BOOK CLUB
If you love reading crime fiction books and then discussing them with their authors, this book club is for you! Fellow mystery author Rita A Popp and I coordinate this book club that meets the third Wednesday each month via Zoom at 10:00 MT. Everyone is welcome! You don’t have to be a chapter member to join in the fun. Read the book, request a link by filling out the form on the chapter website here, and come join us.
This mystery, BONE HASH, by Skye Griffith is so suspenseful, and I highly recommend it! Please join us!
BOOK CLUB APPEARANCES
I would be happy to visit your book club or library via Zoom to discuss the Timber Creek K-9 Mysteries. (No speaker fee, of course!) If you’re interested, please contact me at hello@margaretmizushima.com.
DOGGIE GALLERY
Thank you to readers who sent photos for my Doggie Gallery.
And Robo’s pals aren’t limited to German shepherds alone. Here are two other cute friends.
I’m looking forward to getting started on Book #12 in the series this month! I’ll be back in April with more news from the writing kennel!
Best Wishes,
Margaret
Love , love, love your books. I've read them all in sequence and always look forward to the next one. Will you be returning to the Tucson Festival of Books in the future? We missed you this year!
Looks like you had a great time LCC. And how nice the weather was so good. Congrats on getting the copy edits done. You are very productive.