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What's in the mail?

02/17/2010

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One interesting facet of being a writer, especially one with a long backlist, is that I never know what the mail is going to bring.

Last week, for instance, one day I got a cheque for the English editions of Daisy's 4th, 5th and 6th adventures (Murder on the Flying Scotsman, Damsel in Distress, and Dead in the Water). At least, insofar as I can understand St Martin's royalty statements, that's mostly what it was for. On Friday, I got a royalty cheque for sales of the e-books of Regencies written and published long ago. Yesterday, three copies of the UK large print edition of Daisy's first--Death at Wentwater Court--arrived. I didn't even know those rights had been sold! (Really must learn to read St Martin's statements. If only they weren't in such small print! Still, that's what I have an agent for)

Then there's email. Today I got the final version of the cover of A Colourful Death, my second Cornish mystery. I posted the original version last month. The only difference is that the slash has been lengthened to cross not only my name but the title. It now looks more like a slash and less like a nasty mistake. I think it's an improvement; how about you? Here's the new one:
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I received an ARC in the mail yesterday. The slash on the cover looks even better "in person" so to speak. So real I actually touched it to make sure it wasn't there.


My editor also sent me the review quotes that will be on the back of the book. Some really nice ones for Manna from Hades! I've posted them on the Cornish Mysteries page.

Last week, I had an email from an English theatre company interested in adapting Daisy for the stage. There's a BBC TV personality involved with the company--who knows where it might lead? Or it might not. You never can be sure.

 Also in my inbox was an invitation to help out at the Sisters in Crime booth at the American Library Association conference in Portland in March. I've always wanted to go to ALA and it's always been somewhere I couldn't get to. I didn't even know it was in Portland this year. So here I have a chance to schmooze with fellow SinC members (aka sibs) and large numbers of librarians, who are some of my favourite people.

I wonder what's in the mail today. Excuse me, I'd better run out and check...    Oops, nearly fell over a package the UPS man left between front door and screen door--two copies of Sheer Folly in Large Print. Any librarians reading this?
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(Dis)Organization (Wo)Man

01/19/2010

 
Are you organised?  Are all your pre-digital photos neatly arranged in albums and labelled? Does every piece of paper that enters your house get read, dealt with, filed or recycled immediately? Or is your kitchen table, like mine, piled with newspaper supplements you really want to read--some day--and grocery store ads that should have been tossed days ago when the new one came out?

The last question doesn't apply if you have kids at home. Even I clear off the table before the grandkids arrive for a visit. That's why I have several cardboard boxes around the house full of cut-out articles and URLs of intriguing websites, and--well, to tell the truth, I never get around to sorting through them when the kids leave, so I'm not sure what's in there. Which is why I have several cardboard boxes...

If only my desk weren't in the same condition. The top layer is notes, maps, reference books, etc. for the book I'm working on, Anthem for Doomed Youth. The second layer is notes for the last book, A Colourful Death (coming out in June), though I did put the books and maps away. The third layer is notes for Sheer Folly. The fourth layer, I think, must be notes for Black Ship. Somewhere at that level is the plan I drew of Constable Circle, the street in Hampstead to which Daisy and Alec moved in that book. I needed it a couple of hours ago but--already 4 days overdue with the present book--I don't have time to hunt thoroughly.

If only I'd filed it! Since I started the second (Cornish mystery) series, I've been too rushed even to create a file folder for each book, as I did for the first 50. It's no good telling me it saves time in the end. I know that.

You'll doubtless be glad to hear I do pay bills and taxes and balance bank statements on time. I also have at least some of my old photos organised, though most of them are in a drawer in their original envelopes. Here's one from the distant past, and I even know who all the people in it are:
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My grandmother, my great-grandfather, Great-Uncle-Ernest-who-went-to-Australia, my great-grandmother, and Great-Aunt Eve.
 

Signing in Salem

12/06/2009

 
I'm going to be signing in Salem  Saturday, Dec 19:  Borders on Lancaster at 2:30. Signing with me will be  LJ Sellers, author of Secrets to Die For http://www.ljsellers.com/