THE PARTY IS OVER

The party is over, and I'm back to work. It was tough making myself get on a flight that was heading straight into winter.  When I got off the plane in Minneapolis, I thought I'd stepped into a Charles Dickens novel as beaten-down winter people trudged past me in their wool coats, black stocking caps, heavy boots. I expected someone to lift a bowl and beg for food (More, please.) so I could give the poor soul my airline pretzels.

Back to work.

I'm what is now called a hybrid writer, which means I traditionally publish and I self-publish. But what this really means is that I'm working harder than I've ever worked. The self-published books are my bread-and-butter, so I can't slack off in that area.  And man does it take a lot of work to self-publish.  I figure I now spend something like 90% of my time formatting, editing, promoting, advertising, etc, and about 10% writing.   I once saw a one-man band at my uncle's bar. This guy played guitar, drums, harmonica, horn, cymbals, keyboard, and maybe some other stuff. And all of these things were strapped to his body so he could switch from one instrument to the other as he played, and he often played two or three at a time.  I feel like that guy.

And somewhere in here I have to find time to write, so I've actually blocked out all of May to work on nothing but the Play Dead sequel, due to publishing house September 1.  And darn, there's the cat book. I hope to pick it up again before the year is over, because a lot of people are asking about the second book, Geek with the Cat Tattoo. I've been so happy with the response to the first book. Most of my books are dark, and it's been so rewarding to have people tell me Girl with the Cat Tattoo made them happy and made them laugh.

On the traditional side: This week and next I have several book events for The Orchard. These will probably be my last appearances for The Orchard, most dates set up almost a year ago.  We set up the April dates because it's fairly safe to think roads will be okay. Ha!  Endless winter.  I think we are paying for last year, where I recall sitting outside drinking beer in March.

Now I'm off to work on my event presentations.