What if a Favorite Character Dies?

The Read ...

Snuggled down with Charlaine Harris' Grave Secret, a mystery series about Harper Connelly who is able to sense what caused someone's death.  The focus of this volume in the series is Harper and Tolliver's mixed up, dysfunctional family.  On a return to Texas to visit their younger half-sisters who have been adopted by relatives, all the pieces of back story come together to explain the disappearance of their older sister/step-sister.  

Yeah.  It was a nice enjoyable ride with well developed characters, good pacing, and bodies dropping at regular intervals.  Harris even had the gumption to kill off sympathetic characters.  What do you expect from a master author?

Then, the book came down to its last chapters.  Harris was tieing up loose ends right and left, leaving me with a feeling of dread.  Why?  Harris stopped the series of another of her characters I liked, Lucy Bard, because she had nothing more to say about her.  My summation:  Bard would be just another "detective" going through the motions of solving a crime.  

Maybe that's the difference between a so-so series and a brilliant one.  The character continues to grow.  [Comment makes me think back to 61 hours, and the shift in Reacher's attitude.]

Anyway, my dismay built up as loose end and loose end disappeared.  I was sure once Harper solved the mystery of her sister's disappearance there wouldn't be another book in the series.  Then, the ending:

    "We'll hit the road again soon.  After all, we have to make some money.

    And they're all out there waiting for me.  All they want is to be found."

I'm rubbing my hands in anticipation.

Web & Other Good Stuff ...

Rejection getting you down?  Victoria Strauss of the "Writer Beware" blog has a blog up on the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America:  "Getting Published is Not a Crap Shoot".  The first comment is a hoot:  "So what is a marketable book, exactly?"

Then, Dr. Mercola, a nutritionist, wrote a article using data from Organic Authority to tell me I shouldn't be eating fast-food chicken nuggets.  Seems they're only half chicken ... the rest is breading, fat, and chemicals.  [You can check out "What Chicken Not to Eat" is you want to learn more.] --  Sometimes, being a cheapskate is healthful.  I also think there's a writing lesson in there somewhere.

Progress ...

Have all my revisions of Dark Solstice done -- manuscript, query, synopsis, etc.  I should have had it beta read, but all my people are busy ... and I really have all the critiques I can handle at the moment.  So, I'm going to wing it and submit.  Today.  

Just hope maybe I'll find someone who likes high fantasy and is willing to look at the Half-Elven struggling to survive.  Just my luck, Dark Solstice will land in a committee with different expectations of fantasy.  --  What was that about publishing being a crap shoot?

Then, I have to go over the new artwork contract from the new artist.  [Maybe the process is ending.]

Better yet, I got over the hump on my Renna Tale:  A Question of Tithes.

It's not often I get to bask. 

Trivia ...

They say winter's coming today ... or rather by tonight, and I'm enjoying the warm sunshine for the moment.  The "truth-in-weather" is peeking over the hogback so it's bright in the east and grey in the west...   And, the dumb apricot still hasn't dropped all it's leaves.