I don’t know about you, but the last couple of months have been dismal – cooold weather, gray days, and although I’ve been writing away, I have not been good to you, my blog friends. You deserve better – and I’m resolved to giving that to you in 2014!

When I started this writing blog, I was dedicated to sharing with you what I was learning about writing – as well as current projects. Today, in this blog, you get both!

In January and the first part of February, I participated in TWO online writing classes through the Story Circle Network (SCN). One course was “Writing the Land”, taught by Dawn Wink (one of the fantastic Western Women Writers I met in Santa Fe last November at the Tony Hillerman workshop) and the second was “Word Painting – The Power of Vivid Description” taught by Amber Lea Starfire, a founding member of the SCN. Both of these were five-week online classes! And I highly recommend them.

As I worked through the course, I read the assigned readings and wrote passages either as requested or as prompted by a statement provided by the instructor. Doing two classes at the same time was a lot of work. I devoted at least four hours a day to these two classes. Believe me, on a sunless day it was a challenge for me to get into my writing chair and produce. But, as always, once I had made it there and began to write, I was lost in my writing. I will be sharing some of those writings with you in this blog over the coming months – I promise.

On the other side of the writing front, I have been editing the sequel to my book, Cobwebs – a suspense novel. This book, called AntHills, features the same main character (protagonist) when she returns home to Las Vegas, New Mexico after her time in Pawhuska, Oklahoma.

It is late August, and Jamie is just about to begin the new school year as a science teacher at the local high school. But, one of the tasks she must complete before she begins is to finally return to the campus of the Armand Hammer World College to clean out her late husband Ben’s office. (After all, he’s been dead for more than 18 months.) The first person she encounters on campus is her old nemesis Sheriff Clay, the man who had accused her of assisting in her husband’s death. He has startling news. Her step-daughter, Rebecca, who just enrolled at the College for her freshman year, has been reported missing by her mother, Ben’s first wife.

So – that’s how it begins. I expect to finish the fourth draft this month, and get it to my editor and friend, K. Grace, for her feedback. Then, the manuscript will go on to three ‘beta’ readers before it is published.

ALSO – I have started work on a novella, which will appear later this year. The other two writers participating are writer friends of mine. This book of three short mysteries has a ‘working title’: Somebody Had to Die, and my portion of the volume is called “Death in Cimarron Valley.”

So, that’s where I’ve been — but I promise I’m back, and will be providing you with posts two times a week, faithfully, into the distant future. I’ll provide that schedule next week so you can know what to expect and when to check back.

Meanwhile, I hope Spring is about to arrive wherever you are. Happy reading (and writing, if you are so inclined!)