I cannot believe that it’s already April. March went by in a blur. After the February trip to North Carolina, I did do the Tucson Festival of Books in mid-March, which is always fun. A lot of work, but fun to meet authors I admire and see old friends. This year I did a mystery writing workshop, was a panelist and signer, and a moderator as well.
At TFOB with (left to right) Yours Truly, J.M. Hayes, Sara Sue Hokolotubbe, Naomi Hirahara
Otherwise, I’ve barely been out of the house and all my friends and relatives think I’ve either run away to Tahiti or that I don’t love them any more, neither of which could be further from the truth. I’ve been hunkering down over the new book, All Men Fear Me, the first pass of which is due to the publisher on April 20. I more or less got it done yesterday, after a couple of weeks of proofreading and cutting and getting my chapter numbers in order. I still have the recipes and historical notes to do, but the story part is ready to go. After my editor reads it, she’ll have me do some rewriting if the past is any indication of the future. I hope not too much rewriting. I already feel like I’ve been run over by a truck. This was a hard book for me to finish, and it has turned out to be the longest book yet. And that’s even after I cut about twenty pages, mainly by taking out adjectives! I have no idea whether it’s any good, but I like the way it turned out.
And now I’m going to have to spend some time letting my friends and relatives know I’m still alive.
Mabel Motley Sanchez Koozer, age 25
But first, my husband Don’s birthday was last month, and one of his sisters sent this wonderful picture of their mother, Mabel Koozer, which we think was taken in about 1936, when she was 25 and before Don was a gleam in her eye. (Though she already had four little gleams by that time). I love this picture, and not just because I can certainly see Don in her face. My late mother-in-law was a very strong influence in the creation of my main character. So if you’re curious to see one of Alafair’s models, here she is.
October 4th, 2015
That is a wonderful picture of Mabel. I didn’t know them when the sisters were this young so it is good to see pictures of them.