Springing Forward in the Fall

It's funny how time works.

The whole relativity thing may be provable mathematically, but I'm more interested in the emotional effects of how time feels ... you know, how it speeds up and slows down all at once, depending on what you're doing--and sometimes who you're doing it with.

The last couple of months have gone by quickly from the vantage point of today ... I spent most of the summer writing the sequel to CITY OF DRAGONS--tentative title is CITY OF SPIDERS--which will be out next year in the late summer or early fall. And while I was writing it--while I was following Miranda through some suspenseful and harrowing events--time was excruciatingly slow.

But not really.

Then came a week of copy editing for THE CURSE-MAKER, which is releasing February 1st, 2011. Now, I'm not a huge fan of the copy editing process, so it seemed much longer than a week. And while the non-writer part of my brain thinks February is a comfortable few months away (all those holidays, after all!), the writer part of my brain (which takes up more space) is about to panic. ;)

So time isn't just relative between people ... it's relative within ourselves. But hey, this is Writing in the Dark, not metaphysics, so I'm gonna try not to think about it too hard.

What is coming up is Bouchercon, and this year I get to stay home. Yup, it's coming to San Francisco, which means no jet lag for me, though I still won't get to stay up as late as I'd like because I've got to get myself back home and don't have the luxury of just rolling into a hotel room. This year will be special, as all parties in San Francisco are!

Before B'con is the big lollapalooza lit festival our City likes to throw: Litquake! This year I'm part of LitCrawl, which means I get to hang out with wonderful crime writing friends and read from CITY OF DRAGONS inside an old police station. This qualifies as a cool and wholly unexpected perq of being a writer.

We're also in the midst of designing a bigger and better website, of which Writing in the Dark will be an integral part. It's based on the stuff I like to do when I'm on the web--i.e. have fun--so it's going to be more interactive and offer more historical extras to look at, listen to and watch. It also means I'm making it a resolution to update my blog more frequently, even if I have to act out the title!

So cool stuff is coming up. Seeing THE CURSE-MAKER in print will be a dream come true, as Arcturus and Co. move to Thomas Dunne/Minotaur. Lots of research went into this one (research spent in Bath, England). And this series is more light-hearted than Miranda, so it complements what will be coming out in CITY OF SPIDERS.

I'm working on the next books--and sketching out plans for a contemporary, stand-alone thriller. If I can squeeze in the time, I may write a short story or two. The experience of having "Children's Day"--my CITY OF DRAGONS prequel--published in FIRST THRILLS this summer was one of the major thrills of my life.

I'll be back soon, writing about noir or about adventures in research, and in the meantime, want to thank YOU for reading, and send thanks to all those readers who brought a blog award to Writing in the Dark. Thanks so much for your support!