Is it Over?

Did I survive June? I think maybe I did.

*pinches self*

OUCH!

Guess I'm still here! I have a few more guest posts left, two this week, then a more trickling schedule, but I had NO IDEA how much harder it would be to prepare material for OTHER people's blogs than my own. I couldn't just sort of fly by the seat of my pantslessness like I sometimes do. I had to be a little more deliberate. It was good for me. I think I had some good posts in there. And I enjoyed trying to match the tone or content of other blogs--think I did pretty good on that front, especially my character ninja evaluation for Alex. But I gotta be honest, I'm sort of looking forward to getting back to being ME. I feel like I've neglected all of you, which I hate doing—sorry about that. And that it's been a little while since I really sort of let loose. I mean you KNOW I'm ALWAYS a little loose... but comparatively speaking.

So PLEASE come by and see me at Writer's Space today! I'm talking about those funny murders. Erm... sort of. Okay, so maybe it is more distinguishing Cozies from other mysteries...

Gorgeous cover by Joris Ammerlaan

In Other News

I officially 'won' BuNoWriMo. I crossed the 50K word line on the 29th—the closest I've ever cut a WriMo (WriMo defined as 50K words in 30 days)--usually I have 3 or 4 days to spare. I ended June with 55,569 new words. When I added it to the little bit I'd done before, I had about 58,500 in the document I am starting July with and I am not calling it done until it's DONE, which I am thinking will be about 90K, but could actually fall anywhere between 80K and 110K to be honest. I WILL finish this month though—keeping that 1667 per day pace going until it is. (note I have TWO graphs up there... One, just to show I finished BuNoWriMo in June--based on wordcount rules, and one adjusted for the more realistic word count of 'finished book'.)


In Other News of a more personal nature

So last week my aunt told her COUSIN I had a book out... and said cousin FOUND ME on Facebook (through the Alyse Carlson page) and we've been chatting and it's SO FUN. She is hooking me up with all sorts of OTHER cousins... these are second cousins mind-you. On my dad's side there is only one first cousin... and she's fabulous, but I knew about her... this new batch is people I SOMETIMES have heard of, but never really knew. I'm loving it. So a big THANK YOU to Janie! [and a note that sometimes the little joys that go with getting a book published have nothing to do with the business]. I briefly debated behaving myself for a while in their honor, but I don't think I can... And they KNOW silliness runs in my genes--after all, my grandpa who connects me to them married into this:

That's my grandma in the middle

So WELCOME, July! Hope you all enjoy it! And I think I won't actually take a blog break this week like I thought: Wednesday and Friday are musts anyway, and I surely can't keep myself from having something important to say one other day...

Bring it on!