One Hundred Items: The Challenge #NancyMartin

LUCY BURDETTE: We are always happy when a new Nancy Martin book comes out--we love to celebrate and to hear what's new in her life...and you might love her new obsession too! Welcome Nancy!

NANCY MARTIN: Okay, Reds, I know I’m among friends here, so I’m going to tell you about my latest obsession: GROS----that is, Getting Rid of Stuff. 

My husband and I raised our daughters in a big house in suburbia, and when they went off to create their own lives we downsized into a perfect-sized city home with small closets and not much space for all the things that we managed to accumulate in the last 38 years together.  My bazillion books. (We bought this house because it came with a library in the basement.) His sporting equipment. (I’m not just talking golf clubs and tennis rackets.  There’s a motorcycle and all the paraphernalia that must come with it.)  There was all the stuff our girls left behind, not to mention the furniture and housewares I thought they would want some day. (But of course they want their own stuff!) My mother downsized into assisted living and brought me all the things she couldn’t quite bear to part with. (Beautiful antique fireplace tools, for one thing. Except I don’t have a functioning fireplace.) Then there were the years when we were big into community theater, and somehow we managed to collect a bunch of costumes and props and even a set of velvet-cushioned theater seats that came out of a demolished—well, you get the picture.  Our house was bursting at the seams.

Meanwhile my beloved aunt had gone into a long, terrible health decline, and those years of neglect turned her beautiful big house full of antiques, exquisite furniture and many, many collectibles into a daunting project that loomed in my future. I knew I was going to be stuck cleaning up her mess. When she died, I assembled all the cousins and the Got Junk company, and in five hellishly difficult days, we managed to clean out everything. It was a huge project fraught with all kinds of problems, but despite the hard work it became a fun celebration of her life. We survived. And we’re all still speaking.

So on New Year’s Day, I made a resolution I thought I could keep: For the whole year, I’d get rid of 100 items every month so my kids wouldn’t be left with such a chore. 100 didn’t seem like a huge number. It was do-able. In January I started small-- with all those little hairdo jiggies—clips and pins and a headband I was never going to wear again. And old makeup. (How many rancid tubes of mascaras does one woman need?) The bathroom was a great place to start. All those half-used travel sized toiletries that had somehow multiplied in the cupboards were quickly tossed into a trash bag. I counted carefully and got rid of 100 items—easy peasy.
I don’t know about you, but my New Year’s resolutions rarely make it to February. But the next month I hit my closets and easily shed clothes I’d never wear again. Things that were the wrong size or hopelessly outdated.  (It’s hard getting rid of expensive clothing, but really, was I ever going to wear that embroidered vest again?) In March it was my linen closets and my shoe collection. The project gathered momentum. I stopped counting one towel as one thing, but a half a dozen ratty old towels in a single bag made one item. I found old magazines galore, but one bag full of magazines became one item.  I was on a roll. Getting rid of stuff was great! I felt lighter, happier.  I could see the bottoms of my closets again! April and May flew by, and I lugged many bags and boxes to the Goodwill store. At June’s neighborhood garage sale, I got rid of some really big items—an old treadmill, furniture that was taking up space, more housewares. Over the summer, books went to library sales and nursing homes. Children’s books went to the homeless shelter along with art supplies and toys. Magazines went to waiting rooms. Finding good places to recycle still-usable items became an obsession.

I didn’t want my family to feel as resentful as my cousins and I had felt while dealing with my aunt’s mess. So I kept cleaning. There are plenty of books and websites that preach the gospel of de-cluttering. But I made a few rules for myself: Did I love an item? If I didn’t, out it went. (I love my dad’s dressage saddle, so—yes, I am still a little crazy—it stays.) Did I use an item often, or was I saving it for the “someday” when I might possibly need a set of Memorial Day picnic plates? Was I saving something even though it was broken? I admit that sorting through sentimental things got complicated. I couldn’t get rid of important family photos, but do you remember when we took pictures on film and saved dozens of photographs, no matter how dopey friends and family looked? I found I could easily pitch the photo of my college roommate when she’d played too much beer pong. But the flattering pictures I kept.  I lugged one daughter’s high school jewelry box all the way to her house in Texas. If she wanted to hang onto those keepsakes, she could find storage space in her own house.  Same for my other daughter’s rock collection. (!!)
 

It took until October for my husband to start noticing. And then he pitched in! Last week I took 36 old dress shirts of his to the Goodwill. (Why does a man keep that many shirts he’ll never wear again? Well, I’m asking myself the same question about the 37 winter scarves I also dug out of our front hall closet. 

I feel changed by my One Hundred Items challenge. Better. Lighter. Happier. Less stressed out. Relieved. Not so daunted by the future. Has this project translated into a book? Kind of. MISS RUFFLES INHERITS EVERYTHING is about Sunny McKillip, a young woman who doesn’t have many possessions left in this world. But she moves in with Honeybelle Hensley, a flamboyant Texas rose who has a big house and big hair…….and a beloved, but obnoxious small dog.  When Honeybelle dies and leaves her fortune to Miss Ruffles, it’s Sunny who must step up when the hijinks ensue. (MISS RUFFLES INHERITS EVERYTHING is available now. Go check it out!)

Do you collect too much crap?  Or are you one of those organized people who keeps only what she needs and nothing more?

I’ll be finished with my New Year’s resolution soon, but I’m in the habit now. I’m going to keep divesting. And I’m thinking about a new challenge for next year.  Have you heard about Forty Hangers? The idea is you keep a wardrobe of only forty items in your closet. I’m thinking I might give it a shot. 

Meanwhile, see you in line at the Goodwill!

Nancy Martin is the author of nearly fifty popular fiction novels in four genres—mystery, suspense, romance and historical. Her best-selling, award-winning Blackbird Sisters Mysteries include last year’s A LITTLE NIGHT MURDER. MISS RUFFLES INHERITS EVERYTHING is a standalone mystery from Minotaur. Nancy has served on the national board of Sisters in Crime and is a founding member of Pennwriters.In 2009 she won the Romantic Times award for career achievement in mystery writing. Find her on Facebook. 

Pssst...Nancy Martin Reveals There's More to the Story

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: LOVE these TBR piles! You all are amazing… as you can see below. And we’ll have even more as the week goes on. Every table tells a story, right? 

I read somewhere that novels are getting longer. Greg Iles terrific Natchez Burning, for instance. and an article in  the Guardian said : "Ken Follett's doorstopper Fall of Giants, if anyone's counting, is about 850 pages." And then it said: "probably to appeal to his American readers."  Huh?

But have you heard the expression “T-L-D-R”? Too Long, Didn’t Read, it means. And others say--"American readers" (whatever that means) want to read shorter.

Our fabulous wonderful Nancy Martin has been thinking about length—yes, she’s a glamorous fashionista, and so is her Nora Blackbird. (Her new A LITTLE NIGHT MURDER is out—finally!—right now!)  But Nancy’s not talking about hemlines—she’s talking about lines of type.

A Novella Idea

    By Nancy Martin

What exactly was Rhett Butler doing when he was “blockade running?” What went on in Boo Radley’s home? What kind of crime does Morelli fight when Stephanie Plum is busy catching bail jumpers?

Questions like these are writer heaven. Sure, we know what our secondary characters are doing while the main character is busy telling the story. But readers rarely get to find out.

Until now.  I think we’re entering the Golden Age of the Novella.

Me, I write a mystery series and publish one hardcover a year. When I’m at the top of my game, it takes me about nine months to write a Blackbird Sisters Mystery. By contrast, when I made a good living at romance novels years ago, I could write two or three books in the same amount of time. But those romances were only 200 pages in manuscript and featured a streamlined A story. The B story was very short, and the C story nonexistent.  

My Blackbird books are driven by a convoluted mystery plot and embellished with B, C, D and E stories—and sometimes more.  I may have several plot threads going--each addressing some current event or subject that takes research.  Plus after the draft is finished, I like to tweak the language to make the book more fun to read. Bottom line? I can’t dash off a full-length mystery in a few weeks.

Can I get tacky here and talk about money?  Because I can only write one book a year, I only get paychecks twice every twelve months. And royalties come in dribs and drabs. That makes for tricky cash-flow.

So I looked around and noticed other writers were supplementing their A writing with some B projects.  The short story has been around a long time in all genres, but not very lucrative. The novella e-book can be priced in the sweet spot of 99 cents to $2.99  and make real money.  Which makes it good business for writers--especially when our readers are clamoring for more, more, more, faster, faster, faster. 

Creatively, the novella can be a blast. As my series matured---published this week, A LITTLE NIGHT MURDER is the 10^th Blackbird Sisters mystery—my protagonist developed relationships with more characters than I can squeeze into a 400 page manuscript. Not without spending the first 100 pages just on backstory. But my email and FB contact with readers told me they really want to know more about the other people in Nora Blackbird’s life. Writing about those secondary characters has been fun.

The novella has become a way to keep readers hooked, and it’s a pretty good source of pin money for me.  Plus I get to fully explore the characters I only knew in a secondary sense. Win, win, win!

So far, I’ve published two novellas about Nora Blackbird’s lover, Mick Abruzzo, the son of a Jersey mob boss and a sometime criminal himself. His efforts to stay out of the life of crime—efforts that aren’t always successful—have made good amateur PI novellas. His stories are more gritty than my Blackbird books, which makes them a creative change of pace for me. Readers who buy the e-books will have better insight into what he’s doing when he keeps secrets from Nora.  His story arc is much different from the one she perceives.

In September, I’ll be publishing a slightly longer novella about Nora’s former sister-in-law, who will be looking into the murder of Emma Blackbird’s husband . . . perhaps at the hands of a certain mob family.  I took one of my previously published romances (pub date 1987!) and rewrote it for this purpose. Good use of my backlist? I hope so. If readers enjoy this one, I’ve got thirty more romances to tinker with—which I can do much faster than writing a whole new mystery.

Maybe the novella is rising in popularity because readers don’t have (or make) the time to read long books anymore. We’re all scrolling through Facebook or trying to communicate with 111 characters instead of reading full-length novels. Are we dumbing down? Losing our attention spans?  Or are we just too busy to read as much as we used to?

So what do you think? What minor character’s story would you read in novella form? What kind of trouble did Rhett Butler get into when he wasn’t charming the ladies of Atlanta?

HANK: Oh, what a brilliant idea!  Rebecca from Mrs. Danvers’ POV? The poor misunderstood Queen of Hearts in Alice? (Hmmm…) What happened to Dill? (I guess we know…) Or how about Bess and George tell all about the real Nancy Drew?  (And do you say “TL,DR?”) 

What do you think, Reds?  A copy of A LITTLE NIGHT MURDERS to one lucky commenter!

And now: today's nightstands!

Lourdes Venard (I see Writes of Passage! xo More to come on that!)

Red Kaye Barley (and monkey!)

Sharon Hopkins (very sleek)

Caroline Richardson Mahaffey (but she knows where everything is!)

Jay Shepherd (has his work cut out for him...)

Brandee C. (oops, more than Jay, even!)


More tomorrow! 

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Nancy Martin is the author of nearly fifty popular fiction novels in the mystery, romance, historical and suspense genres.  She has served on the board of Sisters in Crime and is a founding member of Pennwriters. An award-winning, bestselling novelist, she announces the release of her tenth Blackbird Sisters Mystery---A LITTLE NIGHT MURDER in August, 2014. Find her on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/authornancymartin 

Nancy Martin Confesses

Jan Brogan:   As most of you already know, Nancy Martin is the highly successful and prolific author of nearly fifty popular fiction novels, including the Blackbird Sisters mystery series and the Roxy Abruzzo mysteries.   Publisher's Weekly called her  latest release, No Way to Kill a Lady,"a fizzy, entertaining adventure."  Margaret Maron says:  "Nancy Martin knows the inner workings of blue-blooded Philadelphia and she lets us in on the fun with style and panache.”


And if you are the lucky commenter today, chosen at random, Nancy will send you a free copy of her new book!  The one lucky winner will be announced tomorrow!

NANCY MARTIN: At the risk of offending the Reds, I’d like to talk about . . . pink

Specifically the idea of posting 50 Shades of Pink on my Facebook page every day for the 50 days leading up to the release of the new Blackbird Sisters Mystery, NO WAY TO KILL A LADY.  I am always scrambling for something to post on Facebook, but one day I realized I had exactly 50 days, and of course 50 Shades hit me right away.  I mean, who hasn’t heard of the 50 Shades of Gray?

C’mon, now.  You can ‘fess up.  Have you read it? Any of it?  Even a few pages? Tell Aunt Nancy everything.
Shy?  I’ll get back to you in a minute.

Let me confess:  
The biggest mistake I made when I created the Blackbird sisters was the couture. (You thought I was going to confess something else?)  I knew Nora Blackbird was broke when she took her new job as a society columnist for a Philadelphia rag, and I also knew she’d need great clothes to wear to the parties she attends every night. After considerable stewing, I hit upon the idea of Nora using her late grandmother’s collection of fabulous designer clothes.


Only thing was, I knew ZILCH about designer clothes.  Honestly, the people who make fun of middle-aged ladies who wear yoga pants all the time?  That’s me they’re laughing at. So the research to create a vintage wardrobe for Nora Blackbird has been daunting from the get-go.  I finally hit upon the idea of only using dresses that actually existed, which has made my task slightly easier.  I have books about Chanel, and I adore Diana Vreeland’s autobiography, DV. My subscription of Vogue is now tax deductible, and I scour the Metropolitan Museum’s fashion department often. 


Over the last ten years (since the release of HOW TO MURDER A MILLIONAIRE, the first book in the series) I’ve become surprisingly good at identifying the work of top designers.  I don’t wear it, mind you, but I can identify it.


My readers really enjoy Nora Blackbird’s clothes—more than I expected. I get fan mail from around the world about the duds. So during the final 50 days before the release of the new book, I have posted 50 pink dresses to whet the appetites of the readers who have been rattling my cage for a new Blackbird book. (I put the series on hiatus back in 2008.) If you want to see the pink dresses, go to my Pinterest page:  http://pinterest.com/nanmart1/50-shades-of-pink/


Another confession:  I love Pinterest.  It feeds my urge to make ideas visual.  I wish I could paint or take decent photography, but I can’t.  I know what I see in my head, though, so Pinterest http://pinterest.com/  has become my latest addiction.

Third confession:  Back in the day when I wrote romance novels (almost 40) I read a lot of erotica so I could keep things . . . er . . . fresh.  I still have Anais Nin here on my shelf, and the Nancy Friday SECRET GARDEN book about female fantasies is around here somewhere. (I got creeped out, though, in the chapter about German shepherds.  I think I have a relatively open mind, and I believe people should do whatever floats their boats as long as nobody gets hurt, but the dog thing . . . nope, I couldn’t see it.)



Surrender the pink?  Sure, if that’s the way you roll, why not? Bondage, though, weirds me out. I have a true shrieking abhorrence of anything resembling torture, so bondage is outside my comfort zone. Which is why I’m really not going to buy 50 SHADES OF GRAY.  (I did download the sample on my iPad.  But for the first 50 pages nothing happened, and if there’s anything I learned from writing romance novels it’s this: Stuff has to happen and happen fast or your reader gets bored.)

My daughter points out that her generation feels differently about bondage.  To those young ladies, getting tied up may be a welcome rest after a long day.  They have high-pressure careers, maintain long-distance friendships and take care of family, too—so they are relieved that somebody else takes charge in the bedroom. (Nancy Friday’s theory was that women fantasized about bondage because if they were tied up, they couldn’t be blamed for enjoying the sex forced upon them.  Back then, good girls felt guilty about having fun in bed. Boy, have times changed, or what?)


Another lesson learned from writing romance? Women like their sex in print, so when I set out to write the Blackbird Sisters Mysteries, I knew I had to appeal to my longtime romance readers with a few racy bits. (Which is probably why my books have never really been embraced by diehard mystery readers.) Now--even more than the clothes--readers write to me about Nora’s love life. There’s definitely pink in Nora’s world.

So tell me.  What’s your opinion about sex in mysteries? Yea? Or Nay?
And if you’ve read 50 Shades of Gray? Tell me your theory of its appeal, but here’s absolutely the most hilarious review of it:  http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/340987215 Don’t have a mouthful of coffee when you watch, trust me.

Pick your favorite pink dress, too, would you? Dior? Givenchy? Versace? Or Michelle Obama’s simple sheath dress from Banana Republic? How do you roll?



NO WAY TO KILL A LADY, the 8th book in the Blackbird Sisters Mystery Series, will be released next week, on August 7th.  A few years ago, Jennifer Crusie said, “Great clothes, great mystery, great fun.”  A blurb that still makes me happy!
Find Nancy Martin on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/authornancymartin 
Her website:  http://www.nancymartinmysteries.com 

On Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/nanmart1/ 
But not on Twitter, because the whole tweeting thing just isn’t sexy. 

Nancy Martin: Just sayin'

JUST KEEP READING AND NOBODY GETS HURT!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: It was great fun, but it was just one of those...no, it wasn't. It was a ground-breaking mind-altering , consciousness-raising fabulous chaos of sisterhood, togetherness, empowerment and fabulousness.

Who didn't love the Lipstick Chronicles? The mother of all blog was so much a part of our lives for so long--its storied beginnings and its thriving and vital years of "Just saying" and "INCHFTS" and "Just keep reading and nobody gets hurt" and a no-holds-barred look at the mysteries of the world (and the world of mysteries.)

And then, one day recently...the tarts packed their belongings and emptied the supply room and with one last glass of champagne, went our separate ways. Leaving many memories and much nostalgia..and, because we are all who we are, some questions.

Now, we welcome the Lipstick alumns here to Jungle Red with a raised glass and a cozy quilt and some fish-net stockings and painted fingernails and a love of life and reading and each other.

Today, we also welcome one of the brains of the operation, Nancy Martin.


Who--no matter what she insists--still has more than a few things to say. And she's here to share and spill..and reveal the latest.

Surrender, Dorothy!
By Nancy Martin

Is blogging over? That’s the question we began asking ourselves at The Lipstick Chronicles water cooler about a year ago.

Can I admit this to you, trusted friends? The amount of time it takes to manage a blog finally overwhelmed me. Sure, most of it was fun. Some days, the blogs were hysterical. And my blog sisters had become almost as close to my heart than—well, anybody I’d ever slept in the same bed with. (I only wish we could have published some of the email threads we went to each other, but too many computer monitors would have been ruined by splurted coffee.)

Plus the backbloggers became my friends! And over six years together we’d built something big, something to be proud of—one of the first clearly successful blogs in the publishing biz that produced quality reading every darn day. In my 30-year publishing career, building TLC was one of the accomplishments I feel great about. But . . . running it was a marathon.

My blunt, practical, Yankee mother said, “Remember the lifeguard rule. Save yourself first.”

Another friend said, “Surrender, Dorothy.”


Would I be better off spending the same hours every day working on something for—dare I admit this, being as how I flinch from avid self-promoters?-- for me?

Most of my equally drained blog sisters said, “Yes.” Which cinched it. It was time to turn off the lights in the TLC office.

Let me tell you what happened as soon as we stopped blogging:

Nothing.

You know that guy who doing the Amish project? Turning off his technology for a while? That’s just about what happened to me. I climbed out of bed every morning to check the blog (oops! No need for that!) and I opened my email box to find it empty. Empty! The usual hour I’d spend answering emails was suddenly available for something else! And checking the blog three times a day to comment and delete the spam? No need for that anymore. No schedule to fill. No traffic-driving FB posts to make, no emails to write begging for attention.

Running a blog had become a small business for me, I realized.

“If I’d put all this time into selling Avon,” I said to a friend, “I could have retired by now.”

I’d been threatening to put old romances up on e-book market, so I’ve started working on that project. While I pound toward my deadline for a standalone. And while I rev up the Blackbird Sisters mysteries with a few more books.

Because, really? Do readers want another blog post from me? I don’t think so. They want more books. (What’s your opinion on this? Would you rather have more books from your favorite authors? Or more author newsletters in your in-box?)

So that’s what I’m working on now. Books. And I love the total immersion in my own writing again. It’s what I love to do. I’d allowed myself to be distracted.

Is blogging over? Of course not. Readers love blogs. I love reading blogs! The communities fostered by blogs are full of wonderful, fun, thoughtful people whom I will always consider friends. But for me? Yes, it’s over. Except when lovely pals ask me to guest blog when I have a book coming out. Which I do.

Plus something totally new, so keep scrolling down.

The paperback of STICKY FINGERS comes out next week, on Valentine’s Day. And the terrific people at Mystery Lovers Bookshop are offering autographed copies (and free shipping!) if you feel like giving a book to a sweetheart in your life. Here's the link: http://www.mysterylovers.com/index.php?target=products&product_id=60115 It’s a rip-snorting, sometimes steamy comic mystery.

In August, my new Blackbird hardcover will hit bookstores, too. NO WAY TO KILL A LADY. Isn’t the cover fabulous? Perfect for tucking into your summer vacation suitcase.

(HANK: OOH, yes, I LOVE the Blackbirds!)

NANCY: Plus, if you’re a Blackbird reader, I’m e-pubbing a short story/novella that’s a prequel to the series. It’s called MICK ABRUZZO’S STORY, and it should be available online next week through all e-book vendors. It’s priced right—just $1.99. Let me know what you think. Because in the time I used to spend writing blogs, I’ll be writing novellas about more secondary characters in the series.

HANK: Yes indeedy. It sounds like Nancy is REALLY taking it easy, huh? Did you read Lipstick Chronicles? What did you think of it? What do you remember from it? Let's do some Lipstick nostalgia..and if you never met Me, Margie or the cousins...well, there's still the archives. Or--maybe we can get Me, Margie to make a visit here!

And a free copy of Sticky Fingers (with love from Jungle Red) to one lucky commenter!

************************************************************

Nancy Martin is the author of nearly 50 popular fiction books, including mystery, suspense, romance and historical novels. She lives in Pittsburgh. Every February her husband moves into her office to work on their tax returns, and it drives her crazy. Visit her website at http://www.nancymartinmysteries.com/

Big Day at Bouchercon 2010...

This year, Bouchercon (the mega-mystery conference for fans and authors) is in San Francisco. Hank and Rhys, who are there partying and schmoozing and working their fannies off, took time off to report back on all the fun --

**NEWS BULLETIN from HANK** Do I sound happy? I am! My short story "On the House" won the Macavity for Best Short Story. How amazing is that? Many many thanks to everyone, including the wonderful Janet Rudolph and Mystery Readers International. Whoa.

HALLIE: Congratulations from all of us!!

So, ladies, how's it going out there at the Hyatt in the Golden State near the Golden Gate?

RHYS: Bouchercon for me started with a breakfast for first time attendees. I was asked to be a meeter and greeter and one of the first people I bumped into was Hank. So that was a nice start. Then I never made it up the escalator. I stood at the bottom and everyone I knew went past and we hugged and chatted. So it seemed like a good plan. Stand at bottom of escalator all weekend and the world will come to me!

HANK: Bouchercon is like Disneyworld for mystery fans. Something like that. Around every corner is something wonderful--get on the elevator and there's--Laurie King, or Lee Child, or Val McDermid. (Or Rhys Bowen!) Endlessly charming, endlessly generous, endlessly talking to awe-struck fans. It's pretty hilarious, really--the people you see on book covers, suddenly come to life in the hallways of the Hyatt.

And then the news pals--people from Jungle Red--Hi Christine! People from Facebook. People from DorothyL and 4MA. Guppies and SINC members. It's a lovely reunion.

HALLIE: So how's the weather? It's dark and cold and rainy here in New England...

HANK: It's hot! 89 degrees today. I can hear cable car bells out my hotel window and see the Bay Bridge. San Francisco! Very cool. But I have no idea what time it is. Time zones.

RHYS: The weather in San Francisco could not be more glorious--perfect temperature, sparkling blue water--and we're stuck inside a hotel all day. That's the trouble with conventions. Luckily this hotel has an interesting atrium and an open feeling to it so it's not as bad as some.

The opening ceremony was long. It started with a brilliant compilation of snippets from every film shot in San Francisco, but then there were a lot of speeches, introducing all the guests of honor and then the MacAvity and Barry awards. I had to leave as I had to attend my publisher's party at a restaurant on the Bay, but I was delighted to come back to find out that Hank won for best short story. Way to go, sister!

HANK: I am still in shock. But grateful and smiling.

So, let's see. Panels everywhere--the hotel is sneaker-friendly and not made for high heels, let me say. RJ Ellory brilliant and thoughtful, Jackie Winspear charming, Brad Parks adorable, Laurie King introducing her beautiful daughter, Reed Coleman (who won the Macavity/ with a sincere and touching speech, Christopher Rice hilarious, Kevin Guilfoile and Bryan Gruley (two new writers who you must read) fun and enthusiastic. Julia Spencer Fleming is back--hanging out with her is like being with a rock star. Kate White oh so glam. Everyone missing David Thompson--McKenna is here--so brave.

So many people--I couldn't possibly list. Nancy Martin. Molly Weston. Jen Forbus. Heather Graham. Attica Locke. Harley Jane Kozak. Our own Maddee James. Cathy Pickens got the seal as the new President of Sisters in Crime--she's terrific, Marcia Talley emeritus--she's really worked hard.

RHYS: I have to confess that I didn't go to many panels. I mean how many times can one listen to the same thing? So I only go to show support to friends these days.

These conventions actually turn into one long schmoozefest--which is great for me. I love hanging out with people I like, and a lot of my favorite people are at this convention. Had a long chat with guest of honor Lee Child, bumped into Jacqueline Winspear coming out of the ladies' room (after she'd gone into the men's room by mistake and was a little flustered by this). We had a nice Sisters in Crime get together and I was invited to a small party honoring McKenna, David Thompson's young wife, or rather widow (David being a well-respected bookseller who died suddenly aged 38 a month ago). Strangely he had emailed Lee Child and Val McDermid literally minutes before he died. He'd sent Lee a picture of the dog, called Reacher, saying he'd just bathed him and here was a picture of Reacher all wet and bedraggled. When McKenna came home to find him dead, the dog was still wet. So strange and sad.

Tomorrow I have a breakfast--why do these things revolve around food and drink? And then I have to go across the Bay to sign at the bookseller's convention taking place in Oakland. But then in the evening it's the Reacher's Creatures party.

Saturday ends with a disco ball. I'm not sure many people who attend mystery cons are of the age and shape to disco dance! Then there's the Anthony brunch on Sunday. I'll try to report in again.

HANK: Big day tomorrow--more to come. And next year--St. Louis!

Oops, I Did It Again...

Intaxicaton: Euphoria at getting a refund from the IRS, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.
~Author unknown, from a Washington Post word contest



HANK: Every year, I mean EVERY YEAR, I promise myself the same thing.
And the promise occurs around April 16. And every year I break the promise.

And every year, I mean EVERY YEAR, I realize that broken promise on (pretty much) the same day. Let's say, around today.

Every year I swear I will not leave my taxes until the last minute. And not just "doing" the taxes, but every year I promise, I resolve, I swear that I will not stuff all my receipts and check stubs and envelopes of convention expenses and invoices and bills from the bookmark guy into a big shopping bag. But, I do.

One year, determined, I actually bought an accordion file, one of those expando things where you can file by category, and then at the end of the year it's already organized. Yeah, that worked for a little while, but then it got too full and the old paper bag seemed like the best solution.

DO NOT tell me about excel spreadsheets, I just won't do it. First, you make a spreadsheet. Stymied from moment one. So, next weekend, I'm going to dump the bag(s) on the bed and organize and list on a yellow pad and then get a calculator and...Grrr. Grrr. Grrr. And then, after I'm finished, I'll resolve never to do that again.

If I had to predict: I'd say: Jan and Hallie and Roberta are all finished and have sent in their forms to Uncle Sam. Rosemary and Rhys give all their stuff to an accountant and don't have to worry about it. How'm I doing?

JAN: No. I'm not finished, but I do have it all in an Excel spreadsheet.

HANK: Sigh.

JAN: Well, "all" is an exaggeration. Although I do try to record all my bills as I pay them, I'm not what you call a perfectionist. Or even a good "double checker" because there's always an unexplained absence of say.... two months worth of Internet bills or travel expenses. There's always something important missing for no apparent reason, providing great insight into the holes that are in my brain.

HANK: I know! Why do we never learn?

JAN: But Hank, take heart, I'm behind the 8-ball, too, I haven't started nagging Bill yet to get the taxes done, which is BIG part of my job.

HALLIE: In my house taxes is 'men's work' - yes I assemble my income and expenses (nearly done) but my poor husband does the heavy lifting. It's too easy to file an extension!

RO: Oooooh, I think there's only one royal on this blog. My reputation as a princess is somewhat unwarranted - at least in this respect. Yes, Nancy the accountant extraordinaire makes sense of all my little scraps of paper but during the year I keep separate files for work expenses and I highlight those credit card purchases that are work-related. I've never been able to just use one credit card for all work expenses, though, not sure why. It would be very easy to spend a ton of dough promoting our books but I like to make a budget and stick to it.

HANK: Make a budget? What a concept. And I am inspired, Hallie, to get Jonathan to read this. I must say we each do our calculations separately--then off it all goes to the accountant. So we're not actually subtracting line 4(C)sub3 from Line 4 (c) sub2, or whatever.

So how are you all doing? Sent your forms off to the IRS and now patting yourselves on the back? (Good for you!) Or sorting receipts with the rest of us? Any tax tips? Besides, of course, to do them before April?

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And coming up this week: Tomorrow--do you use your family secrets? Wednesday: *fanfare* NANCY MARTIN! (And a book giveaway.) Thursday, bring a cup of tea, because we have short stories for you. And Friday, a truly hilarious thing that took me three times reading it to figure it out. The ultimate lost in translation.