Friday, January 12, 2007

Hitting the Streets

I realized that my recent blogs have all been about good news, not about the life of a to-be-published author. So, what have I been doing with my time between the celebrations? This week, I visited three local bookstores with ARCs in hand to line up booksignings with the proprietors or community relations persons. I also mailed an ARC to the book reviewer at the Boulder, Colorado newspaper, The Daily Camera. In the cover letter, I asked him to consider timing the publication of the review for the week before my panel signing with three other mystery authors at the High Crimes bookstore there.

My late April events are set now, including the Pikes Peak Writers Conference, a visit to a Book Club in Broomfield, my Launch Party at the north Barnes & Noble store in Colorado Springs, and two panel signings in Boulder and Fort Collins. Next, I'll start working on my May 3-13 trip back east. Along with attending the Malice Domestic conference from May 4-6, my goal is to arrange for a signing every day, to justify the expense of the plane fare and rental car. And I need to start begging friends and relatives for places to stay.

As for writing, I'm nearing the end of the rough draft of my WIP. I finished Chapter 20, the big climax, last night, and hope to finish Chapter 21, the last one, by the end of next week. The promotion work is crowding out writing time. I'm feeling a sense of desperation about finishing this project before if gets pushed aside by the "business" aspects of the writing business. Thank goodness I don't have a "day job" because I'm spending 30-40 hours a week now on my new extremely low-paying career, between the promotion, writing, and my work as Vice President of Pikes Peak Writers.

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