I have some exciting news to share: My new book, Grievous Deeds, will be published on March 30, 2023! (Scroll down for details of the upcoming giveaways on Old Spirituals!)

I recently wrote a post about how, after finishing the manuscript for Has it Come to This?, I didn’t plan to write any more books for awhile. Famous last words! Despite not looking for a story, I came across one from Tennessee that fascinated me. I kept researching it out of curiosity but the more I learned, the more interested I got. By the time I unravelled everything, I knew this story was going to be my next book–and I think my best book.

As of this morning, the final manuscript is with the editor!

Requisite corny picture

THe Wonderful People

Have you ever had the experience of working so intensely on something that you lose all sense of proportion? With all of my stories, this is an issue for me. To give one example, I like doing the research and digging up lots of details that are really interesting… but often they’re too far outside the scope of the story.

It’s really critical for me to work with a tough editor who understands what I’m trying to do, appreciates it, and will still provide honest and blunt feedback. That’s why I’m so fortunate to work with Mary Ellen Bramwell. She edited Has it Come to This? and Grievous Deeds. Mary Ellen has been a fantastic partner. She tightened up the book and “made it sing!”

I’ve relied heavily on the beta readers for all of my books, but especially this one. They invested so much time in making the book a success. Huge thank you to Margaret Tilley, Furman Walker, Kristin Sherry, Wes Hamilton, Mary Ginter, Beverly Pittenger, Harpreet Singh, and Charlene Nuval!

In writing about court cases and mental illness, I really want to get it right but I know I don’t have the expertise to do it on my own. To really understand the issues, I always look for experts. This time I had three terrific Subject Matter Experts who provided their insights and made the book tremendously better: Dr. Richard Levy, Dana Fite of Fite Legal, and Judge Curtis Collier!

There are many people who contributed but the people listed here had such a tremendous impact, I wanted to recognize them here. Thank you all so much!

Upcoming giveaways!

I’ll be sharing lots more about Grievous Deeds in the coming weeks. Old Spirituals is going to host a series of giveaways beginning next month, sponsored by my wonderful publisher Black Rose Writing in the lead up to the book’s release.

Any ideas?

I track my progress on my books on notecards. Every day that I do any significant work on the book, I list the date, the total number of Word pages in the manuscript, and the word count. I threw away my notecards for my previous books but if anyone has any creative ideas for what I could do with these notecards, let me know!

The progress of Grievous Deeds