Where Have I Been?

Hello everyone!

Yep, I haven't posted in a while.  What have I been doing that is more important that writing a blog post??  Sigh, everything it seems.

I went to a conference in April in Madison, WI.  I went for two reasons - I lived in Madison for 10 years and it was great to go back and visit.  I saw a few friends, saw some sights and ate at a few of my favorite places.  The other reason - all my family lives 20 minutes from Madison so I was able to to work in a visit.  :)

I also attended Malice Domestic.  Holy cows.  What a fantastic weekend.  We had a ton of Midnight Ink authors there and we had a blast.  What amazed me was the excitement and electricity around the MI authors.  Pretty much if you saw one Inker, you would see two or three more.  If an Inker was on a panel, other Inkers were there in support.  I could not have been more proud of our group.  It felt like we were a big family - a family that actually liked and supported each other. 



The Inkers (missing a couple) - Joanna Campbell Slan, Lois Winston, Cricket McRae
Kathleen Ernst, Jessie Lourey, Linda Hull, Jessie Chandler,
Darrell James, Maddy Hunter, Deborah Sharp,
Alan Orloff, Beth Groundwater, Vicki Doudera, me

This weekend I head to Denver to teach a writing workshop.  Me?  OMG.  That might kill me.

In between travelling, I have by boys.  This last weekend was the fishing opener in MN.  So, I took the boys fishing with the help of an expert, lol.  They caught a lot of panfish and had a great time.  Since it was our first time fishing, there was a lot of learing and lines to detangle but thankfully no one got hooked!!  This is the first catch of the day:

Besides fishing, my oldest son is in baseball and my younger two are in soccer.  T-ball for them starts soon as well.  Noah playing catcher for an inning.

What else is on my plate?  Oh yeah.  Contracts.  They never go away.  Awful, nasty yucky stuff for me, but good news for you.  Why is that?  Because more contracts mean more books.  I aim for 10-12 books per season for 30-36 titles per year.  As of right now, Winter 2013 has 11 titles, Spring/Summer has 10, and Fall has 10.  Great news, right?

Yes and no.  I love doing more books.  I love having a broad catalog.  If I have 12 titles, 9 of them fall into the softer categories of traditional, cozy or soft-boiled.  The other three fall into medium, thrillers or suspense.  A nice balance for us.  I love to find new books and read more in the series that we already have going.

But there is a negative side.  Besides contracts, which I worked on for 5 solid days in a row, I have to read all the manuscripts that have come in and send the authors any revision requests that I might have.  I have at least 6 on my desk right now.  These are manuscripts for Winter and Spring/Summer 2013.  I also have to find the time to read submissions.  Don't get me wrong.  I am not whining.  This is my job and I totally dig it.  And let's face it, I've got a pretty damn good gig here.  But sadly, under the weight of doing so many books per catalog, some things get pushed to the back burners.  :(  Like doing my laundry, reading for pleasure posting here.  I shall try to do better!