The Cave of Wonders

                          By: Maegan Beaumont


Lately, I've had a lot of people question me on my writing process. 
How I write (with my hands). How I choose to write what I write (I don't... it kinda chooses me). How much I write on a given day (It depends. I set a personal goal of 700 words a day. Sometimes I barely make it. Sometimes I quadruple it.) 

But without fail, someone always asks this question:

Where do you write?

In the spirit of full disclosure... I can write anywhere. But that doesn't mean all writing spaces are created equal. I've been known to stay in bed all day with my laptop and my dog and I can do that just as easily as I can set up at the dining room table.

But when I'm really looking to bank some major words, I head to my writing cave. It's kinda like the Bat Cave only there's no bats and no butler who brings me tea and cleans my grappling hook.

My desk is way too small and my chair has seen better days but this is where the magic happens.

Any writer worth their salt is a voracious reader. This is how I justify hiding in my cave and reading when I should be doing laundry.

No cave is complete without a dog and access to coffee. 

So there it is--the answer to where... just don't ask me why because that's something I haven't quite figured out.

Maegan Beaumont is the author of SACRIFICIAL MUSE, the second book in the award-winning Sabrina Vaughn thriller series. A native Phoenician, Maegan's stories are meant to make you wonder what the guy standing in front of you in the Starbucks line has locked in his basement, and feel a strong desire to sleep with the light on. When she isn't busy fulfilling her duties as Domestic Goddess for her high school sweetheart turned husband, Joe, and their four children, she is locked in her office with her computer, her coffee pot and her Rhodesian Ridgeback, and one true love, Jade.

























"... Sacrificial Muse is heart pounding intrigue at its very best. A fast paced, exciting read that I couldn’t put down." - Book Chatter

How OCD Are You?

by Shannon Baker

In the famous words of W.C Fields, “Go away kid, you bother me.”

I’m closing in on a novel I started about a year ago. I haven’t been working on it all year, though. I wrote a couple of chapters and an outline, then turned my attention to another genre and cranked out two books. Those books are living in an undisclosed location under an assumed name.

In April I returned to this book. For a while I wrote like a sane person. I completed a draft, planned revisions, contracted an editor and we set a deadline. I can meet that deadline with certainty by working a challenging, yet rational schedule.

However, I lost my tenuous grip on reality four days ago. After a relaxing week of vacation with my guy, kayaking, hiking, cycling, camping in the Rocky Mountains, I headed down to Tucson. I have a ten-day stay planned in which I would inspect some work done on the house while we were gone, make some decisions on other house improvements and finish the revisions on my book. In the meantime, I wanted to trip up to Scottsdale to support fellow MI author, Maegan Beaumont with her release of Sacrificial Muse. All laid back and easy.

Somewhere in day two, I boarded the crazy train. Left to my own devices, with no one to expect company at meals or conversation over coffee, or to generally behave like a normal human, my engine heated up and I can’t seem to cool it down. I finished the revisions yesterday and now I’m filling holes and patching cracks. I can’t have a phone conversation because I’m distracted with my characters’ motivation and if I remembered to add that clue.

My neighbor, the sweetest woman in the world, is excited I’m here this week and has engaged me whenever I slip out front for any reason. I try to be friendly but I want to ignore her and run back to my computer. She invited me over for a cookout today and I am so irritated I have to interrupt my flow I feel like declining. But I didn’t. I even mixed up my killer Three-Bean Salad.

Then I had to stop a chapter spit and polish because my alert popped up that I have a blog post due tomorrow and as I’m writing, this happened:

I assume it was one of those desert thermals that landed on my house, because I had those pages anchored down. None-the-less, that’s the latest draft spread across the floor. And you know what? I’m not stopping to pick it up because I have two hours before the cookout and I have to finish this blog and get back to the edit.

 I should do yoga and I’ve got to pay some bills. And I have until the end of the month to finish this book and it’s very close to being done but I want to have time to read it out loud and I think I should send it to a beta reader or two and what if they think it doesn’t work and I wonder if I ought to change the part where the killer laughs and her motivation isn’t clear in the second part and, oh my god, I forgot she smashed her nose on the steering wheel in chapter 27 so people need to react to all that blood on her face in chapter 28….

This is why I shouldn’t do a private writer’s retreat. I need someone to speak slowly and maintain eye contact and tell me to step away from the manuscript.  

Tell me I’m not alone in this wacked-out behavior. Just how OCD are you?

The Joy of Writing

It feels a bit odd and sad to me indirectly following Deborah Sharp's wonderful farewell blog here on InkSpot.  I definitely wish her well.  And I hope she gets back to writing soon, if that's what works best for her.  If not, it's been fun InkSpotting with her!

Her post got me to thinking.  Would I ever do something similar, like saying goodbye, taking a hiatus from writing?

I don't think so.  In fact, I'm delighted to have a writing career since I never have to stop.  I can keep on making things up forever!

I did have several other careers in my life.  I started out in advertising and public relations, then went to law school.  My legal career lasted a long time, segueing from a law firm to an in-house counsel position, to doing projects for other attorneys.  Those projects dried up when the economy tanked.  I'd already become a published author by then, so rather than looking too hard for another full-time law job, I became a full-time writer.

And that's where I am today.  I'm delighted that my new Superstition Mysteries series will debut soon from Midnight Ink.  LOST UNDER A LADDER will be an October 2014 release.  I'm additionally working on a second series for MI, and am also still writing romances for two Harlequin series.

Which all means that I spend a lot of time writing.  Everyone has different goals in their lives, and mine usually include taking the many ways my imagination goes and sticking the most interesting stuff in stories.

But that's not right for everyone, and I recognize that.  I may feel thrilled and privileged to be a writer, but as with any kind of career, some people may love it and others not so much.

I'm just grateful for my imagination and for those who enjoy reading the results!

INK SPOT NEWS ~ JULY RELEASES

By Maegan Beaumont



Check out Midnight  Ink's Fabulous July Releases!!

The White Magic Five & Dime
By: Steve Hockensmith, Lisa Falco 
A Tarot Mystery #1

 "Cozy readers with a taste for humor will welcome this hilarious series debut . . . [and] will eagerly await the next installment." —PUBLISHERS WEEKLY (STARRED REVIEW)

Sacrificial Muse
By: Maegan Beaumont 
A Sabrina Vaughn Novel #2

"...A fast paced exciting read that I couldn’t put down. Sacrificial Muse is heart pounding intrigue at its very best." -- My Book Chatter