The weird thing about my life is that there is seldom a straightforward, typical day. As much as I would like to spend my entire day pounding out my next work in progress, I seldom get to do so. Some days, I’m running errands, other days I spend at my desk, writing blog posts, updating my website, sending and responding to email, even occasionally getting some filing done. I also walk first thing every morning, some days two miles, other days longer.
I have organized my office days into hour and a half blocks, with half-hour breaks, to make sure that I step away from the desk long enough to refresh my brain. Which I sorely need to do.
Today, for example, I was supposed to start with the filing (I am so behind). Instead, I got caught up writing a preparatory email for an errand I’m doing tomorrow, then trying to get through to the U.S. Copyright Office about a copyright certificate that I applied for almost a year ago. (Somebody please explain to me why a government agency that wants you to use their online application process can’t have that process on the single most used Internet browser in the world.)
I got that done in time to get a load of laundry going and some lunch made, then I set up a post for the novel I’m currently presenting as a serial on my blog. You can read the first chapter here [https://annelouisebannon.com/a-little-family-business-chapter-one/]. It’s book eight in the Operation Quickline series of cozy spy novels. Or romances with espionage intrusions.
I wrote another post for the wine blog my husband and I produce on wine education, called OddBallGrape.com. Did the dishes during my break. With luck I’ll be able to keep on top of those this week. And I mean significant luck.
Skipped the newsletter which should be sent in three days in favor of writing this. Played one game of Bubble Witch, and several rounds of Solitaire, trying to think of something to write here. Started writing this piece.
In a little bit, I’ll do my meditation (again, I hope), then maybe crank out some more words on my current Work-In-Progress, which is book twelve in the Quickline series, and I’d share the title, but I’m thinking of changing it. Once my husband gets home, it’s time to make dinner with him – always a nice thing. After dinner, I’m trying to get into the habit of getting out some mending or other hand sewing, which is piling up yet again, and work on that while my husband listens to the baseball game. Then it’s back to my desk for re-writing work and reading.
Oh, and I need to do some social media follow ups.
Tomorrow, I’ll be running errands and doing a doctor’s visit, but that also means I can get some work in on the outline for my Work-In-Progress. I also need to buy some extra greeting cards, etc. Thursday, I’ll do an extended walk to the car rental place to pick up a car for the weekend (we don’t actually own one). The weekend will be filled with a grocery run, chores, and some sewing, plus this weekend, my husband and I will be going to see some friends for dinner.
As I’m looking at this, it all seems terribly mundane. But it is the life I lead and the one I love living. I get to write. And I do. A lot. Maybe not as much on my fiction as I’d like – definitely more fun living in my fictional world than the real one. But I do get to write what I think often enough, and that’s good enough.
Now, I’ve got another post to crank out, so if you’ll excuse me…
Old Los Angeles: Book 4
Publication Date: June 14, 2022
When the unmentionable stalks the pueblo
It starts when the inheritance that Lavina Gaines was to receive is stolen by her brother Timothy. Then an old Indian healing woman is murdered. Winemaker and physician Maddie Wilcox wants to find the person responsible for Mama Jane’s death, but is also occupied with another killer – the measles.
When Lavina’s friend Julia Carson dies trying to rid herself of a pregnancy, Lavina asks Maddie’s help finding the man responsible for Julia’s child. Soon after, Lavina is killed and her murder bears an uncanny resemblance to that of Mama Jane’s. The only motive Maddie can find involves Julia’s death, which is not the sort of thing one talks about. Not only that, Lavina’s nether garments are missing.
It’s a difficult challenge, but Maddie rises to it, searching among the many men of the pueblo, including some of her dearest friends.
How does a proper lady in 1872 get the answers she needs to stop a killer determined to stop her first?
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Anne Louise Bannon is an author and journalist who wrote her first novel at age 15. Her journalistic work has appeared in Ladies’ Home Journal, the Los Angeles Times, Wines and Vines, and in newspapers across the country. She was a TV critic for over 10 years, founded the YourFamilyViewer blog, and created the OddBallGrape.com wine education blog with her husband, Michael Holland. She is the co-author of Howdunit: Book of Poisons, with Serita Stevens, as well as author of the Freddie and Kathy mystery series, set in the 1920s, the Operation Quickline series and the Old Los Angeles series, set in the 1870s. Her most recent title is the current stand-alone, Rage Issues. She and her husband live in Southern California with an assortment of critters.
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Thanks, Tierney, for the opportunity!
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