Out in the World

Writing-related musings on being out in the world, after a few days sick at home.

I have an Author page on Amazon. On Amazon! Makes it seem real.

I had the chance to visit Turkey Shore Distilleries recently. They're down the street in Ipswich, and they make a line of hand-crafted rums with table-grade molasses from Louisiana sugarcane and a custom-built 250-gallon copper still built in Kentucky. They aim to produce rums like those made in Ipswich several centuries ago. They handed out tastes in little plastic cups.

Since I had only ever tasted pretty low-level rums, I was amazed. It was smooth, it had flavor, and you didn't even need sweet stuff to mix with it. I could imagine sipping it straight in front of the wood stove on a snowy night (if this winter ever gets snowy). So I trotted right home and added that vendor to the Locavore Festival scene I was in the middle of writing, despite the fact that the molasses Turkey Shore uses isn't local.

With reluctance I canceled my registration to Malice Domestic for this year. It's a fan tastic conference geared toward mystery readers. I went last year for the first time. I greatly enjoyed seeing fellow writer buddies and some fans, meeting the great and gracious Louise Penny, heading south at the start of spring to a warmer clime with flowers in bloom. But since I don't have a book to sell this year, I decided to conserve my resources and go next year (and the year after and the year after!). I'll miss my pals and a chance to see my son who lives in the area, but there will be other times, Goddess willing.

The Chocolate Challenge is this month and I decided to join up. It's a bunch of Guppies who try their best to write as many words as they can. We provide mutual support, and whoever writes the most words gets the prize - all the other Gups send her chocolate. Now that's a prize. I doubt I'll win, since I have the pesky matter of the day job, but I'm going to do a big push on getting another third of the way through A Tine to Live, a Tine to Die. Two years ago I managed to write 28000 words in the month. This brought me to the point of typing THE END at the end of Speaking of Murder, which was a huge thrill.