A Writer must Write, as a Chicken must Lay Eggs...

Thanks, fellow writer Carol Ann Kauffman, for reminding me that I do, too, have time to blog. If you have time to blog while writing a series of lovely romances; if Tom Wills has time to blog while creating art work and presiding over art shows while holding down a fulltime job as well; if Diane Laney Fitzpatrick has time to blog and finish a book while moving from Florida to San Francisco, surely I can find a few moments...?

The trouble with being a writer is, you gotta write if you want to keep the title. And I write all the time: ad copy, newsletter copy, even an honest-to-God Egyptian studbook for Arabian horses. But writing -- well, that's something else. That takes concentration and reflection. And quiet. All of which are hard to find among the din of my three dogs, two cats, and barnful of horses.

But (she said proudly) I have finished one novel, a story I began several years ago. I have another one half-done, and a genuine professional agent waiting to see the rest of it -- but I've set it aside to try to complete yet a third book, this one a fictionalized version of a real murder case.

Life, however, intrudes. There's work-for-pay intrusion, and let's-go-to-Italy intrusion, and better-pay-some-attention-to-this-200-year-old-house intrusion. Sometimes there's let's-do-a-play-and-throw-our-schedule-into-chaos-for-two-months intrusion. So the job jar suffers.

 But I promise to try to keep up from now on. For you, Carol.

For the record, here's a link to my currently published novel on Amazon, available for download to Kindle and in paperback: If you like it, let me know. If not -- well, another one's coming, with any luck!