Wordless Wednesday: Down In The Valley Below

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The Writing Circle

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I walked into the room not knowing what to expect. I saw a post on Bluesky that shared a link to a gathering that was called The Writing Circle , which was held at the library that is in my part of Ottawa. The group met on the third Thursday of the month, at three o'clock. Except next month, when it meets on November 27. I first learned of this group in April, but because the family and I were preparing for our trip to Peru and I had other obligations on days when the group met, I decided I would wait until the group started again, if they did, indeed, start up again. Because I was in the midst of writing my first draft of Dark Water , I was intrigued. Would this group of fellow writers—novice or experienced—be able to share ideas and provide constructive criticism to one another? Would the Writing Circle help me to be a better writer? I saw that the group was convening again, this month, and made the decision go check it out. Being only 10 minutes away from home, I thought why...
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Hunting

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After nearly seven months of being 'retired' (that is, my company of almost 19 years laid me and my entire department off), I've decided that I'm not quite ready to be fully retired. Within a day or two of being laid off, several people reached out to me for much-appreciated support, some even letting me know that they would keep an eye out for employment opportunities in my field of expertise. One person told me that she often has writing contracts with her company, and did I want her to reach out when such an opportunity arose. Yes, I told her. Thanks very much. Another colleague that I worked with at Motorola, who had been laid off many months earlier, contacted me to let me know that his new company was looking for a writer, and would I be interested. I thanked him for thinking of me but that I was going to take the spring and summer off to work on a novel, that if another opportunity arose down the road to think of me again. I was touched by the number of peopl...
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Friday Fiction: Prologue for a New Story

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If I had known that writing crime novels would give me so much joy, I would have started writing them decades ago. I had so much fun writing Dark Water that I couldn't wait to start the next book in what I hope will become a series: The Calloway and Hayes Mysteries . I have ideas flooding my head, often keeping me up at night, but I love it. A few days after finishing the first draft of Dark Water , I started coming up with a new case, which is set mostly in Ottawa's ByWard Market. This story is even darker than the first novel, with many layers. There's a serial killer in Ottawa and ritualistic murders, but are they actually related? As I said, last week, I've even come up with a title for the next book: The Watcher . And this week, I started laying out the outline for the story. As with Dark Water , I have spreadsheets and notes, with characters and plot lines, and I'm taking what I learned from the first book to be even more organized the second time around. ...
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