NET STALKER is now published!

The goal this winter has been to bring my second suspense novel NET STALKER to publication, which involves not only final editing, but details such as securing permission for the lyrics I've used in the book and acknowledging them correctly. This necessary administrative "stuff" has been balanced by the creative endeavor of working with a graphic designer to get the cover just right. I'm really pleased with it.

As I write, Chris is stretched out on the couch in our vacation rental in Laguna Beach, CA. Always my first reader, he is on the final chapters of the final draft of NET STALKER, which will go live on Kindle very shortly. Chris hasn't read the book since my first draft was finished lo, these many years (!!) ago, so I am on pins and needles to hear his response.

As I've said before, I live sort of a split life: Nine months of the year all my attention and creativity is focused on A Butler's Manor, our bed and breakfast, on welcoming and enjoying our guests and ensuring that their visit to the Hamptons is superlative. When we close for the season and I get my head back in the game, I can work on my writing. I beg my Muse to stay patient with me, as this is my reality and is likely to be so for some time going forward. Lately it's been easy to engage the Muse since NET STALKER takes place here in Southern California, and I can physically visit some of the actual locales where I've set scenes. This can be a luxury and a curse, because in the creation of a book your settings take on a life of their own in your imagination, and sometimes revisiting the spot that served as setting or inspiration gives you a curious sense of letdown.

I've written about setting before in ruminating about BLOOD EXPOSURE, where it was so key to the story. In NET STALKER, the greater challenge was to stay grounded in time, as it takes place just before the millenium, and the field of information technology has grown almost exponentially each year. Still, I feel fortunate to be inspired to write in (roughly) current time, as contrasted for example by one of my favorite authors, Sue Grafton, who set her Kinsey Millhone Alphabet series in the mid 1980's and must have to double check constantly to make sure that technology tools we've learned to take for granted--such as cell phones, which weren't in existence then--don't inadvertently creep into the narrative.

Ah, there is movement from the couch! A comment that the difficulty of an e-book is that when you're finished, you can't close them with a satisfying snap. Chris's response? For those of us of a certain age, I quote the old Life cereal commercial, "He likes it! Hey Mikey!"

--And Kindle just informed me that the book is live!!!  Check it out here: NET STALKER.

Off to pop a bottle of champers!! Yeah!

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