The Waiting Game

Edith here, with a finally planted garden and a full heart north of Boston. And a book to give away!

So much about the writer’s life involves waiting. You finish one book, work on another project, write a proposal for yet a different book, and still the first book hasn’t come out, at least in the traditional publishing model. The release feels like forever distant. Then all of a sudden things are happening and you’re barely hanging onto the freight train door as it hurtles down a mountainside.

I wrote Farmed and Dangerous, polished it, and turned it in over a year ago. I first saw the cover late last fall, I believe, and got really excited about it, but it still seemed so long until it would be out. Kensington sent me a box of Advance Review Copies (ARCs) months ahead of the release date, and a box of the actual hardcovers a month or so ago. Now the book is out – well, officially next week – and I’ve been frantically writing guest blog posts, arranging a launch party (you’re all invited!), agreeing to all kinds of library and bookstore events. Speak of a freight train!

In the meantime, I wrote Book Four, Murder Most Fowl, polished it, and turned it in, and have made the few editorial revisons my editor asked for. But it won’t be out until a year from now. AND I wrote the synopsis for Book Five, Cart Before the Corpse (or maybe Mulch Ado About Murder), which my editor liked and accepted. That book is due in May 2016 and won’t be out for a year after that. Where is my time telescope so I can see that far out?

The same thing with the Country Store Mysteries. Got the cover for Flipped for Murder a few months ago and loved it, but the book won’t be out until late October, although it IS available for preorder (as Hank Phillippi Ryan says, it’s only my career…). Meanwhile Grilled for Murder, the second book, due August 1, is complete and awaiting Sherry’s expert edits before I submit it. (Book Three is due March 1. Gulp.)

The same thing, even worse, with Delivering the Truth. I say worse only in that, once again, the release date seems so very far away, but that’s partly because the book was complete before I landed the contract with Midnight Ink last December. The release date is April 6, 2016. I just saw the cover, which I love, and when I posted it on Facebook, 300 people popped in to say how much they also like it and want to read the book. It won’t even be available for preorder until July, and I’m already ten thousand words into Book Two! See what I mean?

It’s a good thing I’m, shall we say, a bit too busy, or the waiting game might have me sitting around tapping my foot and chewing my fingernails. As it is, I’m barely keeping my head above water. In addition to writing books, I also read books. I am Clerk of Amesbury Friends Meeting, on the Crime Bake committee, a judge in a contest, and so on. I’m smiling, don’t get me wrong. I love this life. And good things come to those who wait, right? Or as my Hugh says, “It’s just another f—ing growth opportunity!” (minus the dashes…).

Readers: How are you with waiting? Are you the patient sort, or the I Can’t Stand the Wait type? And what do you think about the brand-new Quaker Midwife Mystery cover? I’ll send a copy of Farmed and Dangerous to one commenter!