Like the cobbler’s children who go barefoot, I’ve been too busy with other blogs to keep this one current. I post once a month on two group writers’ blogs, write a monthly newspaper column, do occasional blog guest posts, work a full-time job and somewhere find time to write mystery novels. Oh yes, and feed the cats.

I post at The Cozy Cat Chronicles, a blog for my fellow authors at Cozy Cat Press.

On the first Monday on each month I post at Ladies of Mystery, an eclectic group of women mystery authors of various genres. It’s been challenging but fun to think of new topics each month and not talk about my work constantly. Our posts are suppose to deal with “mystery” in one way or the other and I’ve been discovering novel ways to push the envelope as to what constitutes a “mystery.” Frankly, the whole writing process is a mystery to me. When I finish a piece I ask myself, “How did I ever do it?”

As for books, I’ve started the third draft of the fourth in the Sandy Fairfax Teen Idol mystery series, “The Quirky Quiz Show Caper.” I may be the only author to use the letter “Q” not once but twice in a book title. This one was a toughie. In the first draft, I threw out the first 50 pages and rebooted with a different approach. I almost gave up but my publisher encouraged me to finish. The book’s looking better now and has what I consider the funniest scene I’ve ever written. I’m anticipating the book’s release in early 2016.

After that I’ll give Sandy a well-deserved rest and start a new cozy series set in 1967. Far out! I have a number of ideas in place with an interesting female protagonist, an unusual small town setting and an exciting, unique concept. Stay tuned!

This fall I started a new writing project, a monthly column, Roots of Faith, for the Acorn Newspapers, the umbrella title of five community newspapers serving Western Los Angeles county and Eastern Ventura County in Southern California.

The challenge is to write articles that appeal readers with a wide range of religious beliefs. I can’t evangelize, although I stay in the Judeo-Christian tradition, and I keep clear of controversial topics; I’m not interested in fielding emails from readers who disagree with me! So far the response has been positive; even the priest and a deacon at my parish have liked my articles.

I’m writing more now that I ever have in my life (except maybe all those grad school papers). What’s gratifying in my work is getting published in paper and via Internet instead of generating rejection slips-I’ve had my fair share of those.

So if you don’t find a new post here, I’m probably blogging or writing somewhere else. But in future I’ll try not to be a stranger on my own blog.