Daily Archives: August 6, 2023

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A Break from Writing? Not Really.

August 6, 2023 by Linda O. Johnston in category Pets, Romance & Lots of Suspense by Linda O. Johnston tagged as Between drafts, finishing the book, Linda O. Johnston

What does a writer do between drafts of a story? Well, that depends.

I finished a first draft of my upcoming fourth story in my Shelter of Secrets series for Harlequin Romantic Suspense. It still needs some work, but it’s currently in the hands of my excellent beta reader.

So what am I doing while I’m waiting? I have another book under contract that I could begin, but for now I’m trying to play catch-up in some things I’ve been ignoring while I worked on that draft, and also attended the Romance Writers of America Conference.

I won’t get into what kinds of things they are, but they definitely needed to be worked on. Will I resolve them all now? Not hardly, but I hope to at least make a dent in them.

Meanwhile, I’m also making some preparations for Bouchercon, the mystery conference I’ll attend at the end of this month and beginning of September.

So how about you? Do you ever get a chance to take a break, however short, from your writing or your other kind of job? If so, how do you decide how to handle it?

I hope you’re more organized than I tend to be these days. But hey, I’m always amused when my interruptions come from my puppy!

Hope you all enjoy the last half of 2023. I intend to!