Foot on the pedal, engine revving...

The green flag has already waved to start July off right, and the month is only going to get faster.

On the last weekend in June, I flew to San Francisco for the American Library Association's annual conference.  I had two signing hours, hosted by the terrific people from Sisters in Crime and by my outstanding publisher, HarperCollins.  In between, I had time to wander the two gigantic conference halls, which were packed full of booths and presentations from other houses and organizations.  I returned home that evening with a bag loaded with books and other swag.  But the very best part was giving away dozens of copies of my own novel to librarians and library professionals from all over North America (and a handful who had traveled even farther.)  There's nothing quite as much fun as giving a true book lover a free copy.  Huge thanks to William Morrow for sponsoring the giveaways, and for making the arrangements to have their authors present.

Right now I'm in Florida, visiting family and gearing up to fly north to NYC and ThrillerFest X during the last half of the week.  ThrillerFest feels like the home track for me.  It was the first big conference I attended, back in 2013, and that same year I met my agent at the PitchFest afternoon.  Because my book PAST CRIMES was published in March, this will be my debut year at ThrillerFest, and I'll get to join about 30 other authors who have had their first novel released since the last gathering at the Debut Authors Breakfast.   It's tremendously exciting.  

And as usual, the week will also be loaded with classes, guest speakers, business lunches, the awards banquet on Saturday, and by my conservative estimation, twelve dozen cocktail parties.  ThrillerFest is some of the most fun I have all year, but it's also sixteen hours a day of being on.   I'll write some posts from the conference to let you know how the race is going.

What have I left out?  Oh yes: Book Two.  I'm working every day on finishing the rewrites, with about two weeks to go.  I'll be plugging away at those in New York too.  There will also be a visit to Boston, which I'll tell you about later.  

So if my first post in August looks like gobbledegook, you can blame it on lack of sleep.  And those cocktail parties.