Time to count your blessings–what are you thankful for this year?

Many of us feel we have little to be thankful for, especially with the looming tax increases and prices. However, there’s always someone who has it worse than us, so we should all make an effort and find something to be grateful for.

• Health: are you mobile? relatively pain-free most of the time? able to enjoy things in your life? be thankful for your health
• Mind: are you able to think clearly? enjoy the little things? find something positive? be thankful for your mind
• Friends: do you have any you can contact? spend a little time with, either in real life or virtually? be thankful for your friends
• Food: do you have enough? can you indulge in your favorites once in a while? be thankful for your food
• Home: do you have a roof over your head? are you protected from the elements? be thankful for your home

No matter how small, we can all find something that we can be grateful for. Look for the small things and be happy.

This is Book 3 in a series by Susan M. Boyer, a local author.

In the series, several eccentric Sullivan’s Island citizens meet for supper on a regular basis, sharing lively conversation and alcoholic beverages on the beach. There’s always a mystery to solve, too, and I’m enjoying the characters and the mysteries. If you like beach mysteries, this is a series you should try.

This is a humorous mystery series by Kevin J. Anderson, who writes Dune and Star Wars stories as well.

The hero’s name is actually Chambeaux, not Shamble, but since he is a zombie, people just assume…. Dan has been murdered, only he didn’t die permanently. He came back as a zombie, and his girlfriend, also murdered (presumably by the same hand) is now a ghost. They’re still working though, both at his private investigator’s office, along with a living human lawyer who helps them out.

This is a fun read and I’m looking forward to finding out if Dan can solve his own murder (and that of his girlfriend, of course).

This will be published in only a few days (October 29) so I don’t have to wait very much longer.

This is another Inspector Gamache novel by Louise Penny, about the mystical little town of Three Pines and the inspector who calls it home. I can hardly wait until it downloads into my Kindle (I pre-ordered, of course).

This is one of Steve Hockensmith’s “Holmes on the Range” spin-off series about the AA Western Detective Agency’s other agents.

In this novel, Diehl, Hoop, and Eskaminzim, plus Hoop’s wife (and Eskaminzim’s sister) Onawa, are off chasing bank robbers–or are they? Turns out the robbers have stolen something far more precious than the contents of a tiny town’s bank vault, and they’re after nothing less than the downfall of the Union.

This was just published, and I’m about halfway through, but it’s just as good as Hockensmith’s other novels. I like the characters and, as always, just when you think you’ve got the plot figured out, the author tosses in yet another plot twist. If you like action, mystery, and historical novels, you should pick up a copy of this book (and probably the first one in this series, Hired Guns).

Final batch of writing quotes:

• “Description begins in the writer’s imagination but should finish in the reader’s.” (Stephen King)
• “Never write anything that does not give you great pleasure. Emotion is easily transferred from the writer to the reader.” (Joseph Joubert)
• “It is perfectly OK to write garbage as long as you edit brilliantly.” (C.J. Cherryh)
• “Write your first draft with your heart. Rewrite with your head. (Mike Rich)
• “It took me fifteen years to discover I had no talent for writing, but I couldn’t give it up because by that time I was too famous.” (Robert Benchley)
• “I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.” (Douglas Adams)

Here are some more inspirational quotes on writing for you:

• “Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it’s the only way you can do anything really good.” (William Faulkner)
• “You don’t start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it’s good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it.” (Octavia E. Butler)
• “Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” (E. L. Doctorow)
• “I’m writing a first draft and reminding myself that I’m simply shoveling sand into a box so that later I can build castles.” (Shannon Hale)
• “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.” (Stephen King)

I love inspirational quotes! Here are some about the craft of writing:

• “Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.” (Louis L’Amour)
• “The first draft is just you telling yourself the story.” (Terry Pratchett)
• “You can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page.” (Jodi Picoult)
• “If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” (Toni Morrison)
• “You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” (Jack London)

This time next month, I’ll be in the state capital (Columbia) enjoying myself at the South Carolina Writer’s Association StoryFest Conference.

It’s from Friday September 27 to Sunday September 29. The Friday classes are “Master Classes” with agents and editors. I’m going to agent Renee Fountain’s “From Query to Contract: Mastering the Submission Process” at 1:00pm, then I’ll see part of Barbara Evers’ talk on using animals as characters. I’m going to have to leave a little early though, because I’m meeting Renee Fountain again for a manuscript critique. Then we’ll have dinner and mingling, with a keynote speech by Alan Roth (about A.I.)

Saturday it’s classes all day, from “Writing Sci-Fi” with Alan Roth to Queryfest (they critique your query in front of a room full of participants!) and “Today’s Publishing World.” Dinner will be somewhere on our own – we need to get together and decide where we’re going, too! And Sunday we have our membership meeting, “How to Train Your Editor Brain,” and Slushfest, where you submit your first page to be read and judged by a panel of agents, editors, and publishers.

It’s going to be a lot of fun, a great mini-vacation, and I’m really looking forward to it!

I’m looking forward to Susan M. Boyer’s new Carolina Tales mystery: The Sullivan’s Island Supper Club.

It’s about a Southern gal named Hadley Cooper, an investigator who lives on Sulilvan’s Island, SC. Susan’s books are always chock-full of lovely South Carolina history and settings, so I always enjoy them. I haven’t been able to start on this one yet, but I’m looking forward to it when I get the time!