RIP iBook... and On the Prowl

I knew it would happen eventually, and I suspected it might happen at a crucial time... but I didn't guess exactly how crucial. Late last week, ten days before a big deadline, my trusty little computer finally went belly-up.

I was hoping it would hold out a while longer -- at least until I got my deadlines taken care of. Alas, I must have somehow displeased the computer gods.

After a big day of writing, I 'slept' it on Thursday afternoon. Imagine my dismay when it wouldn't come back on after forty minutes of hammering at the restart button! Then, when it finally did, it wouldn't stay on long enough for me to e-mail my working files!

Can you say sweaty palms? :)

After twenty minutes of muttering oaths and prayers, I managed to bring it back to life long enough to e-mail my crucial files before it gave its final death rattle. I didn't lose anything, but since I didn't have time to ship the thing to California to fix it, I ended up spending more money than I care to think about on a new computer. On the plus side, this one has all twenty-six letters on the keyboard and backs itself up automatically. Which means I can stop e-mailing huge documents to my nearest and dearest every other day. :)

Anyway, now that my computer travails are over, I'm back on the home stretch of Murder Most Maine. I'm just taking a break from revisions to pop in -- and to post the cover that Sarab so kindly mentioned was already on Amazon.

Hope you're having a great Memorial Day weekend, and I'll be back soon!

Murder Most Maine!

Greetings from your favorite vanishing blogger! (In case you're wondering where I've been, scroll down to my last post.)

I'm happy to report that after several weeks of more or less constant work, I'm on the home stretch of Murder Most Maine, the third book in the Gray Whale Inn series, and Running with the Pack, the third book in the Tales of an Urban Werewolf series, is finished. Save for revisions, that is.

I was going to post both covers today (I got both of them last week), but the colors keep coming up reversed for On the Prowl, so it'll have to wait until tomorrow (hubby says he can fix it tonight). Here, however, is the cover of Murder Most Maine -- complete with a lighthouse, which I got to incorporate into the plot this time. There's a story behind this cover that I will share at some point, incidentally, but not just yet. Maybe once the book is out, and I'm celebrating with too much champagne...

On a completely different note, I was noticing yesterday that many of the letters on my keyboard seem to be vanishing. (Perhaps this is connected to my work schedule of the past six weeks.) So far I've lost A, S, D, C, L, and half of M. The benefit of this is that my children are less inclined to 'borrow' my computer, as it's hard to type when you can't find almost 25% of the alphabet. But I do worry that perhaps I've worn out something on the inside, as well. The question is, should I replace the laptop before it crashes? Or keep backing it up and pray that it won't die at a crucial point?

Like, say, the next two weeks?

Okay, back to the salt mines. I hope all is well with you and your writing, and as soon as I get the color issue resolved, I'll post the cover of Running with the Pack here! (And get the contest winner up on the web site, which I've been meaning to do, but haven't had time. Everything's kind of gone on hold while I get my work done.)

I don't know about you, but I'm really looking forward to summer vacation!