Say hello to my little friend... by Cathy Ace

Life: Sitting around all day isn’t good for us – we all know that. Sitting around all day (writing) is what we authors are expected to do. How do you find a healthy balance so that your body is able to sustain the work your mind needs to undertake? And what are you up to in 2022 that this will help you achieve?

I’m pretty positive that I’ve not found a healthy balance at all. Why am I so sure? Well, for Christmas 2020 I was given one of those watches that connects to your phone…and takes over your life. I’ve been wearing it ever since, and I think I’ve given it a bit of a complex. It’s constantly buzzing at me, telling me to get up and stretch – or run ten miles or something…it’s all the same to me – and all I can say is I’m quite proud of myself that I haven’t thrown it out of a window yet (that still might happen).

Say hello to my little friend FYI: I can't swim or ride a bicycle, so...

I do my best to accommodate its demands – but it really, really, REALLY annoys me that it seems to think I’ve been sitting about on my backside all day when I’ve been up and down ladders painting, or cleaning windows, or tending to plants in the garden, for example, just because I wear the watch on my left wrist, but am right handed…so all my vigor doesn’t register (other than by indicating a heart rate that suggests I should lie down with a cup of tea and a biscuit).

Recently, it’s acquired the ability to tell me how “stressed” I am. If I look at the records it keeps, I can see when I was having a tough time coming up with the right words to convey a specific turn of events in my WIP because – so I now know – that’s INCREDIBY stressful. Oh – and my sleep records? Let’s not talk about them – it gets terribly confused that I work until 2am, then, it seems, rerun what I’ve written while I sleep (I have lost any confidence I might have had in whomever comes up with the required amount of “deep sleep” one needs on a nightly basis – if they were right, I’d probably be dead!).

Having shared with you my only “relationship problems”, I’ll now add that I am coming to the end of an “enforced” period of low activity – because my main exercise is working in the garden, and that’s not something that gets much attention through the winter months. However, I’ll be back out there soon pruning, planting, weeding and – eventually – mowing and watering, so that should shut up my little wrist-companion for some months.

According to my watch I'm just sitting around here

And…what have I been doing with all this time on my hands? Decorating the house, and writing. On 7^th April 2022 the 12^th Cait Morgan Mystery will be published: The Corpse with the Turquoise Toes finds Cait and Bud in Arizona, visiting a desert retreat…that turns out to be the headquarters of a cult, with some pretty odd beliefs about sudden deaths. I hope folks will enjoy a spin on the traditional “who-dunit” for what is something of a “how- and why-dunit” – and this time I’ve given Cait a particularly challenging adversary…a charismatic cult leader who’s truly enthralled her followers! It’s a head-to-head in the dangerous Sonoran Desert, folks, and I hope you enjoy it. Later in 2022 there WILL be another Cait Morgan Mystery, but I cannot say too much about it at this time, though it’s all plotted in my head (because that’s what my brain thinks is a good idea, when I am editing another book, of course).

 

If you haven’t joined Cait on all of her first eleven adventures, now’s a good time to catch up – oh, and she’ll be reacquainting herself with a chum from book #2 (The Corpse with the Golden Nose) in book #12…so you could always re-read that one to get back in the mood (that’s the one where each chapter title is what Cait drinks in the chapter – it’s a real drink-along book…LOL!).

This is the book where Cait first met the followers of the Faceting for Life movement

 

I’m off to threaten some hydrangeas with my secateurs now – which my watch will be oblivious to – but at least you know. 😊

Find out all about me (well, within reason) at: http://www.cathyace.com/