Criminal Minds

 Q: Do you have any New Year's resolutions as a writer, and what are your plans for 2023?

-from Susan

Well, let's start by saying post on time to Criminal Minds. Sorry, everyone.

I never make New Year's resolutions for all the reasons that are discussed endlessly in op-ed pieces. They always seem to be destined to fail, frequently before the end of January. You know: Lose 10 pounds, eat no sugar, write 2000 words a day every day, don't look at Facebook....

As a writer, my best and most powerful resolutions have to do with meeting imposed deadlines by my editor. Probably because they're attached to advances paid out in bits like peanut rewards to monkeys. But, hey, it works. I have a manuscript due in July, so here's pone resolution I know I will keep: Turn in 75,000-word manuscript of French Village mystery in July.

But this year, having gotten the rights back from several publishers for my Dani O'Rourke series, and having a book designer and illustrator already at work, another writer's resolution is to see this first series, which still has fans who send me emails, in fresh POD and e-book formats by March. I'm really excited that I'll finally have covers that relate to each other and are fun. I resolve to promote them separately and as a package. One reader who loves them and has been unable to find them to give to friends back east is asking me if 

I plan to write a new one. Not ready to make that a 2023 promise, but who knows?

My biggest writing resolution is one I hope I practice every year all year round: To support and read as many of my fellow crime fiction authors as I possibly can. We are a tight group, so different and yet alike in being part of a mutually friendly and non-competitive profession.  I salute my fellow Minds, bay Sisters in Crime friends, and the Mystery Writers of America members who reach out to cheer each other on all year round.