Refreshing!

I thought I'd send a quick hello and share a couple updates. But before I do, I must comment on the brilliant orange sunrise this morning. The window trim in my living room perfectly framed the bright sky shining behind the trees in my yard. WOW. I hope your view is equally spectacular.

Okay, so my brief post... here goes. At the advice of a new author friend, I decided to refresh the cover of FISHING WITH HYENAS. To change the look of my first born was a thought that nearly made me cry. But it makes sense. Book sales have slowed to snail's pace. If refreshing the cover will grab the attention of new readers, then of course I'm on board! If you know me, you know I like change. Now I'm excited to see what my designer comes up with. In fact, I gave her some ideas that thrill me to no end, and I may even like them better than the first design. Or at least as much.

I loved the synopsis on the back cover when my editor helped me put that together. Summarizing and pitching my story remains the hardest part of this whole journey. Anyway, I still like the description, but it, too needs a refresh. I've tightened the language—which I believe flows much better than the first version and allows more room to list my three awards.

Then I reviewed my "about the author" page and gagged. Isn't that funny? I thought my reaction was funny. My gag reflex also proves that updates can be good. Even necessary. Looking at my work from a different viewpoint also showed me that my writing has improved and will continue to get better the more I write. Thank God. Ha!

I wear my hair longer than I did three years ago, so I updated my author photo, too.

And last, but not least...wait for it...I'm writing another book. Compass Rose is a romance novel loosely based on my memoir. I will fictionalize my story, which will give me a place to start. Coming up with an entire story from scratch made my head spin, but when Susan Wingate suggested this idea, I thought it was brilliant. I'm changing all the names, some locations, character details, removing things, adding things, and throwing in some twists and turns. I'm giving you a heads-up up in hopes that you'll read my novel, but you won't feel duped when certain elements look familiar. For the record, I don't read romance novels. I have read them, but I prefer a wide range of topics I find far more interesting. However, romance is the number one genre of readership in the world. I will sell a few books by appealing to this new group. Cool, huh? And, if I do well, I'm going to write a trilogy. In fact, I've got that in my sights anyway. Wish me luck!