One of my great joys is the learning that happens when I'm researching topics for a novel in progress. I'm still working on the fifth book in my "Bruce and Friends" series--Bruce and the Road to Freedom—and I needed some information about one of the characters.

Horace is a dragonfly. He's a minor character, although he and his dragonfly family and friends feature prominently in the last few chapters of the book. I needed to know if dragonflies have a good sense of smell. I took a look on the internet and this is what I found.

​An article in Science Magazine explains that, though they lack what we understand as a normal sense of smell, that doesn't deter them from using odors to hunt prey.

Human noses use scent receptors, each of which responds to a specific scent. These receptors send signals to our brain, where they're interpreted as coming from a specific item (a dog, a flower). Scientists have known that dragonflies don't possess these scent receptors, so they assumed they didn't have a sense of smell. New research has determined that they smell in a different way. They have tiny sensory neurons that emitted nerve impulses when the insects were exposed to various scents.

Knowing this, I was able to have the dragonflies​ in my story use their sense of smell to do some tracking—to locate Horace and Bruce, both of whom have gotten into trouble and are in need of rescue. 

Bruce and the Road to Freedom​ (Book 5 of the Bruce and Friends series) will be out in time for Christmas.

In my last post, I said I'd written to an editor and agent, and that I hoped to publish my new young adult novel traditionally. Shortly thereafter, I went back to my original plan. So let me share the good news:

The work is fun, and I have many ideas percolating about what these characters are going to get into in the next book of the series.

​By the way, if you like a good adventure, don't let the "young adult" label deter you. Adults who've read the book said they loved it, too. 

If you want to take advantage of a pre-release sale, go to my website and check out the savings if you pre-order the book prior to the 11th. I'll take two dollars off the price, pay the sales tax, and even pay the shipping, if necessary. Click below to find out more.

That's all for now. I've got to get back to writing. I thought I'd share a video someone took of me recently, working madly to get the plot points ready for the next book in the series. 
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I hope you're enjoying Fall as much as I am. Until the next installment, be well and happy.

Embarrassingly, it's been almost a year ago that I made my last post here. In between, I've shared pickleball tips, but I've been more-or-less silent about my fiction and personal life. I wanted to say hello and share what I was up to—but I needed to get the rest of the words on the page and then make them better first. 

In the past, I've told you about my new book (from idea to finished draft) for FIVE YEARS. Good grief. In my defense, The Rift IS a long book (150,000+ words), but it's DONE, as much as my writing is ever done. I'm the perpetual editor, always finding a better way to say something, or discovering a place where a comma should go. 

I've learned a few things during the last year:

1. Life brings interruptions, despite my plans. I thought I'd have the book ready for you a long, long time ago. The book and the world had other ideas.
2. Rather than self-publishing The Rift, I'm trying the traditional route again to see if this book will fare better in that market. Being a young-adult epic fantasy, it fits with the genre that is hot right now, so there's hope. That means, if it's accepted by an agent, it could be years before a published copy hits a bookshelf.
3. I must stop being a perfectionist, at least to the degree that I've realized I am.
4. I need to stay in touch with you. There were times when I thought of giving up. I bet if I'd shared those thoughts with you, it would have been easier.
5. I love writing, and I won't give up. But sometimes, it's a lot harder than it looks. Nevertheless, I got it done!!!

Yesterday, I sent off the second query to agents who are looking for books like mine. A query is a brief synopsis of the novel couched in a letter asking for the agent's representation. Polishing the query is an art in itself: it can't be too long, and it has to entice the agent to keep reading, just like the blurb on the back of the book has to entice you to pick it up and buy it.

If the book doesn't get picked up by an agent, I will self-publish it, but I'd love to see it reach a wide market, something we "indie" writers find difficult to manage. But cross your fingers, cast a spell, whatever you like to send good vibes that will get my manuscript out of the agents' slush piles, as they call their email inboxes these days. 

Hugs to all of you -- even those of you I don't know well. I figure you can't go wrong with a hug.

When I visit schools and talk with young readers of my books, I love answering their questions. Students can ask anything—the questions don't have to be about my books. It's been hilarious at times. Besides "how old are you?" and "what's the name of your dog," recently a 10-year-old boy asked, "How many books will you write?"

It's a wonderful and innocuous question, but it fell on the heels of my reading an article about Stephen King, who has published 54 novels, 6 non-fiction books, and nearly 200 short stories—and he has more works in his drawer that haven't seen the red of an editor's pen. All that, and he's only six years older than I am. Better get a move on, I thought. 

As most of you know, I've been writing The Rift, a large, epic fantasy novel for young adults, for some time. I'm making progress. I sent it for alpha review recently, and the comments have been very positive, although many things still need work. The book is long—it's taking time. 

And other things have gotten in the way of completing it. Life has a way of asserting its own demands and priorities. My adventures with a hip fracture and its aftermath took a toll, and sometimes I just needed to have some fun, especially during the heat of summer here in Arizona when things start feeling shut in. 

I'd hoped to have copies for you in October. That's not likely, and the book might not even be out by Christmas, although I hope so. What I finally told myself is that I'd rather have a good book than a fast one. I hope you're willing to wait.

Here's the new summary that will go on the back cover:

It will be a good book. I'm holding as my motto something a friend said to me one day, as I complained that I wasn't writing quickly enough: "When you get there, you won't be late." 

When I visit schools, students often ask if they can publish a story or longer work. My answer is always, "Yes, of course!" The avenues available for young people in publishing today are much larger than they used to be, but certain principles still apply.

Recently, I came across a blog post from Jane Friedman that offered advice and good ideas about writing and publishing for young folks. You can read her entire post here or continue below for my summary of the main points.