My poor neglected blog

It turns out my brain can only do one thing at a time. That “thing” was supposed to be writing a book, The Lucky Ones, due out this fall from Bella Books. Periodically, however — all right, much too often over these past three years — I’ve been sucked into the political news of the day, particularly when one of my cousins is spouting nonsense on Facebook. I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time writing long, provocative posts, many of them harangues on the lack of attention paid by the media to the women who are running for president. For weeks on end, the only candidates who merited a mention in the mainstream press were the all-white “B-Boys” — Biden, Bernie, Beto & Buttigieg. Finally, Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris have made enough noise to get noticed on the national stage. As their media mentions have grown, so has their support. Imagine that! Their progress has finally freed me from needing to promote them ceaselessly, and has allowed me to train those brain cells back where they needed to be — on my book.

So the manuscript is finally off my desk, better late than even later. I’ll still have a couple of rounds of edits to address, but I feel much less anxious about it now that it’s fully formed.

This is normally the stage where I announce what I’m working on next, but I’m really quite serious about the brain thing. I’ve got too many things going on at the same time (political, personal, family), and it’s all taking a toll on my concentration. The Lucky Ones is my very first book in 14 years of publishing with Bella that I’ve delivered unforgivably late, so late in fact that its release date was bumped from summer to fall. (Thank you, Linda Hill!) I don’t like to operate that way, and I especially don’t like to screw up other people’s schedules. This is a long way of saying I’m reluctant to announce a new book until I’m certain I can deliver it on time.

Off to GCLS in Pittsburgh

On an up note, my most favoritist (<—spellcheck has underlined this) event of the year is coming up in two days. Jenny and I are off to Pittsburgh for the annual Golden Crown Literary Society conference. It’s a time to greet old friends and make new ones, to hug and be hugged, to laugh and to share and to learn.

I’m moderating a panel called “I Wish I’d Written That,” with five envious authors talking about the characters, the setting, the premise, the chemistry, the twist — all those pieces that make a book memorable — that they wish they’d written. That’s Friday, 9:00-9:50, King’s Garden 5. And I’m sitting on a panel later that day, “Learning Curve,” a discussion with authors at different stages of their career. Friday, 3:40-4:30, King’s Garden 4.

I’m delighted to be returning to Pittsburgh, where I spent my junior high school years. Okay, those years were not my favoritist, but I look forward to seeing the city through older, wiser eyes. I hope to see you there too.