As I write this, it’s currently 4° F. 🥶 We don’t have any snow in Spokane right now. I consider that a blessing. I haven’t skied in years and was never any good when I did. In fact, my first attempt at downhill ended up with me in a hospital and a several-inch scar under my knee.

The only thing I do in the snow now is shovel the driveway and play winter frisbee with Rose the Office Dog.

On Facebook this week, I asked where many of you were and what the weather was like. Sounds like a lot of us in the northern USA are getting pounded by the polar vortex. However, some folks in exotic places like Belize, Florida, and Arizona were enjoying some lovely weather. 😉

Elmore Leonard’s Number 1 Rule of Writing is to never open a book with the weather. I suppose that goes for blog posts, too. However, I had a reason to mention the frigid temps in the 509.

When I asked readers what book I should start work on next, super fan Gena W. suggested writing another Flip-Flop Detective. If you have read none of the Sam Strait novels, he’s a mid-thirties snowbird. He leaves Newman Lake (Spokane County) when the weather turns for the worse and heads south. He lives by a set of rules; the first is “Always be where flip-flops can be worn.”

I’m about 12,000 words into the new mystery. It’s fun to hang out with Sam again. The tone of this series is lighter than most of my other works. Even though it occurs in the universe of the 509 Crime Stories, it’s a dramedy (comedy/drama). It’s a wonderful change of pace from the heavier work.