I thought I would try something different this week—a quarterly update for all things related to the writing life. I’ve never done this before, and I hope it provides more insight into how things are progressing. I’m not going to delay further with chit-chat. Let’s get started.

Some Exciting News!

Hector Acosta’s short story, “La Chingona,” was selected to appear in Best American Mystery & Suspense 2022. This story originally appeared in The Eviction of Hope, the first 509 Crime Anthology. How cool is that?

I don’t want to end that moment with a question mark, so instead, let’s say…

That’s freaking cool!

Anyway, I’m immensely happy for Hector, and I am also very proud of that collection of stories and the other authors who appeared in it.

Hector’s selection feels not only like a vindication of his work but also for the anthology that it appeared in.

Also, many short stories from that collection (and A Bag of Dick’s) were submitted for awards consideration. Keep your fingers crossed. We should be hearing soon on some of those.

Books Released in Quarter 1/2022

Just a quick recap of the books that came out this past quarter.

Strait Out of Nowhere (January) – the third book in the Flip-Flop Detective series
Complete Charlie-316 Series: Books 1-4 (February)
Cutler’s Friend (March) – the third book in the John Cutler Mysteries

I’m excited that those items came out this quarter. That’s some great momentum! As for next month, there are three items currently on deck:

My short story “Officer Safety” appears in The Tattered Blue Line – an anthology featuring former cops turned writers – my short story “Officer Safety” appears.

The Ride-Along – the fifth book in the Charlie-316 series is due. This was co-written with Frank Zafiro

Back Road Bobby and His Friends – the third 509 Crime Anthology

Books I’ve Read

My goal for the year is fifty-two books, and I’m on pace with it right now. I’ve read sixteen books so far. At the end of the year, I will list them all out. If you want to see them.

Do you have a reading goal for the year? If so, how are you doing?

Blog Posts

I also set a goal of fifty-two posts for this year. So far, I’m on track to meet this. It’s been fun (and challenging) to create something outside of my book content each week.

Besides the actual writing, I’ve enjoyed coming up with ideas that stray away from the traditional “author blog” stuff. This has allowed me to talk about movies, my artwork, and my dad’s health. It’s been a great experience, and I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have.

What I’ve Written this Quarter

Okay, so this might be the most important update.

A couple of weeks into January, I put the finishing touches on Cutler #5. I’m delighted with the book but haven’t settled on a title yet. I thought I had one, but it felt iffy. So while the book is sitting on the shelf, I’m noodling on titles.

After that, I created the first draft of the Cozy Up to Danger, the sixth book in the Cozy Up series. It’s “seasoning” right now. That’s when I let a book sit on a shelf while I work on other projects. I think it’s essential for an author to walk away from a project now and then so they can come back to it with a different perspective. I’ll probably return to it in a couple of months.

Finally, I’m at 35,000 words on book 8 of the 509 Crime Stories. It’s unnamed. That’s not entirely true. It has a working name, but I’m still tweaking it.

There are many things on the horizon for all the series.

Is there a series you’d like to see more concentration on? If so, please let me know.

Writer’s Conference

I’m heading out to the Left Coast Crime conference tomorrow. I’ll take some pictures and videos of the trip and share those in a later post. These get-togethers are always a fantastic time, and they provide an opportunity to learn and meet new people and get some extra motivation!

That’s it for this week. See you soon!