A. E. Macdonald's Writing Life

Books, Stories, writing progress, and everyday stuff

September 21, 2011

Next steps for DEADLINES ARE MURDER

So, I’ve decided to self-publish my first novel, DEADLINES ARE MURDER: A Sam Monroe Mystery. After querying and reading about small presses, reading up on the state of agents and the publishing industry today it seems to me that publishing industry is changing and has materially changed in the past two or more years. So,…
July 16, 2011

Today was a beautiful day

Temperature in the low 80’s; drop-leaf table (stained and polyurethaned by yours truly) installed in the back room next to the picture window, with a view of the trees and mid-level; a trip to the local farmer’s market by the lake and an afternoon reading on the deck; plus cheeseburgers on our grill; I couldn’t…
June 21, 2011

Would you like some chive with that?

When my husband and I first met, his choice of herbs and vegetables was not broad or adverturous. It ran to lettuce and broccoli with the occasional green beans added for a rare change. My husband liked what his mother had served and didn’t see any reason to change. I still remember his mother saying…
June 3, 2011

Writing Life: What’s Next

I’ve submitted my novel to 52 agents and have been rejected by by 35. I assume I’m rejected by the others because I’ve never heard back from them. So, should I start looking at presses that don’t go through agents or should I epublish on my own. The options are many for small presses and…
May 20, 2011

A recipe

So, I have a recipe available online now with my name in the title. The reason my name is in the title, I think, is to show that it hasn’t been borrowed or repurposed from another site. This whole thing happened because my husband and I belong to a community supported agriculture or CSA. At…
February 14, 2011

The love of my life

My husband and I will be celebrating our 19th wedding anniversary in August. Other than my parents, my siblings and a couple of friends, this is the longest relationship of my life. Long-term had not every been a plan of mine when I was younger. My dating record could set a land speed record, I’d…
February 6, 2011

Pretty Julie is gone

When I was 15, my parents moved us to my 8th home. My parents stayed their for 34 years, so our neighbors became a part of our lives. For a period of time, our closest friends were our neighbors up the street. My sister, Mary, gained a best friend in Theresa, and our family gained…
December 30, 2010

Writing Life: My novel title, contest entries and next steps

So, after receving several comments, I have decided to rename my novel Deadlines Are Murder. The deadlines refer to the main character, Samantha’s, deadline to finish re-writing her novel and start on a second one; her soon to be ex-husband Rick’s deadline to be published or perish in the world of academia and the deadline…
October 4, 2010

Writing Life: Help me name my novel

I’m in the process of sending my work in progress off to some writing contests and more agents and I’m still stumped regarding a title. I’m looking for title ideas so please let me know if you have one. My novel is a soft-boiled, amateur sleuth novel about family, friendship, divorce, plagiarism and revenge set…
August 18, 2010

Childhood Memories: My Lobster Story

As we jumped up and down and encouraged the lobsters to move as quickly as possible, I realized that the lobsters had no way of opening the back door let along making it the 50 miles from our house to the ocean.