If you’ve visited this page recently, you might have taken a look at the date of the most recent posts (before this) and thought, hm, okay, dead website.
And while it’s true that I don’t post terribly often, the reports of the site’s death (if anyone thought it worth reporting), would be greatly exaggerated.
There are reasons. Maybe you’ll find them boring, maybe not, but there are reasons.
Reason 1: Every time I’ve thought I should write a post for the page, the little editor inside me looks over her reading glasses at me and says, “Dear, if you’re going to write, shouldn’t it be writing the next book?” And since I always listen to editors–even imaginary, inside-my-head editors–I took that to heart. Trouble is, the writing has been … um … slow.
Reason 2: Lockdown. We had–have–a pandemic going on. You’d think the 2020 lockdown would give one tons of time to write. And it did. But I didn’t. Much. Otherwise I’d be telling you all about the next book, obviously. And now I guess the coronavirus and its variants are endemic, but still we’re all going out again and feel like there’s a lot of catching up to do. And that brings us to …
Reason 3: Life. Yeah, all that catching up to do. Anyone who needs to get work done that’s solitary–music, art, writing–has discovered the socializing and creating don’t mix so well.
So I’ve been catching up with friends, having lunches, even taking on a temporary, part-time, remote (gluten-free, low-fat, nondairy) job, mostly because an old colleague asked me to.
And you know what nearly all those friends are asking? “When’s the next book coming out?”
My answer in my head is something like, “You tell me and we’ll both know.” Which would be pretty smartass of me.
All I can tell you is, it’s coming along. It has Frankie, of course, and Max, Clay and Sam, Mr. and Mrs. Monty, Mr. Noguchi and Kit Noguchi, Mr. Wiseman, and a few new characters. And, of course, Frankie’s self-satisfied Persian cat, Major Bowes, and her gallant Thoroughbred mare, Rocket. And I’m pretty sure this one will be called Starcrossed.
I’ll say it’s coming out by the end of the year. But don’t hold me to that.
Meanwhile, my loyal sidekick and husband, Ralph, and I did a quick research trip to visit some of Frankie’s haunts in Hollywood. Here are some pictures!
“My home, way up in these hills, just off Beachwood Drive, felt worlds away from the strange community in which I worked …”
Deb McCaskey 