Don’t you love it when things begin to come together?
This morning I made a post on a Crimespace forum asking for clarification on the general chain of events/command at an arson investigation. This netted me a comment from Sandra Rutton (who has her first book coming out in May…Congrats Sandra!), who volunteered her spouse’s brain for picking (as he is a trained arson investigator and firefighter). This is precisely what I needed! Books can only tell you so much. There’s nothing like being able to ask someone who KNOWS “hey, how does blah work?”
Before I left for lunch, I received notice from interlibrary loan that my requested book Analysis and Interpretation of Fire Scene Evidence was available for pick up. The joy of being faculty/staff. I can check books out for 6 weeks at a time.
That actually prompted me to do a search on Google Books for arson investigation, fire scene evidence, etc. I netted a few books to add to my Google library, including the ATF’s guide to Arson Investigation. If anybody knows a way to select all and PRINT a Google book, do let me know, as the traditional method doesn’t appear to work.
I’m psyched about the book, which I’m about to dip into once The Biggest Loser is over. I’m getting excited about the story again! I had a bit of a lull last week (probably because I am not fond of major plotting ahead of time). I’m guessing that I really needed a longer mourning/recovery period from finishing House of Cards before I really got into something else. I’ve been off for four weeks now (not counting whatever I’ve done for Flash Point so far). My brain probably really needed the recovery time.
My beta readers for House of Cards are all understandably very busy with their own lives, so no word from them yet. I’m wondering if I should just do one more read-through and polish and then just start the query process for an agent. I’d like to at least get some queries out there while I’m getting into the next book. Thoughts from those of you who have taken the plunge before? Anybody wanna volunteer as a beta who has some time on their hands or a desire for a few hours of procrastination on something else? 😀