China still hasn't told me what happened when she, Blackie, and Sheila raided the plant nursery in the next-to-last chpater, so I haven't quite finished the book. However, today I put together the resources section at the back of the book: a short piece on herbs of the Southwest, a reading list, and some interesting recipes (Braised Yucca, anybody?). Tomorrow, I'll write the wrap-up chapter--you know, the end-of-the-mystery chapter in which all the clues are explained and all the loose ends are tied up. Except, of course, the loose end that will be braided into the next book, which is called Nightshade. (How's that for a shivery title?) And maybe China will figure out how everything came down, and will let me know so I can write the next-to-last chapter, too. For now, the book stands at 87,400 words, which means that these last two chapters are going to have to be pretty short. 90,000 is the outside limit for these books.
Besides the writing, Peggy and I worked on a couple of new web pages for the Book of Days, which will be published next October. Of course you know that authors are responsible for doing most of their own promotion, and our Mysterypartners website has always been a big part of that effort. The website's current look is several years old, and it could stand a makeover--the Book of Days pages are a step in that direction. If you want to take a sneak peek, it's here. Working with Peggy is a joy, and I'm always amazed at what we can do together, inventing as we go.
Reading Note, fromThe Stories We Live By: Personal Myths and the Making of the Self, by Dan P. McAdams:
If you want to know me, then you must know my story, for my story defines who I am. And if I want to know myself, to gain insight into the meaning of my own life, then I, too, must come to know my own story. I must come to see in all its particulars the narrative of the self--the personal myth--that I have tacitly, even unconsciously, composed over the course of my years. It is a story I continue to revise, and tell to myself (and sometimes to others) as I go on living.