winners!

The trouble with blogging about the writing process is that I don't have any pictures to post. But here's one you might like to look at while I'm blogging about Beatrix. This is St. Michael and All Angels Church, in Hawkshead, the market town where the Sawrey folk did their serious shopping. Beatrix went right past it every time she went into town.

The post is sort of about Beatrix, but mostly about the winner of the mystery characters raffle that we did with Story Circle. The raffle has been posted on my website since October, and the winners are posted there now. The idea is pretty simple: we raffled off the chance to put yourself into a character in one of the three mystery series I'm writing: China Bayles, Beatrix Potter, and the Victorian/Edwardian mysteries I write with Bill, as Robin Paige.

The raffle was a huge success--brought in just over $2,000 for SCN. (Thanks to all who entered!) We drew at the last session of the SCN conference: the old-fashioned way, pulling tickets out of a basket. I've emailed a questionnaire to each of the winners, to find out what about themselves they'd like to see in the book. (You wouldn't want ALL of your life story to appear in a China Bayles mystery, would you? I didn't think so.) Got the first reply yesterday, from Janet, the first-place winner, who chose to be in a Beatrix Potter book. I was especially inspired by one sentence: "In the past," Janet writes, "we have lived with a Tegu lizard, boa constrictor, many cats, a few dogs, and pet rats." Reading that, I knew exactly how I was going to use her character. Thanks for the inspiration, Janet--this is going to be a lot of fun!

Another contest: If you'll go to the main webpage you'll find an announcement of six more contests, one a week until the publication of BLEEDING HEARTS. Please enter! Peggy will be drawing the first winner on Saturday. This contest is free--you just have to answer a few very easy questions about herbs. They're so easy that I'm almost ashamed of them, but never mind: they'll get more challenging as we go along. So stay tuned for more winners!

Reading Note: by Jack London: You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.