So many books, so little time

I continue writing on the novella, though progress is slow—I try to know each time I quit what the next scene will be and then I write scene by scene. Confession: I did not do any original writing so far today, though I might get to it tonight. For me it’s slow going as I get into a work; eventually it picks up a momentum of its own. I’m waiting for that moment.

But meantime there’s so much to read: I want to reread Susan Wittig Albert’s The General’s Women, which I enjoyed in galley form. It blends the stories of General Dwight D. (Ike) Eisenhower, his wife Mamie, and his wartime driver and lover, Kay Summersby. Historical fiction at its best.

Then the new Deborah Crombie novel, Garden of Lamentations, is waiting on my Kindle. This is the latest--#17, I believe—in her interconnected Scotland Yard Series featuring Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James. I’ve found this series consistently complex and riveting, alternating between horrible crimes and the domestic life of Duncan and Gemma as they find their way as parents of a blended family. Crombie, a North Texas native, “does” England, the clothing, the accent, perfectly. So that will take me a while.

And there’s a Charlotte McLeod mystery, The Withdrawing Room, that I downloaded on impulse after a well-known mystery writer wrote, “If this is your first time with Sarah Kelling, oh how I envy you.” Kelling is a widow who runs a boardinghouse and gets herself involved in mysteries. My reaction is evidence that blurbs do work, at least some of the time.

But first I must finish Copy Cat Murder, fourth in the Hat Shop Mysteries. I’m enjoying it but keep putting recreational reading low on my to-do list, with the results that it takes me too long to finish a book. Some dedicated reading ahead tonight. Sounds good to me.