That is indeed the question.

I remember last year's MWA-SW conference, when I met with the agent and talked to her about a book I was writing. I was so excited, the words were flying off the keyboard. She even asked to see it when it was completed.

This year's conference is coming up next month - and I still haven't completed the manuscript that I was about 75 pages into eleven months ago. Although, I've added a couple more chapters to it in the past year (she said with embarrassment)

My excuses for not writing have been good, too. Until January I used: being the president of the SW chapter of Mystery Writers of America takes a lot of my time and attention. Not to mention how busy I've been co-chairing the 2007 Hardboiled Heroes & Cozy Cats conference. And, of course, the old standby is: I have a full-time day job that drains all my creativity. Basically, though, I just haven't FELT IT.

Now, I will add that in the past year I have published the breast cancer book I co-wrote with my daughter. And I re-released DEATH WARMED OVER, after getting the rights back from my previous publisher. And the second book of the mystery series, FAMILY AFFAIR, will be re-released next month. So I guess I haven't really been sitting idle.

How do you motivate your writing, though?

Any tips?

My plans, or I'll commit and go ahead and say GOALS, are to work diligently over the next month to see how much I can accomplish before the June 15th conference -- maybe show my synopsis to the agent and editor who are attending -- with a self-imposed deadline for completion of August 8th (my birthday).  I have a one week vacation on a basically deserted island between now and then so I should be able to meet this goal.

To hold me accountable to this goal I'm going to go ahead and register for next year's Malice - to get back on the mystery fan radar, and register for the 2009 Left Coast Crime conference - feeling sure my unfinished manuscript will months away from release by then. (okay, the LCC thing, it's because I want to go back to Hawaii; the release would just be a BIG bonus)

Check back often to see my page posting!

As of today, I am on page 98 of my MAD MOMS IN MINIVANS series.

Sincerely,
Cindy Daniel
the author of Mad Mom's In Minivans; to be released in 2009
(she said with aplomb)