We have a daughter. In April, 2011, Harper Jane Cochran
was born. It's been an amazing summer so far. The baby's doing well, and Susan and I are slowly adjusting to the changes in
our family dynamic.
The good news is that Harper is just
as healthy and happy as we could hope for. She's already sleeping through the night, and Sam has adjusted remarkably well
to having a little sister in the house.
My writing continues to go well, though the amount of time
I've had in recent months (understandably) has slowed. I've accepted it as the natural progression of where I'm at with my
family and career to this point. I'm planning to release a new novel this fall titled The Loneliest, a paranormal
romance.
The big writing news of late is that my website howtopublishabook.org has proven to be quite successful in 2011, and I'm having
fun growing the site and interviewing lots of publishing professionals.
Additionally, I've put in a proposal to bid to host Bouchercon in Raleigh in 2015. The conference is the largest annual
conference in the mystery/crime fiction community, and I'll formally pitch Raleigh at the board meeting in St. Louis in September.
I know New Orleans and Columbus are bidding as well, so we'll have strong competition. If Raleigh wins, we'll draw close to
a million dollars in revenue to the downtown area... not to mention bringing in the very best mystery writers, readers, and
publishing professionals in the world.
Last month I
received word that the opening 7,500 words of my new novel Eddie & Sunny has been accepted for publication at
Needle Mag. This was welcome news, and it has spurred me to want to continue on with the book. I was beginning to
lose heart a bit this winter; I suppose it's just the normal ups and downs of being a writer. So, that an objective third-party
wants to publish the opening suggests that I should probably stick with this novel and with this here writing thing.
In the first part of July, Susan and I visited family in Chicago, Indiana,
and Ohio ... and while there were many cool photos I have selected one to close this blog post with. Chicago at night. We
saw U2 at Soldier Field on July 5, and I snapped this picture when walking back home afterward.
From our house to yours,
we wish you all the very best this year. Thanks so much for visiting, and enjoy the rest of 2011!
Stacey, Susan, Sam, and Harper Jane