Saturday, December 17, 2016

All I Want For Christmas

by Linda Thorne

The picture below is the one we sent with our 2016 Christmas cards this year. It wasn’t taken this month, but mid December 2015 when most of our immediate family got together. We were happy to be part of the gathering, but would've been happier if everyone could've joined, something most people our age agree is difficult to pull off.
 People work jobs that take a big part of their time. Getting the time off to travel and visit is hard to pull-off for some of us and, especially for some of our children.


Below are our two daughters, our son-in-laws and three of our precious five grandchildren.


So all I want for Christmas is to see an end to my too-busy schedule at work and to start making plans for time off in 2017. Things may calm down a bit after March and I’m hoping to take every single vacation day I have next year and make the most of it - travel, spend time with family and friends, and continue writing my mystery series. 

The second book in my series, A Promotion to Die For, needs my full attention if I’m ever going to get it released. Speaking of, A Promotion to Die For, the work-in-progress sequel to Just Another Termination is completed, but in rough draft format. The story is one that came to me from a one-in-a-billion twist-of-fate event that I experienced as a young woman. I use this experience in A Promotion to Die For, to return my lead character in the series, Judy Kenagy, to a suburb of Topeka, Kansas where she lived almost thirty years earlier. In this new location, my character experiences the same thing that I did, but I fictionalized it to what might've actually happened back then. My protagonist's "lucky fluke" scared off an intruder who went down the street and murdered someone else in her stead. The third book in the series is only in my head, but will be set in the greater Nashville, Tennessee area where my husband and I have lived since early 2008.


Just Another Termination is the first published in my Judy Kenagy mystery series.

I hope next year to have the book cover for my second book, A Promotion to Die For. 

Like I said, all I want for Christmas is the hope for more free time to do the things I really love; time for family, friends, and writing.


What do you want?

4 comments:

L Lee Kane said...

Wonderful article and I do agree, it's hard to get everyone together at the same time. It is wonderful that most everyone was there on that special day.

Amy M. Reade said...

I hope that you get your wish for Christmas this year, Linda, and that the holiday finds you relaxed and happy. Beautiful post!

authorlindathorne said...

Thank you, Linda and Amy. I just got off work, but only because the Call Center had to be closed and the alarm set, which means I'll be going in at some incredibly early time Monday. A big group of new hires starting. Hope you both have a very Merry Christmas.

Liane Spicer said...

I'm late, but I hope your Christmas was all you hoped for. Two months of 2017 have flashed by already, and March is a day away. Hope it brings a relaxation in your hectic schedule so you can focus on writing those stories.