Can I say that I’m a complete and utter blogging slacker? On the other hand, I’ve had some interesting things going on. My husband is running for county auditor, and he’s been sick for the past week–thankfully he’s finally starting to feel better–and since he was unable to get out last week I got to attend Meet Your Candidate in both Fillmore and Delta in his place.

I’ve never been to a Meet your Candidate meeting before and didn’t expect to see so many people there-on the stage or in the audience. The Fillmore meeting was held at noon (insane hour, if you ask me, bu no one did) and it seemed like four hundred people attended, but it was probably more like a hundred and fifty–which is still quite good for such a small town. There were 22 candidates (or their representatives) in attendance, including a couple who were running unopposed–which surprised me because it was the last place I wanted to be and if I were running unopposed I don’t know if I would have attended.

My tiny little area has hit the news quite a bit recently with allegations of misconduct in the Sheriff’s department, rumors about some of the other positions, and today another scandal came out about the local judge, so it’s been an interesting election season here. Thankfully despite the way-too-juicy opportunities, the mudslinging has been nearly non-existent. The meeting in Delta was smaller, though that might have been because there was nowhere else to sit, rather than because there was less interest from citizens.

I also finished the mystery novel (Danica’s story–which totally needs a title) that I was working on, which still needs a significant edit, but is more or less fully written. I’m going to let it settle until the end of November (Nanowrimo time is nearly here, after all) and then go over it again with a fresh pair of eyes.

Then, of course, instead of getting back to SAB, which I’ve been taking to my critique group for most of the summer, I had a great new mystery series idea and spent most of last week doing character sketches and backgrounds, and using Google Earth to locate a spot for the fictitious town in Texas where I’m going to set the book (I LOVE Google Earth!). I even wrote almost 5,500 words on it to establish the characters and setting in my mind so it’ll be easier to com back to. Now I’ve set that aside again so I can get back to SAB–I need to do some more writing before I tweak up the chapter for my critique group this week and make sure I’m headed in the right direction.

Meanwhile I’ve been trying to lose some weight and joined some fun ladies in the Game On! diet, which means I’m eating five small meals a day, (something that’s driving me a bit batty if only because of the kinds of foods and portions I’m supposed to each at each meal, but I’m getting used to it) I have continued to drop weight slow but steady, so I’m going to keep working in this direction. The biggest frustration for me is that I want to try out some new recipes I’m thinking about including in a book I’m working on, but cupcakes and pizza don’t really fit in my diet, so I’ll have to plan out the day that I test recipes in advance, and hope things don’t conspire against me.

All right, back to writing. I need to get this draft done before November starts–National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) will kick in at midnight on November 1st and I’m ready to plow into that new mystery series. For more information on NaNoWriMo, check out their website–they even have a different set of rules for busy students who want to participate.

Oh, and if any of you are going to be in Fillmore this Saturday, I’ll be signing books with Jewel Adams at the annual boutique, which is being held in the high school girls gym from 10 am to 3 pm.