November is always a busy month, and this year was no exception. Between drafting the new novel, getting A Slice Of Mystery ready for publication, and promoting my back list for Black Friday, all that while travelling and fighting a cold, I'm glad to see December just around the corner.

The new novel (tentative title: Two Sparks Of Mystery) is progressing, not as fast as I wish, but the first draft will be complete in the next couple of weeks. After that, it will need a month of resting time (just like proving bread!), and I'll tackle revisions and edits in January and February. The scary bit is that I really should start work on that cover now, when the cover for A Slice Of Mystery was only just finished!

Talking of which, I'd promised you a sneak peek... Do you like it?!

Cover for A Slice of Mystery, a cozy mystery set on an IT project

And... I'm also ready to share the first three chapters with you!

Now, the usual disclaimers around formatting and typos apply, and some words may change between now and publication day (I always have a "genius" idea right at the last minute!), but it's here! Can you tell I'm excited? Because I am!!!

While the first 3 chapters are currently exclusive to my mailing list,  I'm hoping to share it with the rest of the world next month, once I have had a chance to set up the pre-order links.​

Tackling the (out of control) TBR pile:

As expected, this month has been really bad for my TBR pile - not much time or energy to read, and I'm visiting friends and adopted family in the US for Thanksgiving... what's the link you ask? Easy - lots of great secondhand bookstores, with amazing Black Friday deals - my suitcase is full!

Not much to report. Novembers are always full on writing, which means no cooking (that's when the batch-cooking frenzy of October comes in handy - I eat out of the freezer!), and not much downtime for hobbies etc.

The good thing about spending a couple of weeks in the US is that my writing group is here, and quite a few members have become close friends over the years, and my college friends are here too, so, paradoxically, I have a richer social life in November than any other month of the year!