Rocking the Baby by Judy L. Murray

I’ve been rocking this baby for far too long. The baby, my fifth book in my Chesapeake Bay Mystery Series, is making me crazy.

She is impossible to please. A stuffed rabbit, a music box, a bottle. Never right. I am a mass of indecision. As a result, far too few words are on paper. I’ve tossed out ideas, one after another, and I’m never happy with any of them. The baby has colic and I’m stuck walking the floors.

I suppose I put myself in this position. Or shall I say I put my protagonist, Helen Morrisey, in this position. With the idea of sending Helen out beyond her Chesapeake village at the end of Villain in the Vineyard, I’m now frozen in fear that my readers will miss all my secondary characters they enjoy. I can hear my fans now. “Where is Tammi? Where are Lizzi and Shawn? Where are our favorite shops?” I’m afraid I’ll disappoint them. As a result, I’m getting nowhere and my deadline is creeping closer and closer like the Chesapeake shoreline at high tide. No wonder I’m not sleeping.

The past year has caused so many personal disruptions. We’ve all experienced them. I need to return to a creative routine. Yet, I want to have time for family. I’ve put together a few bits of advice to replace my misgivings and procrastination with decisions and words. Hopefully, they will help you if you hit the same wall.

Tony Robbins, Harvard ranked motivational coach, author Awaken the Giant Within
I attended his three one-hour zoom sessions last week. Tony had 62,000 people attending from around the world. Participation never dropped from the first minute to the last. “Beliefs create and beliefs destroy. Taking action makes fear go away.”

Kate Quinn, New York Times Bestselling Author, The Alice Network, The Rose Code “Give yourself permission to be bad. Silence that little voice in your head, the one that says… this is terrible, what am I doing, I can’t let anyone see this and just finish. Your first draft will be terrible, and that’s fine. Everyone’s first drafts are, mine included, and that’s fine! Just finish that first draft and fix it later.”

Lisa Scottoline, New York Times Bestselling Author, Edgar award-winner, author of 36 novels “How do you begin writing a new book? I pray, and then I start. Horrible first drafts are the secret to great writing.

Barbara Kingsolver, Pulitzer Prize winner “I write a lot of material that I know I’ll throw away. It’s just part of the process.”

E.L. Doctorow, three time winner National Book Critics Circle Award ‘Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights. You don’t have to see where you’re going, you don’t have to see your destination or everything you will pass along the way. You just have to see two or three feet ahead of you.”

Stephen Pressfield, author of the international bestseller The War of Art, ranked #3 Amazon in Creativity since 2012, Gates of Fire, The Legend of Bagger Vance “Remember our rule of thumb: The more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it.”

I’m tossing this baby into your hands. If you have ideas on how to blend a storyline between an original location with a new one, love to hear them. If you think Helen needs to stay in her original world, let me know. If you have suggestions about how you got back into a writing routine after disruptions, I’d love to hear them too.

All the best to my writing comrades,

Judy L. Murray
Author, The Chesapeake Bay Mystery Series
PenCraft First Place Awards
IPPY Gold and Silver Medalist
Silver Falchion Int'l Award
Agatha Award Nominee

The Seeds You Sow by Judy L Murray

As we see the first real signs of spring – Hallelujah! – I’m struck again how helpful loyal readers can be such an asset. One of our Writers Who Kill authors Lisa Malice posted a blog about clubs a few weeks ago. I’m going to piggyback on it with my latest example.

My fourth book in the Chesapeake Bay Mystery Series, Villain in the Vineyard, promises to have a special kind of celebration. One I certainly didn’t plan all on my own.

In mid-January, Girls Under Cover, a book club in my area, contacted me. This is a club of over thirty participants just a few miles outside my Chesapeake Bay village of North East, Maryland. Since the release of my first book in the series, Murder in the Master, they’ve supported my efforts with amazing enthusiasm. Each year, they invite me to attend one of their meetings as their book pick of the month. We always have a delightful evening in one of their homes.

This year, when they heard that my book was entitled Villain in the Vineyard, they suggested a launch party at a local vineyard here on the Elk River. The Elk River feeds into the Chesapeake at the very top of the bay. The Chesapeake is mammoth, a remarkable natural wonder and the largest estuary in the United States. Located in the Mid-Atlantic region, it begins where I live at the very top of Maryland and its eastern shore, extending south to Virginia. More than a hundred fifty rivers flow into the bay’s over sixty-four thousand miles and it covers parts of six states. Two hundred miles long, our bay eventually spills into the Atlantic Ocean. The word Chesapeake is derived from an Algonquian word referring to a village ‘at a big river’. Explorers in 1585 applied the name.

Longtime sailors, my husband and I moved to North East in 2007. I fell in love with its history and its native beauties. American Bald Eagles perch on the trees in front of our views of the water. Blue Heron and Tundra Swans arrive in the spring. To watch an eagle dip into the water and pluck fish for dinner fascinates me. It’s also one reason why I decided the Chesapeake was a perfect setting for a hometown sleuth-Realtor to tell her stories.

I digress. Girls Under Cover and I met at Blue Elk Vineyard in early March to plan my book talk. As we chatted with the owner of this gorgeous and historic location (I’ll post a link below if you are curious) they decided they would cover the room rental charge by selling tickets to club members and anyone else who wanted to attend. We liked the idea of using any ticket sales net proceeds towards a local charity. That’s when I suggested we support the Dolly Parton Imagination Library Program in our county. Dolly’s program coordinates the administration, the data base of children, and a Blue Ribbon Committee choosing the appropriate books and arranging whole-sale pricing. Communities cover the books and shipping. Any child between ages one and five who chooses to enroll receives high-quality, age-appropriate books mailed each month to their home free of charge. As an author it’s been a favorite charity of mine. For those children not fortunate enough to own their own books, this program has proven to be a huge influence in their development as lovers of reading. Tying in book fundraising to my book signing seemed a perfect alliance. The club loved the idea.

Our event is the evening of May 8th and so far we are approaching sixty tickets sold. Between appetizers provided by the club and flowers and dessert from me, we hope to clear about $10 per ticket toward our county Imagination Library Program.

Now a little message about my latest book, Villain in the Vineyard. Below I’ve included a phenomenal review from our very own Connie Berry. Thank you Connie for fitting this in around your already too busy schedule.

If you also have a story of how readers affected your life as an author, I’d love to here them in your comments. Judy L Murray

Here is Connie’s review: “When two of her clients are murdered, another lies in a coma, and properties she’s listed for sale are vandalized, real estate agent-turned-amateur sleuth Helen Morrisey faces the loss of the business she’s worked so hard to establish. This is personal, and to make matters worse, Tammi, Helen’s long-time Assistant Extraordinaire is moving out of town and Emma, the gorgeous FBI agent and ex-fiancée of Helen’s love, Detective Joe McAllister, shows up, looking to reignite the flame. Can Helen and her fictional detectives—Nancy Drew, Jessica Fletcher, Jane Marple, Agatha Raisin and Nora Charles—stop the perpetrators before her agency collapses or worse yet, another client is injured or killed? I’ve loved all Judy L. Murray’s Chesapeake Bay Mysteries, but I think this one may be my favorite. With a richly layered plot, a brilliant cast of characters, and an authentic feel for both policing and sleuthing, Villain in the Vineyard is a gem.” Connie Berry, USA Bestselling Author – The Kate Hamilton Mysteries

https://amzn.to/42yejBo

https://imaginationlibrary.com/about-us/

https://blueelkvineyard.com/