January Wrap-Up

February’s here. That’s hard for me to believe. One twelfth of the New Year is already over, and it was a blur. But looking back I suppose it’s been a good month. I have managed to not be nearly as pedal to the metal and have been taking time to relax on many evenings, something that didn’t happen much the whole back half of 2015.

Over the weekend I finished my friend Ian Tregillis’ new novel in manuscript and found it delightful, and later I finished a short Merle Constiner novel. He has only a handful more that I haven’t read (well, 8 may not normally be considered a handful, but they’re all quite short) so I’m going to read something completely different and pace myself.

I discovered a great review of that Constiner novel just this morning and am attaching a link here — seems I’m not the only one who’s found an appreciation of this neglected western writer. I was thinking early today that with all the elements of mystery in all of Constiner’s books, and their emphasis on the lone, close-mouthed man doing right, that they share a lot of traits with some of my favorite hardboiled detective stories.

Work continues apace on the second novel of my new series, although it also continues on a continual revision pass on the first novel, as my wife works her way through it and finds little issues that needed to be addressed. I’m lucky to have a great first reader right here in the home!