Lost in thought

I should be grading papers because QU grades are due today. But I find I'm lost in thought. 

First of all, I love diversity, and am a champion of people being allowed to be different. But today I'm sad. Certainly I remain sad about the tragedy in CT, but also sad at the response to it.

People are dead. Children are dead. The tortured soul who did this is dead. His mom was a legal gun owner. Friends of hers were interviewed this morning and said she kept her guns locked up, just as she should. Still she's dead. She took her sons to the shooting range and taught them a healthy respect for weapons and how to use them safely. Still she's dead.

And people I know, respect, and love say we should arm teachers. Madness. Sadness.

Combination of things

Yesterday was a mash-up of emotions. Went to QMG Christmas dinner as my sister's date. It was fun being with both my sisters. However after the horrible school massacre in CT, it was hard to get that off our minds. Also got some disturbing health news about a b-i-l. Today I took Gus to the office and worked a few hours, then home for a nice long nap. I have so much work to do for QU, and will need to spend more hours on that.

Cover art for book

Here's something I didn't know--cover art for e-books needs to be more simple and uncluttered than print books. For Who Killed My Boss? I wanted a carriage house on the cover. I have a particular carriage house in mind. It's in Quincy, where the story takes place. The protagonist lives in the carriage house behind the owner's mansion. Those of you from Quincy can picture many such set-ups. Our town has a wonderful abundance of beautiful old homes, many of them with carriage houses. My publisher said when (if) we go to print after the e-version, we can discuss a more detailed cover. For now, she had me look at all the online best sellers with female sleuths. I did and really noticed the difference. Many of them have a few abstract curlicues behind the title and that's it. Others do have less abstract art, but almost all of them are simple. More later about my writing adventure. I'm excited. (And need to get more done on the second in the series--Any Meat in That Soup?)