A start

I am still working on the final draft of "Death at the Jungle-bunny Journal," mostly just tweaking things here and there. And while I should have kept my focus on Jungle-bunny, I wrote the first two chapters of my next novel, "The Death of Art." I may change that title __ I have thought of something else __ but I'm keeping it for now.

Death of Art will have a Prologue, a short first chapter and a longer but regular length second chapter. It is the second in a series with Jason Crown.

It is about 3,400 words, nearly 5 percent of what I project as its future total length. I did about 750 words last Thursday and everything else on Sunday afternoon after church and into the evening.

I wrote them because I hadn't decided on what to give to my critique group for this month but didn't want to provide another chapter of Jungle-bunny Journal. They have seen chapters 1-4 and I didn't see much value in getting comments on work I have already dealt with. There is only one person in my group who has seen the entire manuscript and I have already weighed her comments and used everything that I thought was useful.

In Death of Art, I used the niece of some friends as inspiration. She was nearly the correct age but had the overall look I wanted in the murder victim. Too bad. I guess I should mention that to her one day. "Hey, I have some good news and some bad news. You inspired me and I used you for a character in my novel. That's the good news. The bad news is I killed you off near the beginning of the book."

I missed a couple of book signings over the weekend. I always like them and I like supporting authors but they can also be a bit of a downer for me. I wonder if and when I will be able to do a singing. Oh well . . .

Back to work. I am looking forward to completing the final touches of Jungle-bunny and to moving on to Death of Art. The story isn't as complicated but I think it will be just as much fun.

Thanks for reading and keep writing.