New book on the way

It has been ages since my last post--over a month! What a slacker.

Here's what's been brewing in my cauldron while my blog has been idle. I held a book signing at Readmore Book World in Moline, Ill., on Dec. 10. There was Christmas and New Year's. I started volunteering for the Animal Aid Humane Society, which is a no-kill shelter near my house. I was on break from my day job for the holidays, which was totally awesome even if I was a little under the weather during a good part of it.

I've been working on the second issue of "Epitaphs Magazine," which is slated for a February release. Kristine, our designer, is working her magic right now.

The main thing I've been working on is the proposal for my second book. I will not be self-publishing this time. This time I am going for it and submitting it to an agent. It's been an interesting process trying to narrow down my topic for the book. At times it's been downright painful. It's tough to figure out your next step. Especially when I'm still working on promoting my first book. It's a major juggling act.

Yesterday I spoke to an advanced class of six students at Bettendorf Middle School (Bettendorf, Iowa). They have taken on the project of creating a walking tour brochure for Oakdale Memorial Park (where I co-directed the cemetery walk last September) in Davenport, Iowa. It was a lot of fun. They were so into what we were talking about that they asked their teacher if they could stay through the next class period.

This weekend I will be teaching a class on "The Ins and Outs of Self-Publishing." If I can help some other people wade their way through the process, then rock on. It can be daunting. The whole process of this book stuff can be daunting. I have enjoyed it very much and continue to, but I won't try to fool you into thinking it's easy and fun. You've got to have a lot of determination and time to get things done. I still need to do some legwork on getting a Borders signing lined up.

In other news, I'm working toward hosting a podcast for TheCemeteryClub.com. If you have any ideas about what you'd like to hear about on the podcast, let me know! I'm open to suggestions.

I plan to blog a little more often, so please stay tuned. Thanks for your continued support and happy cemetery haunting!

Minda

www.TheCemeteryClub.com