Work in Progress (August 2026)
Work in Progress
This month I’ve finally really been able to settle into my writing routine, chaining myself to my keyboard for about four hours per day, five days per week.
I have found revision to be slower-going than writing new material. It might take me two four-hour work sessions to revise 1500 words when doing something like changing the point of view character from a cop (previous version) to a small-town reporter (new version). But writing a completely new 1500-word scene in that small-town reporter's point of view might take me only three hours!
It seems counter-intuitive, but I'm getting better at scoping how much time a given chunk of work will take me.
I’m happy to say my revision of Next of Kin is at about 30,000 words—a little over one-third of the way to completion. My schedule is free from travel and other big distractions for the coming month, too, so I hope to continue making progress.
What I’m Consuming
Reading
- Probable Caws by Donna Andrews
- Kinsey and Me by Sue Grafton
- The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells
- Forgotten Trail by Claire Kells
- Hammajang Luck by Makan Yamamoto
- Sleeping Lady by Sue Henry
Viewing
- Castle
- Ride or Die
- Beyond Paradise (a spinoff of Death in Paradise)
Have You Read Anything By Sue Grafton?
Recently, short story writers in a forum I’m following were asked to name a favorite short story—beyond the classics taught in high school and college. Several mentioned stories penned by Sue Grafton, and I realized I had never read them!
A little sleuthing online revealed that I had a treasure trove waiting on my own bookshelf: Kinsey and Me, by Sue Grafton. I bought the book years ago, and enjoyed reading the second half of it, which is autobiographical…but had skipped the half-dozen short stories in the front of the book. Much to my delight, each one featured Kinsey Milhone, and my before-bed reading for a whole week felt like visiting with an old, deeply valued friend.
One of the reasons I became a writer is I love spending time with certain characters other writers have created, and Kinsey Milhone is one of those characters. I discovered her, in A is for Alibi, in my twenties, while I was beginning work as a technical writer. I gobbled up the first few novels of the series. The long annual wait for the next book in the series became something of a ritual for me. On publication day, I picked up the hardback at my local bookstore on my way home from work, and spent the next few nights up late, reading.
As the series progressed, I took to re-reading the previous book before the publication of each new entry in the series, to refresh my mind on what was happening in Kinsey's life when I last saw her. I enjoyed following the lives of the recurring secondary characters, and watching Kinsey evolve through various relationships with them.
Kinsey aged just a few months between books, and her world was the early 1980s--personal computers were just catching on, the Internet was nascent, and cell phones were rare. Ten or so books in, writer Sue Grafton lamented in interviews that she was writing historical fiction. She had to research everything from clothing and hairstyles to the skills and tools of criminals, cops, and private investigators of that period.
I was fortunate to actually meet Ms. Grafton several times at mystery writing conferences. Having her spontaneously sit in for half a day on a pre-conference writing workshop I attended—answering questions, telling us about her writing process, giving us insider insights into publishing, and cracking jokes—is one of the highlights of my writing life. I was absolutely devastated when Ms. Grafton died before she could write the last book and tie up the series.
In early 2025, I checked out the audiobook version of every book in the series, reading them one after the other in series order, to see what I could learn about bringing my own characters and setting to life. I got so caught up in the stories, I had a hard time remaining analytical, but I know Sue Grafton's influence runs deep in my own writing.
I would love to be the creator of a character that some future reader comes to hold as dear as I hold Kinsey. If you've never had a chance to read the alphabet series, starting with A is for Alibi and running through Y is for Yesterday, give it a try.
Where I’ve Been
I try to get out for at least one day of whale watching every summer, and finally managed to make time in my schedule to go out with Puget Sound Express on August 12. I’ve been out with them about 15 times over the last decade, and have always had a great experience!
About 30 minutes from the dock we found a humpback off Whidbey Island and spent half an hour hanging out with it.
The air was so still that the whale’s blow—about 15 feet high with a humpback—hung in the air for a long moment.
We parted from the humpback when the captain got a report of orcas passing Port Townsend Bay. We turned back towards Port Townsend and spent almost an hour watching a pod of 8 orcas of the “transient,” or marine-mammal-eating, variety. The air was so still we could hear their breath when they rose to the surface.
We didn’t see them make a kill, but their behavior—including some tail slaps, pectoral (arm-fin) slaps, and lolling on their sides swishing their flukes and pectorals at the water’s surface—indicated they were sharing food, and we caught a few glimpses of some kind of carcass being passed among them.
The full-day tour from Port Townsend stops in Friday Harbor on San Juan Island for a two-hour lunch break. On the way in we saw some Steller sea lions, the older ones posing like body-builders on the rocks while the younger ones rough-housed in the shallows.
Coming back out we found a sea otter snoozing in a kelp bed, in the classic pose: floating on it's back, feet out of the water to keep them warm, kelp wrapped over the belly to anchor it while it snoozed.
We went a little further west and spent another forty minutes or so with a group of about 10 transient orcas who were also celebrating having made a recent kill, and then turned around for a fast but comfortable run back to port. If you’re looking for a whale watching tour on the Salish Sea, I highly recommend Puget Sound Express, which operates out of Edmonds, Port Angeles, and Port Townsend.
My Furry Muses
Butch and Sundance are physically alike in many ways—size and shape, postures, the way they often move in seemingly unconscious synchrony as they stalk down the hallway towards the toy closet, or dash up the stairs to the kitchen. But they approach life differently: Butch boldly approaches anything that stirs his curiosity, while Sunny watches from the sidelines, coming close only when he has determined that it’s safe.
A kukui nut lei I brought home from the Polynesian Cultural Center on Oahu has been hanging on a closet doorknob for years. When the kittens showed some interest in it, I untied it, got down on the floor, and rippled it around like a snake.
As usual, Butch started interacting with it right away, pawing at it, trying to bite the nuts, and rolling around on the floor with it. Sunny watched from under the couch for a while.
It didn’t take him too long to get comfortable with it, though!
A lot of Mia's life this past month has revolved around grooming: I've trimmed her hair shorter and shorter as the weather has warmed up, spent lots of time picking little bits of plant materials out of her velcro-like coat every time we come home from a walk, and hauled her to the vet for a toenail trim. Then came the ultimate indignity of a bath!
That’s it for this month. Thanks for being a reader! — Jenna