Welcome, Jessica Thompson!

From Jessica’s #WIP…

“Hey gorgeous!” Josh called as the door closed behind him.

“Hey handsome!” Violet raked her highlighted chocolate hair under her festive witch’s hat and responded to her friend as her cheeks blazed. No matter how many times he said that to her, and no matter how platonic she knew it was, it always made her blush and it brightened her day. He knew it, and that’s why he always did it. Violet said through her grin, “You’re late.”

“Only ten minutes. I’m getting better. I think you’re a good influence on me,” he said as he took a black baseball cap off, uncovering short dark ash blond curls. He called to Taylor as she joined them in the long, rounded hallway from the big kitchen beyond. “Hey rockstar!” His ever-so-slight Scottish accent appearing only in his inflection. “Nice costume. Where are your whiskers?”

Taylor gave him a sarcastic smile from under her cat-ear headband. They had all agreed to wear their all-black catering outfits, but with slight changes to make them more appropriate for tonight’s Halloween party. “And what are you supposed to be? A beatnik?”

“I’m my own shadow. Nice, right?” Josh leaned back on his heels, proudly displaying his normal outfit that he had worn to every catering gig they had had to date.

Violet smirked and chose to let it go as she spied Taylor rolling her eyes and sighing.

Josh looked between Taylor and Violet. “Anyway, so you two are okay?”

“What do you mean?” Violet said, looking at Taylor just in time to catch a stink-eye that she was shooting at Josh. Her bright blue eyes glaring from under her natural twist out made her look extra chilling when she gave an icy stare. Violet’s eyes narrowed in response. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Taylor said, a little too quickly. “He just means you. Is today a good day or a bad day? Need me to grab some Snickers for you from the big bowl in there?”

Violet let out one sad huff. “Always, but … Medium. Knowing that I have to see him tonight is not helping. It’s so strange that I was praying to see him and planning a couples’ costume two months ago as this battalion was returning from their deployment, and now, with all that happened, I don’t know how to feel when I see him. And he keeps calling me. He wants us to get back to the way we were, but …”

Josh strode over and snatched Violet’s hand, bringing it up to show Taylor. “Oh no. Look!”

“Uh-oh,” Taylor frowned. “She’s relapsed.”

“I can’t believe you’re wearing it again,” Josh exclaimed as he turned away towards the cooler bag he brought, then carried it towards the kitchen where they had already stashed all their catering supplies. “You take this one, Tay. I’m starving.”

Violet yanked her hand free to look at the big engagement ring that was the object of their ridicule. It had been such a source of comfort to her the whole time her new fiance had been deployed that it was hard to let it go. Her mouth opened and closed a few times, but she didn’t have any defence for it that her two closest friends hadn’t heard before, so she dipped her head to hide behind the wide rim of the witch’s hat.

Writer’s WIP Questionnaire – 2

In the past two weeks, I have felt mostly happy about the progress of my WIP.

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Comment:

I think five, because I was doing okay for the first chapter or so, but then I stalled out because I never finished outlining! As I write this I am on a writing retreat and have been working on finishing my outline, so I’m hopeful that I’ll start flying through my word count again soon.

In the past two weeks, I have mostly managed to balance my writing life with the rest of my life.

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Comment:

If you had asked me a few days ago, I probably would have only given myself a two. I was not writing often enough and my word count was not keeping up with my nanowrimo goals. But now that I have been on a writing retreat for a few days, maybe the balance has tipped the other way in that all I have been doing is writing stuff. So, maybe it’s balanced if I look at the long term?

In the past two weeks, I have made drastic changes to my WIP.

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Comment:

Yes! Ten out of ten! I just started a new WIP at the beginning of this month for NaNoWriMo!

In the past two weeks, I have mostly suffered from ‘writer’s block’.

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Comment:

Well, maybe. I needed to pause and finish outlining. Does that count as writer’s block? Maybe not. I knew where I was going, but I needed to set up more markers along the journey.

In the past two weeks, I have focussed on one project.

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Comment:

Nope. I’m sitting here and participating in this interview as one of many procrastinations. I’m writing guest posts for blogs and other marketing projects for my book that just came out, A Caterer’s Guide to Holidays and Homicide, plus working on an anthology of campfire stories that I am putting together with friends from my writing group, and outlining and writing this WIP that I just started. Oh! And! I’ve also been working on the craft of writing, specifically the “meet-cute.”

Thanks for stopping by, Jessica – you are one busy lady! Enjoy the rest of your writers’ retreat!

https://twitter.com/jessicathauthor/

When Jessica discovered mystery novels with recipes, she knew she had found her niche.

Now Jessica is the author of the Amazon best-selling culinary cozy mysteries “A Caterer’s Guide to Love and Murder” and “A Caterer’s Guide to Holidays and Homicide.” She is active in her local writing community and is a member of the Writers’ League of Texas and the Storymakers Guild. She received a bachelor’s degree in Horticulture from Brigham Young University but has always enjoyed writing and reading mysteries.

As an avid home chef and food science geek, Jessica has won cooking competitions and been featured in the online Taste of Home recipe collection. She also tends to be the go-to source for recipes, taste-testing, and food advice among her peers.

Jessica is originally from California, but now has adopted the Austin, Texas lifestyle. She enjoys living in the suburbs with her husband and young children, but also enjoys helping her parents with their nearby longhorn cattle ranch.

Find out more about Jessica and her books, here…

http://mybook.to/catererholiday