JB Lynn

Hijinks, Hilarity and Heart

the hitwoman owes a favor

New release and progress!

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Can you believe that 2021 is already a third over?!?!

I don’t know about you, but my mental To Do list tends to carry a lot more weight than my Ta-Dah! list. It’s easy to forget about what I’ve accomplished when I’m busy worrying about all that is left to be done.

Yesterday, while I was doing my monthly wrap-up/planning session I realized I’ve done more than I’d really realized this year.

Friday I published The Hitwoman and the Teddy Bear, my second release of the year,

following The Hitwoman Owes a Favor

I’ve also written my June release, Something Old, Something New (the next in the Psychic Consignment Mysteries).

And I’ve been working on Cursed Chicks 4! (Not to mention the six part short story Cursed Chicks Club I provided for my newsletter subscribers.)

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I’ve got big plans for the rest of the year too. I’m a busy bee!

The Hitwoman Owes a Favor

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The latest in the Confessions of a Slightly Neurotic Hitwoman series is out.

I must admit that I did a happy dance when an Amazon reader said about The Hitwoman Owes a Favor: “#25 in the series is as exciting and funny as the 24 that preceded it.”

Maggie Lee may be an inept hitwoman, but she pays her debts.

When Maggie told her friend Mia that she’d help her out of any mess she found herself in, she meant it. Of course they’d both been fifteen at the time.

Maggie hasn’t seen Mia in forever, until she suddenly shows up, intent on holding Maggie to her promise. Mia’s husband has disappeared, taking their money with him and she desperately needs it. 

While Maggie has other things to worry about, namely protecting her father from whoever is trying to kill him, Mia makes it impossible for her to not reciprocate the favor. 

Bound by a pinky swear, Maggie tracks down Mia’s soon-to-be-ex but doing so puts her at odds with the guys who have her back: Patrick, Zeke and Gino.

If Maggie’s not careful, her long-ago promise could have deadly consequences…especially since her psychic friend has predicted she’s going to die.

New Release this Week!

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The Hitwoman Owes a Favor will be released on Friday.

Part of me can’t believe this is the 25th story of Maggie and the gang.

And ALL of me can’t believe that the first book in the series CONFESSIONS OF A SLIGHTLY NEUROTIC HITWOMAN was published over nine years ago.

Time flies when you’re having fun I guess!

Don’t forget to preorder your copy of The Hitwoman Owes a Favor. Once again Maggie’s sense of duty to family and friends is getting her into A LOT of trouble

Maggie Lee may be an inept hitwoman, but she pays her debts.

When Maggie told her friend Mia that she’d help her out of any mess she found herself in, she meant it. Of course they’d both been fifteen at the time.

Maggie hasn’t seen Mia in forever, until she suddenly shows up, intent on holding Maggie to her promise. Mia’s husband has disappeared, taking their money with him and she desperately needs it. 

While Maggie has other things to worry about, namely protecting her father from whoever is trying to kill him, Mia makes it impossible for her to not reciprocate the favor. 

Bound by a pinky swear, Maggie tracks down Mia’s soon-to-be-ex but doing so puts her at odds with the guys who have her back: Patrick, Zeke and Gino.

If Maggie’s not careful, her long-ago promise could have deadly consequences…especially since her psychic friend has predicted she’s going to die.

A week in this writer’s life…Thursday

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Today was blessedly focused.

Sometimes I get tired from working on so many projects simultaneously. Today I gave almost all of my attention to the story edits of The Hitwoman Owes a Favor.

I’m so pleased with how this latest Maggie adventure has turned out!

I had to do a little work regarding covers for other books and some admin work (you know I abhor admin work, lol) but overall it was a very focused, very productive day. Yay!

A week in this writer’s life…Tuesday

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Worked through the rest of the story edits for The Hitwoman Owes a Favor. This was the third pass. I start with fixing the easy things, then the progressively more involved/difficult ones as I work through the manuscript each time. I think Favor needs one or two more passes.

Worked with cover artist to choose the images for the next two Hitwoman series (books 26 and 27).  This is a different artist than the one I worked with yesterday because the covers are for unrelated projects. Eager to see how they turn out.

Wrote my daily word count goal of my secret project.

Did horrible, soul-crushing Admin work. (rewarded myself with a walk and a promise to myself I could take a picture of the moon later)

It’s important to reward yourself! Here’s tonight’s moon shot!

Ooooh! Yay! Received the first look of the new Psychic Consignment Mystery cover. (more about that book soon!)  And just so you know, this is from a third artist, lol.

Inspired by the cover, I worked on the short version of the blurb for PCM4. 

Then, because I was in blurb-mood, I rewrote the one for Hitwoman 26.

And because I was on a blurb roll, I wrote one for the secret project

Then I contacted the cover artist for the secret project (same one as yesterday) with the specifications of the job she’s doing for me next week.

(Sometimes things just snowball, lol.)

Received the Hitwoman 26 cover. Still needs a little work so another email sent.

Hit my word count goal for Hitwoman 26. Yay!

Sketched out what to write tomorrow.

Tomorrow’s To Do list.

Blogged.

A Week in this Writer’s Life…Monday

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Someone asked me what a writer’s week is like. Usually they ask about our days, so I figured I’d keep a running log to show what a writer does over the course of a week.

Posted on IG. Smudge did not want to get off my lap so I could get to work this morning.

Eventually I got to work:

Communicated with Virtual Assistant (also known as She Who Keeps Me Relatively Sane — SWKMRS) about changes/corrections to website, updating back matter of books, what’s on tap for the next couple of months.

Felt swamped by overwhelm about how much I have to accomplish over the next couple of months. Considered curling into a ball and pulling the blankets over my head. Thanked SWKMRS for the acknowledgement and mini pep talk.  I CAN DO THIS.

Dealt with a cover artist about a couple of things. (Cool things but can’t reveal them yet.)

Checked out a new marketing resource recommended by a reader. (Put it on my running To Do list to get to eventually.)

Wrote until I reached my word count goal for my secret project. (I’ll tell you about that next month.)

Reread the letter from my story editor regarding The Hitwoman Owes a Favor. (It’s 10.5 pages long.) 

Worked on story edits for Favor through Chapter 15. (This is my 3rd pass on story edits after receiving the letter and editor’s manuscript comments.)

Sent VA a quick email about Favor marketing.

Paid cover artist. Downloaded art.

Had a small nervous breakdown about Dropbox.

Emailed VA re: covers

Wrote a couple pages of Hitwoman 26

A whole flurry of emails to VA. (Some business, some just friendly (often these revolve around food, lol).

Wrote a couple more pages of Hitwoman 26.  (Only wrote 1031 words total, not the 1500 I’d planned for.)

Wrote a page of my passion project. (This is different than my secret project.)

Sketched out what I need to write for Hitwoman 26 tomorrow.

Wrote out tomorrow’s To Do list.

Posted this blog, lol.

The Name Game — Day 2 of 101 Days of Effort

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Writing skill I do not possess: Remembering names

I’ve only written a few chapters of The Hitwoman Owes a Favor and I’ve already called a new character by three different names. (Pity my editors who have to put up with me.)

As an aside: I wrote ALL of One Woman’s Junk, the first in the Psychic Consignment Mystery series with TWO of the main characters having completely different names than in the published version.

Besides my issue with names, the manuscript is coming along. Today I added 3326 words.(goal for the day was 3200 so yay! win!)

I edited yesterday’s work today and here was my favorite line:

“Bickering is a kind of foreplay for us.”