By Julie, grateful for the balmy 40 degree days this week.
Friends, I’m thrilled to welcome Amanda Flower to the blog today! Amanda is a wonderful writer, and a really lovely person. She is also very prolific–tis the season for that! Thanks for visiting the blog Amanda!
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Winter WritingBy Amanda Flower
Growing up in Ohio, I loved winter as a child. I loved it because of sledding, snowmen, hot chocolate, and snow days. Who doesn’t love snow days? However as I got older, winter lost some of its appeal. I still love sledding, snowmen, hot chocolate, and snow days, but I don’t have the time for them like I did when I was a kid. To make matters worse, the library where I work only closes in case of a snowpocalypse. Snowpocalypses are a lot rarer than the Weather Channel would have you believe.
However even though winter doesn’t bring me the same level of joy as it had when I was a child, it still has some perks. Namely, it gives me some time, and time is something I desperately need. It’s usually in the winter that I write the most and am the most prolific. That’s because I’m stuck inside. Trust me, my preference is to be outside. Always. But blustery winter forces me indoors where I can concentrate on my writing with fewer distractions. My books are my escape where I can write stories away from the cold and darkness. Stories that are set in faraway places or places just down the road.
This year, the time the winter season allows me is a very good thing because I’m under contract to write four novels in 2017. Two of which are due in early spring, which translates into writing two novels start to finish by the end of March. No, neither or done yet. One is started, the other is just a blurb the publisher bought. One is for Kensington as 
part of The Amish Candy Mystery Series, and one is for Crooked Lane in the Forgotten Garden Mystery Series. The Amish Candy Mysteries are set in an Amish community in my home state of Ohio. The Forgotten Garden Mysteries are set in a magical garden in Scotland. Both are cozies but on opposite ends of the subgenre, and that’s how I like it. I’ve discovered that I like writing series that are worlds apart from each other. I told my agent once, “I’ll write whatever you want, set where you want, starring whoever you want, but let it be a mystery. That’s all I ask.” So far, she’s been able to do that for me.
Thankfully, through all the writing, rewriting, and rewriting some more, I have my trusty editors Cheeps and Tummy at my side. My two feline friends are my go-to guys for comic relief and snuggles when I feel like the deadlines are closing in, which happens about once a week. I’m going to need their support to get through this year. That’s for certain.
So it’s time to break out the yoga pants and the hoodie (AKA author uniform), the chocolate, enough coffee to sink and ocean liner, and get to work. These books aren’t going to write themselves. May you have a productive winter too. Spring will be here before you know it.
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Amanda Flower, a national bestselling and Agatha Award winning mystery author. She also writes mysteries as USA Today bestselling author Isabella Alan. In addition to being an author, Amanda is librarian in Northeast Ohio. Her latest novel is PROSE AND CONS. Follow Amanda on Social Media at: Facebook Twitter Instagram
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