{"id":3504,"date":"2026-09-25T06:05:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T13:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/?p=3504"},"modified":"2026-09-25T06:05:00","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T13:05:00","slug":"unwrapping-un-named-joanna-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/2026\/09\/25\/unwrapping-un-named-joanna-22\/","title":{"rendered":"Unwrapping Un-named Joanna #22"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Writers write. Every day. Right now it\u2019s Tuesday morning. So far today, I\u2019ve written a new bio for an event I\u2019m doing late in October. I\u2019ve also spent more than an hour doing an on-line interview for the upcoming Beaumont book, The Taken Ones<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s suddenly occurring to folks that Beau has been around for more than forty years and that I\u2019ve been writing for a VERY long time. As a consequence, it wasn\u2019t your run-of-the-mill \u201cWhat\u2019s the book about?\u201d interview. The questions came from a more historical perspective, and the answers weren\u2019t exactly something I could cut and paste.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve also answered a question from a fan who\u2019s planning on visiting Cochise County later this year and wanted some pointers about what to see and do. That reply was short but fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The thing is, Tuesday mornings are usually when I get my rear in gear and write the blog, and that\u2019s what I\u2019m doing right now\u2014writing the blog!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m an old-fashioned kind of girl. Back in the very old days when I was having kids, there were no such things as gender-reveal parties. Parents back then mostly didn\u2019t know what they were getting until the baby was \u2026 well \u2026 unwrapped, as it were, and that\u2019s when you give them a name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To my way of thinking, writing a book is pretty much the same deal. Since I don\u2019t outline, I don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen in any given book until it does. And the same thing holds true for creating a title. That often doesn\u2019t come into focus until somewhere along the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the case of Unnamed Joanna #22, that didn\u2019t happen until the story was practically in the elevator and on the way to the delivery room. And here it is: Before the Trail Goes Cold<\/em>. My editor actually suggested it, and as soon as she did, I thought, \u201cWhy the hell didn\u2019t I think of that?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that\u2019s all you get for a blog today. Why? Because last Friday afternoon at 5:16 PM, I finally completed the manuscript. Since then I\u2019ve been doing a word-for-word read-through and making corrections as I go along. In its natural state, my writing tends to be plagued by echoes. That means I use the same word or phrase in close proximity far too many times, so I\u2019ve been trying to root out as many as I can. (See there? Did you catch the two many?) And then there are the words that Auto Correct blithely changes into something else that doesn\u2019t make a bit of sense. Too for Two, for instance. And if I make a typing error when writing the words \u201cof these\u201d? You can bet autocorrect will turn that into outhouse!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After completing the manuscript, I started working on corrections the first thing Saturday morning. Halfway through the writing process, I had a computer malfunction and my comprehensive name-file\u2014one that covers a number of books in the Beaumont series and had 40,000 words in it\u2014suddenly opened up empty! As I continued writing, I added in new names as I went, but while doing the corrections, I\u2019m recreating the name file for the first half of the book. That\u2019s a complex, time-consuming process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are 527 pages in the manuscript for Before the Trail Goes Cold<\/em>. Three days into corrections, I\u2019m on page 204, so I\u2019d best get my rear in gear on that, too. Oh, and the Department of Licensing just let me know my driver\u2019s license will expire on my birthday, so that\u2019s on my To-Do list as well. But first off come corrections. I\u2019d like the book to be in my editor’s hands by Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ll let you know if I make the grade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PS. Please don\u2019t try to add that title to your pre-order list. Since the book isn\u2019t due out until next fall, it\u2019s way too soon for that to show up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Writers write. Every day. Right now it\u2019s Tuesday morning. So far today, I\u2019ve written a new bio for an event I\u2019m doing late in October. I\u2019ve also spent more than an hour doing an on-line interview for the upcoming Beaumont book, The Taken Ones. It\u2019s suddenly occurring to folks that Beau has been around for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t