I’m writing Chapter Three of my WIP (that means work in progress). When I was writing my first published book I spelled out the chapters (I just got up and checked. Yep. THE COWBOY’S BABY has the chapters spelled out.)

Over the years though, I got worried about maybe misspelling Fourteen or Nineteen or Eighty or something, so I moved to using numerals. (I’m not going to get up and check again, so I might be misremembering this. but I think my next phase was to say Chapter 1, etc.) And for a long time now I’ve tossed the word Chapter aside and just say 1,2,3,4,5, etc. Which might be why I sometimes come up with two Chapter 26’s every once in a while.

Well, now I’m back to square one, using Chapter One, Chapter Two, Chapter Three, etc. It’s probably the most formal of the choices. My WARM HEART novel (not its true name) is a Western horror novel. It needs the formal touch.

Oh, and I forgot. I have once used captions under my Chapter designations. Very old-fashioned that. THE CIMARRON BRIDE https://amzn.com/B07GTSD421.

FYI: The mermaid picture has nothing to do with my novels or this blog. My sister took the photo.

This San Marcos, Texas mermaid has nothing to do with my new novel. I just think it’s pretty. It was quite fun tracking down all of the mermaids, but Roxanne took the photos. A lot more are featured on our website http://rixcafetexican.com.

My work in progress has a splendid title that I won’t divulge just yet. Let’s call it COLD HANDS, WARM HEART. It’s a horror novel I started after attending the best writers’ convention there ever was. The Denver Horror Writers of America convention, I believe. Almost, or more than twenty years ago.

Harlan Ellison, Neil Gaiman, Peter Straub, David Morrell, I can go on and on and on. Everyone was there. And in the artists section of the con, I bought two paintings. COLD HANDS, WARM HEART was inspired solely from one of those paintings. My sister and I were befriended by a trio of horror writers, and got to sit at their table during the awards ceremony. Two of them were nominees. We have never forgotten their kindness.

And I got to talk with Harlan Ellison!

Peter Straub got a surprise when we told him that THE HELLFIRE CLUB was one of our favorite books. He said something like, “But you look like such nice ladies!”

Was it Shrek who said “onions have layers” or Donkey. Nice ladies (now old ladies) have layers too. I know an actor who’d be fabulous as the serial killer in that novel if they ever made it into a movie.

Back to my work in progress. Originally I got about seventy-five pages into it and stopped. I’m a much better writer now and it was time to take it up again if I ever want to finish it. I’m close to rewriting Chapter One. Can’t decide yet whether to chop it into two chapters or not. I hate long chapters.

WHAT I READ THIS WEEK: Maelstrom by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, My Gun Has Bullets by Lee Goldberg, and The Astronaut From Wyoming by Adam Troy Castro.

I’m writing a horror novel this time. Went back into my files and dragged out what I’d previously wrote as WARM HEART (as in cold hands, warm heart), spent too much time changing the title, and finally finished reading through what was there.

Mostly it was good. I crossed out all the stupid stuff. Am now rewriting Chapter One.

This isn’t my first horror novel. ARROYO is a weird western, which is a subgenre of the horror field. And then there’s ILL MET BY MOONLIGHT which is a humorous horror collection of interconnected stories about dangerous trees.

Looking forward to where WARM HEART leads me.

WHAT I READ THIS WEEK: The Sins of Lord Lockwood by Meredith Duran.

Link to my books https://amazon.com/author/gretchenrix

I’m writing a new book. Initially called WARM HEART, I changed it recently to THE HELL-BOUND.

That didn’t work. Not only did I misspell Hellbound, but there are dozens of books with that title. Back to the drawing board. I’ve found something that fits, but am not set on it yet.

Maybe I’ll let you know.

WHAT I READ THIS WEEK: The Sins of Lord Lockwood by Meredith Doran