I’m gearing up to release the fourth installment in the Port Mason series, The Mayor. The manuscript is going through the final edits, the cover art is ready, and I’m itching to get this one out.

I finished the final draft of The Mayor at the end of May, 2019, and soon got my editor to work on the manuscript. This is the third book Josephine Henke has worked on for me and she’s very good at fixing the stuff I can’t help but miss during the writing process. Here’s hoping she’ll stick around for the next one.

For the cover art I had a kind of idea which my daughter, Josie, sketched out. That sketch went to my close friend and longtime collaborator, Edward Howell. Eddie took the concept and worked his usual magic. I hope my readers will like his work as much as I do.

Like In The Crosshairs, The Mayor took me over two years to write. One of the reasons it took so long is that, unfortunately, writing novels is not how I make my living. I have a day job like most people and it can be very demanding. I’ll come home exhausted from a busy day and the last thing I’ll want to do is sit at a computer working for another two or three hours.

The other reason is that I have a bad habit of constantly rewriting and making changes. I’ve never done a detailed outline for a novel because I know darn well I’ll fiddle and rework the plot and subplots until the final product bears little or no resemblance to what I envisioned when I started. Plus, I’m just not that organized.

Despite the hurdles, this is what I love doing. I’ve been writing most of my life and often find my greatest contentment sitting at a keyboard and letting my ideas flow from my brain through my fingertips and onto a screen. Seeing a finished piece of work, whether it’s one of my infrequent blog posts or one of my books, gives me a great sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.

With The Mayor on the cusp of publication, I’ve already started working on the follow-up. We’ll see what kind of trouble I can get Steve Bennett and Amanda Clark into this time. Actually, that’s the easy part. The hard part is getting them out of it. It’s also the most fun.