I don't know if you're interested in the inner workings of writing a novel. I don't want to bore you with the behind-the-scenes processes. But I will share that I've had some challenges with this book. 

I tend to pantster the Valentine books, which is to say that I start writing even though I have no plot. I don't know who the killer is. Why they killed. Sometimes I don't even know how they killed. 

I've known that I have a dead guy in a rowboat along a river Jack and Tess are visiting for their first wedding anniversary. I want him to be poisoned. That's as far as I got. 

During the initial writing, my dead guy was a businessman. At about 13,000 words, I sent Jack and Tess to a dinner gathering in Washington, DC to sleuth around, but I got stuck. I don't know who they need to talk to or why. And so the story has stalled.

I recently decided to make my dead guy a chef. I think it's more interesting than a rich business a-hole. The challenge is poisoning a chef, but I think I have that worked out too. 

So...onward I go. And for fun, I've posted the first two chapters of that book for you. I hope you'll read it and if you do, perhaps you can help me think of title ideas. Right now, the one I'm considering is "Love Served Cold," but I don't necessarily love it. 

You can read the first two chapters here: Valentine Book 8 - Love Served Cold

BTW...in my SweetHarte project to have lots of fun excerpts and bonuses for you, I added a special commenting feature where I can ask you questions and you can answer within the post. I added several questions to the excerpt above, alas, something isn't working as only one question appears. I'm working on fixing that.