June, Already?

Author

Saralyn Richard
June 04, 2026

I’ve traveled to two graduations in the past few weeks, and it’s been loads of heart-warming fun—but tiring! I wonder how I was able to travel for work 50 weeks of the year and still manage to keep up with a home life, a social life, exercise, etc. Now when I’m out of town, I can’t wait to get back to my manuscript.

I’m often asked what my writing space looks like.

Image by StockSnap from Pixabay

This is a little like my office. Except I work on a large desktop computer. Sunlight pours in from a window to my right. I don’t drink coffee, but right now I have a large mug of raspberry-lime sparkling water next to me. My desk is messier than this one. I’m surrounded by books and other reference materials, sticky notes, calendar, to-do lists, notes I’ve taken from webinars or critique group sessions, and one or another of my dogs.

The most important feature of my writing office is quiet. For me, writing fiction requires me to disconnect with the real surroundings of the room I’m in and to enter the zone of the chapter I’m working on at the time. I cease to be Saralyn Richard and become someone else who is so close to the characters and setting of my manuscript that I can breathe in its smells and textures and sounds. I have to be there if I’m going to put readers there.

Going to “the zone” was particularly wonderful during Covid lockdown, when I wrote BAD BLOOD SISTERS in nine months, my shortest time for any book. I wrote night and day, because I wasn’t going anywhere or doing anything else, but also because I was so involved with Quinn’s story that I literally couldn’t put it down.

Linda Layer, me, and Nancy Shelton, showing the old cover of BAD BLOOD SISTERS (no longer published) with the geranium and the new cover(available for purchase) with the daisy.

I feel the same way about the book I’m finishing right now. (Actually, I am that involved with each of my books when I’m writing them.) As you know, this one’s about Galveston in 1905, and, although it’s fiction, some of the characters are real people, including my grandparents. I become emotional when I think of how I’ve reconnected with them and with my hometown that I love, but I also love the story’s topics and themes. There are so many parallels with things that occur in today’s world. It’s been fun to add the historical dimension to mystery writing.

The cover designer is working on a spectacular cover for this book (still unnamed), so next month I should be able to show you some cover options. I can’t wait to share this whole project with you!

 

Thanks to Jack Buxton for this photo of the city hall where police and firemen shared space. Several scenes of the book take place in this building.

In other news, I’m honored to have been selected to serve on the Thriller-Tique Facilitator board for the International Thriller Writers. I’ve belonged to this prominent organization for thirteen years, and I also serve as the leader of an international critique group. Five authors in our group submit our work to be critiqued each month, and we give everyone else’s submissions a deep read and thoughtful editorial commenting. I’ve met and worked with many award-winning authors through this organization, and I’ve grown professionally through the network.

Another exciting bit of news is that I’ve been asked to moderate a conversation with Atlanta author Lo Patrick for a book event at Then and Now Bookshop, July 14, 6:30 p.m. More details next month, but I hope you can come out and visit!

Meanwhile, are you a fan of the New York Times puzzles? My husband and I do them every day, and one of our favorites is Connections. If you’re not familiar with it, the game gives you 16 words, and you have to figure out which four have a connection that the others don’t have.

For example, today’s 16 words are:

PUBLIC WRITER SALT PEPPER

OIL VINEGAR KITCHEN TEMPERA

PANACHE GOUACHE RUN TOWN

BEASTIE VERVE ACRYLIC GUSTO

The answers are:

TEMPERA GOUACHE ACRYLIC OIL (PAINTING MEDIA)

GUSTO PANACHE VERVE VINEGAR (ESPRIT)

KITCHEN PEPPER TOWN WRITER (GHOST ___)

BEASTIE PUBLIC RUN SALT (STARTS OF CLASSIC HIP-HOP GROUPS)

If you didn’t get them all right, neither did I, but it’s fun trying.

So, here are 16 words that have connections in the Detective Parrott series. Can you get them all?

MANSION NYPD MOTIVE POWER BAR

SUSPECT CHILI HORSES CORONER

HOAGIE CHIEF FORENSICS BLACK COFFEE

ROCKS SUSPECT BARN RED HERRING

Answers are at the bottom of the newsletter. Don’t peek! Did you get them?

If you aren’t already following me on book sites or social media, here are the links where I’m hanging out.

I’d love to add you to my friends and followers. You should know, though, that all the best news and opportunity is published to my newsletter subscribers first. So, if you know of anyone who may be interested in receiving these monthly newsletters, please forward this to him/her and encourage signup at https://saralynrichard.com.

Thanks for coming along on the journey with me. Your responses mean a lot to me, so please let me know how you did on the word game, what suggestions you have for the new book, or just how you’ve been doing. It takes a village to build a book community, and you are such a precious villager to me!

Much love,

Saralyn

p.s.

HOAGIE CHILI BLACK COFFEE POWER BAR (PARROTT’S FAVE FOODS)

RED HERRING SUSPECT CLUE  MOTIVE (TROPES OF A MYSTERY NOVEL)

CORONER CHIEF FORENSICS NYPD (PARROTT WORKS WITH THEM)

BARN ROCKS HORSES MANSIONS (FEATURES OF BRANDYWINE)