My Fiction Writing Addiction
The other day, I was reading an interview of an author who confessed that she becomes anxious and a bit irritable when she’s not writing.
I can relate. It’s not that I haven’t been writing for the past few weeks, but I’ve focused on guest blogs and articles in connection with my recent releases of THE BIG SWITCH: VARNEY AND CEDRIC and DEATH IN THE END ZONE.
Here’s a brief rundown of what I’ve written and where it appeared:
An essay on “Echoes of Childhood,” Debra Goldstein’s It’s Not Always a Mystery blog: https://www.debrahgoldstein.com/echoes-from-childhood-by-lynn-slaughter/
An article on internet research, “In Reference to Murder”: https://inreferencetomurder.blogspot.com/2026/05/author-r-with-lynn-slaughter.html
A roundup of mysteries for sports lovers, CrimeReads: https://crimereads.com/boxing-football-cricket-and-more-5-mysteries-for-sports-lovers/
An essay on “Never Say Never,” Books by Women: https://booksbywomen.org/never-say-never-our-passions-as-writers-may-take-us-to-unexpected-places/
An article on the importance of backstory to character development, Writer’s Digest: https://www.writersdigest.com/no-backstory-bashing-allowed
I enjoyed working on all of these. In fact, it took me back to my roots, since I started out my writing career as a magazine freelancer. 
But the longer I was away from working on my novel, the more I felt uneasy—and maybe a little grumpy, as my poor husband can attest.
This week, I’m happy to report that I’m back at work on my new novel. My grumpiness meter reading has gone way down.
I’m not sure if this means I’m a fiction writing addict.
Possibly. But I’m comforting myself that of all the addictions I could have, this one isn’t so bad.