Of course I'm referring to my hours writing about Kari and Lucas and their international adventures.  Over the past several months I've been spending enormous amounts of time in Scotland, the site of the next Kari and Lucas mystery, Rescuing Seneca Crane.

This book deals with the kidnapping of a young concert pianist and all that Kari and Lucas go through to rescue her.  The Scottish locations include Edinburgh and the Isle of Skye.  Wonderful places! 

I attended the Edinburgh Festival, where the book begins, in 2006.  That trip included scouting for locations in other parts of the country, including Glasgow, Inverness and the Isle of Skye.

On the magnificently scenic bus ride back through the Highlands from Skye to Glasgow, I discovered the hook that decided me on the Isle of Skye setting.  Our characters do pass through Inverness, but not long enough to appreciate the scenery – drat! because it's such a lovely place.  And they never make it to Glasgow, a city I would go back to in an instant because of its residents, the friendliest people I have encountered in my travels anywhere.

But back at home, actually filling in the story details, I came up with questions that needed to be answered about both cities. So last spring I was (cough!)  forced (cough!) to go back to Edinburgh for a few days, and to Skye for a slightly longer period, to check locations.  The trip also included a quick visit to Amsterdam to nail down details on three specific locations for The Mystery of the Third Lucretia, notably the Rijksmuseum.  In the period since I had finished the first draft of the book, someone -- without checking with me first! -- had decided to completely renovate the museum in ways that threw off descriptive passages in a number of chapters.

The resulting trip was possibly the most difficult I have ever undertaken -- far too much travel in far too short a time -- but the residue is marvelous.  My mind is full of brilliant pictures.  In Amsterdam I see canals beside which Kari and Lucas walked, the stops where they waited for the tram -- I even know what the signage at these tram stops looks like -- the legendary American Hotel, where Gillian and her friend Bill enjoyed a leisurely dinner while Kari and Lucas were up to no good. 

In Scotland I see the shoe department at Jenners department store in Edinburgh where I set a scene that ultimately did not fit in the book, and a path that snakes through the idyllic park that lies in Edinburgh's center -- site of another failed scene -- with its incomparable views of the cityscape that makes Edinburgh one of the most beautiful metropolitan areas in all of Europe.

In the past few days I have been spending a lot of time on Skye with three men in a fishing boat, based on a real experience on the stormy waters of Portree harbor looking for sea eagles.  And earlier this year I enjoyed many weeks in and around a medieval castle modeled on the grim and forbidding but utterly unforgettable Eilan Donan castle that stand on the mainland not far from the bridge to Skye.

There are many authors, thousands and thousands of them, who spend all of their time writing -- and, presumably, thinking -- about serial killers, dysfunctional families, grief and loss, jealousy, paranoia, revenge, and life on the mean streets.  I, on the other hand, spend my time writing and thinking about castles and museums and classical music concerts, and the shoe department at Jenners department store.  I'd rather have my job than theirs.