My book signing at The Bookstore Plus in Lake Placid has come and gone. Overall, I would have to say it went well. Unfortunately it rained steadily most of the day and instead of being out on the sidewalk under an awning in front of the store, we were moved inside. I think it cut down on the amount of traffic, but at least it was dry. There was a steady flow of people approaching the table to talk, peruse, and purchase the books. Speaking of which, my most recent novel Break with the Past, the sequel to my first book Beneath the Surface, did NOT arrive in time for the event. It showed up on Tuesday, a couple days too late. Let this be a lesson to all you procrastinators out there. Give yourself a lot of cushion when it comes to dealing with the timelines of others. Just because an event on a certain date is important to you doesn’t mean it’s important to everyone else. Lesson learned the hard way. That said, the book is now available at Amazon if you would like to order it. If you do, I would love it if you would leave a review at Amazon and Goodreads. Thanks.

I have mentioned in the past that I have a book relatively finished (if there is such a thing as that). It’s different from my other writing in that the protagonist is a 15 year-old girl and much of the book is written from her point of view. I think I’m fine with her voice and her spin on the events taking place around her, but I have an issue with the events themselves. More specifically, the order of these events. When looking at various author podcasts it’s often stated one of the benefits of employing a professional developmental editor is that he or she will look at the story and suggest changes to make it flow better. For example, when introducing a character in chapter one, instead of unloading a bunch of info about the character, their looks, beliefs, past, family, etc., slide some of that into the book later. This avoids the dreaded “information dump” that can occur, especially early in the book. Why not begin with a strong “inciting incident” and work in the other stuff gradually? This is not rocket science and I think most writers are aware of this and do their best to practice it. So why am I bringing it up? My 15 year-old character has a pretty hefty ego. And this being written in the first person point of view ( I said this, I saw that, I like him/her, I, I, I), she wants to tell the reader about herself. I’m having trouble putting a muzzle on Kris (that’s her name, for now, anyway), and letting events around her dictate what she says and does. And this is frustrating as hell. It should not be that hard, but I’m struggling. There are about 27 pages in personal and family information that REALLY needs to be broken up and redistributed throughout the book. The first part of the book, anyway. THIS is why authors shell out $$$ for professional editor. However, since I’m unwilling to do that for now, I’ve got to harness my own meager resources and figure this out.

Last thing. As I’ve stated before, I am relatively recently retired. I stepped back from teaching in June of 2022. Though it could be frustrating at times, I will be forever grateful I joined the profession. One of the huge perks of the job was, of course, the vacation time in the summer. I never truly took a summer off; there was always prep work that needed to be done, courses to be taken, or meetings to attend, it was definitely a more relaxed pace than the regular year. I remember when August would roll around and I would lament that half the summer was gone and back-to-school was right around the corner. Yes, I KNOW most people would kill to have an entire month in the summer away from work, but that’s how I felt. It’s half over and I would ask myself if I had accomplished what I wanted to. It was always a pretty resounding NO. And even though I know I won’t be waking up at 5:45 anymore to head to school in September, I still feel a sense of time getting away from me. I feel I better get moving before…what? I don’t know. I hope like hell I’m not subconsciously worried about death sneaking up on me before I’m ready to call it a day. Although if I’m writing it and expressing the concern it can’t really be SUBconscious can it? It’s there right out in the open. Still, I hope it’s not that. I’m not ready for the bone heap yet. No, I think it’s 24 years of taking note when the first few leaves of trees in the area begin to turn. That’s the signal. Time to get my head back in the game. The big yellow buses will be rolling again soon. Except now it doesn’t matter, other than the fact that my favorite season of autumn is almost upon us. It’s still weird, though. I was told by an older retiree that it takes a couple years to become accustomed to the new routine. Or lack of routine. Either way, I’ll do my best to embrace it. I mean, I’ve got to, right? The summer’s half over. I’m seeing signs of red in the trees.