A. Montgomery, J. Sheratt, G. Carline and Yours Truly

Have you heard the simile, “busier than a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs”? That’s one of my favorites, and a good descriptor of my last week. Started off last weekend with my attendance—or should I be saying “appearance”—at the Duarte Festival of Authors. What a fun day! Not only did I make some new friends, I got to catch up with writer pals Jeff Sherratt, Gayle Carline and Alyssa Montgomery, all Echelon Press pubbed authors. Also ran into Patty Kokinos, author of ANGEL PARK. Patty is just a delightful person, a smart, savvy cookie who’s also warm-hearted and compassionate. She’s now touting the second release of her fictionalized account of what’s wrong with our schools. Take a moment to check out her website.

As luck would have it, Gayle, Jeff and I were all on the same mystery panel. An enjoyable, educational experience. A highlight of the day was meeting the most affable Ray Bradbury. Alyssa had him autograph a new, hardbound copy of THE ILLUSTRATED MAN, and both Jeff and Gayle gave him copies of their books.

Sunday found me at WeHo- West Hollywood Book Fair. Weather was sparkle-bright, people were nice, as always. In the Sisters in Crime/L.A. booth I rubbed elbows with buddies Diana and Darrell James and several other top-notch mystery authors. Got to meet Eric Stone, author and my editor on “Just Like Jay”, slated for publication next summer in the SinC/LA anthology, “Murder in La La Land.” Eric was gracious and complimentary, and he made a fan of me.

On Monday I attended the local “State of the City” meeting and got to listen to our city council members tell all about everything they’ve done/are doing for our fair berg. Salmon lunch was tasty, conversation was good. Touched base with several people I haven’t seen in awhile. Tuesday I got my flu shot, yee-haa, and Friday I attended the press conference for friend David Gauny, (do you like his website?) who’s throwing in his hat on the city council race for 2010. Loads of fun. Capped off the week with Taste of Expo Friday night, sampling the wares of twenty local restaurants. Well, I only sampled three of the twenty.

Took it easy all weekend, naturally! My daughter-in-law returned home from Singapore today, I’m so happy to report. (My son came back 3 weeks ago.) We are all present and accounted for. Our weather has been cool the past few days, a huge relief to many. I know I will miss the warm weather, I always do. I can’t wait for late April and our lively California sun. It’s just me, I know.

A girlfriend stopped by today and gave me a miniature Heceta Head lighthouse! She went there on vacation with her family and, having read POINT SURRENDER, she thought to bring me back a gift as this is the lighthouse on the cover. It’s so cool.

Getting lengthy so I’d best shut up now. This week should be calmer, but I know I will be back into the weird book I’m writing so it will likely fill in any free time I’d otherwise have. Oh well. It’s what I do.

Moesha.

Suffering. I made some kind of mistake, not knowing (well, if we knew when we were making mistakes, we wouldn’t make them, duh!) and now I am trying to fix it. It’s not an easy thing to fix, either. My day was going pretty well, too. The thing is, I’m the kind of person that doesn’t take mistakes that easily. I know people who basically just shrug it off when they goof. Life’s too short for regrets, right? Yeah, but.

Moesha is not my mistake, but she is kind of a mistake, hence her photo here.

We’ve had great weather the past two days. Excellent weather. We are neither sweltering, nor under water. Breezy, 72 degrees, the kind of weather the rest of the nation thinks we have all the time. We don’t. In a matter of days, it will be either HOT again, or the pre-Halloween cold snap will settle in. But I’m okay with it, I really don’t want to live anywhere else. Not permanently. I think I’d enjoy London for a few months. Kahana, too, would work. (That’s in Maui, FYI.)

I’m probably 2/3 or 3/4 through my oddball book. This book will need serious editing. I may consider self-pubbing this one, as an experiment, since the story itself is experimental. My cross-cultured characters are struggling, and I am trying to help them find peace. We shall see.

I caught up with George this week. BOY GEORGE to most of you, George O’Dowd to some and just plain George to me. Although he doesn’t yet know it, we have become good friends as he unwittingly helps me to write my story. Although there have been periods where he has tried to shed the “BOY” part of his moniker, it does have a bit of franchise with it and likely serves him well even now. Unfortunately, his good name has been hi-jacked, used as a somewhat derogatory nickname for conservative British Parliament member George Osborne. (While I’m sure you laugh it off, dear George, I’ll bet you hate it, wish you’d trademarked it way-back-when.) Anyway, George is looking good, sounding good, and I’m happy to see he is busy and productive.

Saturday I’m heading out to the Duarte Library Festival of Authors. Fellow Echelon authors Gayle Carline, Jeff Sherratt and I will be participating in a mystery panel as well as hawking our books to hungry readers. On Sunday, I’ll be signing with Sisters in Crime/LA at WEHO – West Hollywood Book Fair. Should be a fun weekend!

Los Angeles Times reports that ebook readers are expected to be a hot item for holiday sales this year. Great news for all authors, I think. Since CAPE SEDUCTION comes out in November, I’d say that’s very good timing.

Okay, back to obsessing about my mistake. Back soon.