June 2026 Newsletter
It’s been a busy eight months, which is why this is the first post of 2026. The first two months were occupied by my part-time job: end-of-year accounting and W2s/1099s for the law firm where I used to work full-time. Then getting ready the release of my twelfth novel, A Winter’s Disgrace, on May 6 and for a multi-author book signing event in Santa Fé on the 30th.
I was one of about 40 authors available to sign (and sell) books: basically, an author petting zoo. The first picture is of me, holding up a little pink organza bag containing Hershey’s Kisses, the swag I was giving out. Chocolate swag beats bookmarks every time. But it took many, many hours to fill those little bags with three Kisses and my card.
This is my (half) table at the event. Some authors do really creative table decoration. I had no idea what to do, having never done a signing before*. A quill pen, inkwell, and letters folded and sealed 18th century style seemed like a good idea. *Except for one event outside a bookstore here in Albuquerque on a blazing summer day with three others. Only one shopper went into the bookstore the entire several hours.
Someone once asked where I get the ideas for my novels. Usually the answer is either “I don’t know” or “I just wondered if army surplus was a thing in 1745”. My third novel, Captain Easterday’s Bargain, is the exception. I’d done some research on shipping in the Pool of London for a previous novel, which made me think about my own family’s connection to the shipping industry. My paternal grandfather worked for Railway Express throughout the Great Depression, until his retirement in the 1960s. My father worked for the Alaska Railroad from the end of World War II until he retired in the 1970s. I worked for two years as a security officer on Seattle’s waterfront early in this century. Nowadays freight goes by truck, rail, air, and shipping containers on steel-hulled vessels rather than wagons and sailing ships, and is tracked by computer but some things haven’t changed. Among them are bills of lading and epic screw-ups. After an exceptionally difficult day at the dock where I was posted, one of the managers said, “It just never ——- stops, does it?” To which the only possible answer was “No, it never does.”
P.S. I need to update the list of my novels but I can’t face that project today. Next newsletter for sure. By then, I’ll be farther along with my thirteenth, A Ruined Rake.
Find my books and other books you may enjoy on https://cleanromancebooks.com/ and https://bookdna.com