Yeouch!
As you may have noticed last month, Dear Reader, I was all set to go to Oklahoma and speak at the libraries in Woodward and Watonga when mere days before the flight, my beloved but clumsy husband took a dive into the kitchen wall and broke his right arm. Fortunately, I had arranged my Oklahoma gigs as two author events along with the delightful Mary Anna Evans, so Woodward and Watonga had a nice show, just without me. Which I’m sure hurt me more than it hurt them.
Don is doing okay, all things considered. We spent this morning (August 10) at the orthopedist’s, followed by a session at a medical device place where he got his original full-arm splint replaced by an upper arm “clam shell” brace. He still has to wear the sling, but at least his lower arm is out of the splint and wrappings.
We’re home now, and I’m writing this at my kitchen table while a plumber replaces my garbage disposal, which died a quiet death a couple of days ago. Then he’s going to replace the innards of one of the toilets, which sounds like Moaning Myrtle has taken up residence. So lots of upgrading today.
In the meantime, I’m trying to get the first pass on my new books taken care of. As I’m sure I mentioned, Dear Reader, the eleventh book is going to be a spin off of the Alafair Tucker Mysteries, featuring one of the children, who has taken off for a life of adventure. If what I have done meets with my editor’s approval, this may be the beginning of a whole new series that takes place in California in the 1920s. More news as things progress.
Yesterday I spent a few minutes on FaceTime talking to the lovely ladies of a book club in Ada Oklahoma, who had just finished reading the first Alafair Tucker Mystery, The Old Buzzard Had It Coming, which is being featured by the American Library Association’s Book Club Central as the Oklahoma entry for Mystery Across America. I am very honored that Buzzard is representing my home state as the ALA’s Book Club Read. If you are not from Oklahoma and would like to see what ALA recommends as a Book Club read for your state, check it out here. (That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t read Buzzard anyway, Dear Reader)
So…I have been asked by the Oklahoma Center for the Book to be a speaker at the Oklahoma Book Festival in Oklahoma City on October 20, and by gum I am going to go. And I am going to try to reschedule talks at Woodward and Watonga, and maybe another place or two while I’m back in the motherland. I’ll keep you posted. Now if Don can just manage not to get himself into another mess in the interim…
p.s. The Arizona weather report for August thus far includes several giant dust storms and enough rain and lightening to float the ark. At least the temperature has fallen below 110ºF. But fall is just around the corner, if we can just make it through.
More Places to Go
Donis on Facebook
Type M for Murder