July

July does not pause.

I knew that going in. I said yes to all of it with open eyes; the events, the appearances, the outreach, the table setups and teardowns, and miles between here and Western New York. I said yes because this is what building something looks like in the middle of it. Not from a distance. Up close, with all the texture, logistics, and joy that comes with it.

And it has been joyful. Genuinely.

This past weekend I was at Folk and Flora Fest in Medina, an outdoor market presented by @blackcatmedina around the Town Square, one of those events where the energy is exactly right and the people who find their way to your table feel like they were always going to. I sold out of my planned inventory and had to pull from reserve. That has never happened before. I’m still a little stunned by it.

Two audiobooks have found their first listeners. Someone new started The Enigma on Kindle Unlimited. Seven hundred people are following this journey on Instagram. Three more events are coming August that I can’t quite announce yet but am quietly thrilled about.

The hometown tour starts today.

By the time most of you read this, I will be hours away from standing in the Lockport Public Library, the building where I first fell in love with books, and talking about what happened between then and now. I have been practicing the talk. I have been thinking about the people who will be in that room, and what it means to come back as someone who did the thing.

It means everything. I’ll leave it at that for now.

The book that’s waiting

Somewhere underneath all of July, Book 3 is waiting.

Not impatiently. It doesn’t work that way…the story has always moved at its own pace and trusted me to find my way back to it. But I can feel it. The pull of it. The characters who have been sitting quietly while I set up tables, pack cars, and check inventory counts.

I miss them.

That’s the part of this season nobody tells you about. The momentum is real, the events are meaningful, and the sales and followers and milestones matter. But the writing is the thing. It is always the thing. And July, in all its fullness, has asked me to set it down for a while.

August will be quieter. Not quiet…there are events coming, announcements pending, things still in motion. But there will be space in it. Space to sit back down with the story that is already pulling at me from the other side of this month.

I’m counting the days.

For now

The Enigma copies I need for the hometown tour may or may not reach me in time. That is the most author thing I have ever typed and I’m choosing to find it funny rather than stressful.

Whatever arrives will be enough. Whatever shows up in that library, at that bookstore, in that metaphysical shop, it will be exactly what it needs to be.

It always is.