Things Are Opening Up

I’m looking forward to doing in-person author events again in the fall. I will be on a panel with Tim Hallinan, Paige Shelton and Allison Brennan at the Anaheim Library’s Mystery Authors Luncheon on Sunday, October 24, 2021, The last in-person event I participated in was The Left Coast Crime Conference in San Diego in March, 2020, which was cut short after one day.  After doing Zoom events, it will be a pleasure to see readers face-to-face again.

The Beauty of School Reopening

Our grandson has attended in-person kindergarten for a little over two weeks now. The school is in Lakewood, CA, and part of the Long Beach Unified School District. I have nothing but praise for how the school district and school administration prepared for the reopening. I attended three weekly Zoom calls with the Principal to hear about the safety plans and to have questions answered. The week before reopening, they had all the students come over for a COVID test. Each morning the parents submit answers to a questionnaire on the student’s health and the student’s temperature is taken before entering the building. They maintain social distancing in the classroom, wear masks and sanitize the room regularly. At snack break the kids sit is separate hula hoops on the playground. But the most impressive thing is what I see when I pick my grandson up after school. The parents and grandparents are all waiting outside. Everyone is wearing a mask. It’s wonderful to see the full support of the families to do what is best for the health of their kids and their families.

New audiobook

I enjoy audiobooks. Up until the pandemic when I stopped driving very much, I always listened to an audiobook when I was driving by myself.

I'm pleased to announce that Books in Motion has released an audiobook edition of my international thriller, The Tesla Legacy, which is also available in print and e-book editions:

Audio download https://bit.ly/3rZtlvD         

Audio CD https://bit.ly/3dP9LNp      

Print https://amzn.to/3mz4rlf  

e-book https://amzn.to/3d45whL

Picture a retired mathematics professor and conspiracy nut with a butt-kicking, surrogate-daughter sidekick. Elmore Kranz bombards the police with his predictions of disaster until one of them actually happens, to the point that he’s implicated in the plot. Even with the assistance of his one ally, rookie cop Brittney Chase, people start dying around Elmore as attempts are made on his life. Following up on inventions from eccentric genius, Nikola Tesla, Elmore and Brittney team up to solve a hundred year old puzzle while trying to thwart a secret government agency and an Afghani terrorist group who seek to get their hands on a doomsday weapon.

The Tesla Legacy is a thriller following six books in the Paul Jacobson geezer-lit mystery series, including Retirement Homes Are Murder; Living With Your Kids Is Murder, a finalist for the 2009 Lefty Award for best humorous mystery; Senior Moments Are Murder; Cruising in Your Eighties Is Murder, a finalist for the 2012 Lefty Award for best humorous mystery of 2012; Care Homes Are Murder; and Nursing Homes Are Murder. Other published mystery novels include Court Trouble, Paradise Court, The V V Agency, The Back Wing, The Front Wing, Mystery of the Dinner Playhouse, Murder on the Switzerland Trail, Unstuff Your Stuff, Death of a Scam Artist, in addition to a non-fiction book, The Best Chicken Thief in All of Europe, and an inspiring story of a boy titled Coronavirus Daze.

Editing a Manuscript

How much editing should an author do on a manuscript? I tend to write a first draft quickly but then go through numerous editing passes. This includes checking the consistency of the content, grammar and punctuation, consistency of the character descriptions. In spite of all the passes, once I let someone else read it, they always find things I missed. This raises the question of what is enough editing?

I’m reminded of a similar question when I was in the computer industry. We often said that some engineers would never be ready for a product to be released because they could always find ways to improve what they were designing. Similarly, I can always find more areas for improvement when I do an additional editing pass, but I could do this forever and never get it published. If I discover a major flaw or error I need to fix it. Put there comes a time when the minor tuning needs to give way to getting it into the publisher’s hands. That will lead to additional changes because my editor will find things I missed.

Vaccine Liberation

My wife and I have now reached our vaccine liberation date of over two weeks since our second COVID vaccination. This is psychologically liberating although we continue to follow all the guidelines of wearing masks in public, avoiding large crowds and maintaining social distancing. We don’t have any desire to go out to restaurants yet. I’ve returned to doing food shopping in person rather than ordering online delivery. We will get together with family members as appropriate. Caution but moving forward.