This year has definitely been an up-ender. Pandemics, work changes, illnesses, remote operations: these past few months have been nothing if not interesting.

I have been reading, though not as much as I would like to. Some of the more notable ones:

• Bleachers by John Grisham
• Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear
• Peace Talks by Jim Butcher
• Actually, the Comma Goes Here: A Practical Guide to Punctuation by Lucy Cripps
• On Writing by Stephen King

As for the book, An Unusual Haunting, I have everything I need but have yet to run it through the meatgrinder at Smashwords. It’s not a case of fear (I’ve published through the system before, though it’s been a while), yet I am reluctant. This might be a case of perfectionism vs. practicality. Will anyone read the story? The odds are against it, but I want it to be nice for those who do. Are there mistakes in it? Sure. All books have mistakes. I catch them all the time in published novels; I just can’t seem to catch them as easily in mine.

Maybe it’s just hard to set a story free that I’ve held onto closely for several years now. That said, perfect or not, it’s time to let the book go. Expect to see An Unusual Haunting published this month.

Until next time, crickets, take care and be well.