While Whisper Lake (formerly titled The Subtlety of Light and Shadow, but revamped as the first book in the lake series which includes Bolt's Landing and Camden Lake) and the new book in the lake series, Dalton Cove were published on time and available May was not a good month for me. On May 1st I landed in the ER after 5 days of increasing stomach cramps and abdominal pain and loss of appetite and general malaise. I had emergency surgery for a small bowel obstruction on the morning of May 2nd. I was released on the 4th and my husband was taking care of me as I had post surgery restrictions (no lifting, running up and down stairs, etc). On Sunday May 9th John, my husband, passed away unexpectedly while working in the garage. Thanks to daughter Kelly who moved home for an entire week to help out, and family and friends who came and helped with everything from funeral arrangements to cooking and cleaning, I made it through that second week post surgery fairly well. The third week everyone went home, but Kelly and her friend Galen have been coming to do heavy lifting for me for the past two weeks, and mowing the lawn, etc. I'm finally to the point where I need to go back to work although it's only been 4 weeks since my surgery. I need to be around other people and get back to doing my job in the office where I work.
On May 23rd Kelly and I did participate in the WhipCity Wordsmiths Authors on the Green Book Show in Westfield, MA. This was our event and had been in the works since January of 2021. The city permit was in place, all the authors were lined up and had ordered books by the time I landed in the ER and then lost my husband, so I felt we needed to move forward with the show. Luckily we had help hauling heavy items and the day was sunny and hot, but with cooling breezes and winds. The rain help off until after the show was over! All the authors who had signed up (23 total) attended and we all sold books and met new readers and our following fans. It was a nice day and a wonderful chance to be with fellow authors and friends, so I'm glad we didn't have to cancel the show which would have been a huge disappointment for everyone.
I've reread a partial manuscript that was near completion, but have mostly spent my surgery recovery time reading books from my stacks of to-be-read books. Revere and Riley are my constant companions. I've also worked on a short horror story called The Lilac Bear I started writing while vacationing on Cape Cod with John in mid-April, a trip I'm now really glad we got to take considering all that happened within the following month. I also had an idea for the longer story that will complete the nearly finished volume of ghost and supernatural stories A Haunting We Will Go that I hope to have ready for publication in October of this year. This would be the third ghost stories anthology with The Hanging Man and other stories and Only Boo, and nothing more.
