Back to the Blog . . . for now

I've barely been around the past weeks. It's been busy.

A New Kind of Bliss was released a few weeks ago, which meant book signings to attend. I only did three of them this year, but in three different cities. Down in Matteson, Illinois, I got to spend time chewing the fat with my pal Donna Deloney both during and after the signing, when we had an early dinner together. Downtown Chicago is always fun. This was my fourth signing at the Waldenbooks Citicorp Center, and they have the same staff now that they had in 2006, which I think is pretty neat. Since it's a lunchtime signing, I bring them pizza from Sbarro.

This past weekend I was up at the Cultural Connection in Milwaukee for my first-ever signing there. I got to see Regina and the other ladies from the book club, whom I first met at the Slam Jam in Chicago last year, and got to chew the fat with store owner Linda Jackson and Radiah Hubbert of Urban-Reviews.com. Radiah is organizing the first of what will be an annual Midwest Book Fest to be held in Milwaukee on July 25th. It was a lot of fun, even with the miserable cold I've had since Thursday. Rubbing sanitizer into my hands with every cough wasn't bad, but try doing a reading with a cold!

All things considered, I've gotten quite a few things accomplished these past two weeks. Aside from the signings and the guest blogs and other promotional stuff, I got Bernard off to Florida for a weekend funeral (leisure travel, unlike business, means I'm the one who has to reserve his car and hotel (he did his own plane reservations), make sure he has sufficient clothing for a funeral and for casual activities, remembering important accessories like dress shoes and a tie), went over the entire house to prepare for an 11-month construction inspection (before the warranty expires and we're responsible for all repairs), got my mother's room ready (she'll be here Saturday for a 3-week visit), worked diligently on my Dafina release for next year, and completed the manuscript for my independent project.

My independent project now has a name . . . Save The Best For Last. It is a romance to be published this summer as a POD (print on demand) book. In case you're wondering why I'm putting out a book myself when I'm already under contract with a major publisher . . . you'll have to stay tuned. I'll be addressing that in a future column.

Anyway, I wanted to surface long enough to tell you I'm still kicking . . . and, coughing. Now, if I can just get the time to clean out the garage . . . .

Have any of y'all completed anything you're particularly proud of lately?