I admit it. Most of the time the key to my cheerful attitude and optimism with regard to my writing is partly due to a certain… well I hate to use the word delusional… part of my nature.  But yeah. Let’s use the ‘D’ word.  I’m a fairly ordinary person. My kids throw up on me. I huff and puff walking up hills. I’d rather have traveled than travel in general, but once I get on the road, I find that I’m reluctant to return, I always want to see what’s around the next bend. I want to help others when they’re sick or unhappy, but frankly don’t have a lot of skills for that sort of thing.  

What I do have, and it counts, is a certain willingness to try stuff.  I like to help out, and that makes a difference.  I carry a certifiable ability to make people laugh even when they’re in pain, which can help sometimes when nothing else does.  

Right now I’m in Oregon visiting my mother–who is quite sick–and I’m able to make her laugh and deflect family tension. I can do what needs to be done while doctors do what they need to do and caregivers…give care.  All of this explains why I have spent the morning in the Les Schwab Tire Center waiting for them to fix her car. They have free WiFi and I can pick up emails on my laptop.  

The delusional part is that I can sit here, in a small town tire dealership and still see myself as an internationally known author.  *Snort*. I can do that sort of self important shuffling of papers and flip through my book covers. I can pull up a websites where it shows me the places you can buy my books in Dubai and India and Australia.  I can see that people pirate my work in places where they can get in real trouble for reading it.  If there is only one person on another continent who reads me, that’s one more than I would have reached without writing anything.  And that’s cool. Maybe it’s not even as delusional as I like to think it is.  

Okay, so I’ve set up the scene. I’m sitting in the tire center. I’m drinking my diet Mountain Dew. There’s nothing but men, (and a hell of a lot of flannel) as far as the eye can see.  (There’s a man who works here who is so hot and has an amazing array of tattoos who probably will find his description in one of my books someday should he read them.)  And I pull up my mail and someone has sent me the kindest letter about how much they like the book Crossing Borders.  How he’s forwarded the letter to Loose Id as well, and let them know he thinks they’re lucky to have me in their stable.  (!!)

How KIND!  Thanks for all the support, folks, I seriously couldn’t do it without you!