Better Late Than Never

As my literary hero Pat Conroy used to say,  Hey Out There.

I hope your summer is going well. I’ve been AWOL from the blog for the past couple of months because there are big things afoot here. First, my new novel, Mrs Lee and Mrs Gray released in mid June to very good reviews, and I’ve been  busy writing several articles about various aspects of the story and giving interviews. I love to talk about historical fiction but the interviews take time and my blog posts kept getting moved further down the list.

Secondly here at the Money Pit, we’ve have several big projects going on and there has been a constant parade of plumbers, tile setters, landscapers, and painters coming and going for weeks now. I keep telling myself the inconvenience and expense will be worth it.

Last week our golden retriever Jake fell ill, just a few weeks after his 9th birthday and off to the vet we went. A flurry of blood tests, organ function tests, and several sets of x rays failed to pinpoint the problem. He was very dehydrated from constant nausea and they kept him overnight to give him fluids. He came home and got sick again so back we went for a sonogram. We still don’t have a definitive diagnosis but so far he’s doing well on a new medication and a low fat diet.

Books read: Too few! But I enjoyed a couple of light beach reads including Shelley Noble’s Forever Beach, and Mary McNear’s The Space Between Sisters and Dorothea Benton Frank’s lighthearted romp, All Summer Long. It wouldn’t be summer without a new DBF novel, all of which are set in my beloved Charleston and her sea islands. I’m reading David McCullough’s Greater Journey about Americans in Paris during the 19th century. He’s my favorite historian. He says he writes for the ear as well as the eye and really so many of his sentences just sing. Reading his work is such a pleasure.

At the end of July we went to East Texas to spend a long weekend with Mom as she celebrated her 85th birthday. She’s having a hard recovery after a fall last September that fractured her hip. She’s our family’s treasure.

Happy August everyone.