For a host of reasons, I just haven’t been on the stick as well I have in the past. It’s easy to say that it’s Pandemic Brain Fog, but I just don’t know. I do know that I feel as if everyone has checked out this summer—even the people who are supposedly charged with important tasks related to my life and career. A a result, I find myself feeling two inches from INSANE every day.

To keep it together, I’m mostly focusing on trying to hit the deadlines and commitments I’ve made. One of those is the every-three-weeks blog post up at SleuthSayers, the mystery blog. I’ve been good about posting there, but bad about posting the results here.

So here’s a little catch-up to let you know what I’ve been writing there since early spring.

For Mother’s Day, I broke the code of omertà and shared memories of my late Mom.

I cast a gimlet eye at the traditional publishing world’s take on pandemic book sales.

I shared a story about my personal Proustian moment during the pandemic.

I read and recommended a number of middle grade book series to get kids hooked on Sherlock Holmes.

I invited author Terry Roberts to tell us a little about the hard-boiled detective at the center of his new book, My Mistress’ Eyes Are Raven Black.

That’s all, folks! I’ll be up at SleuthSayers again this Friday, but these should catch you up until then.

If you like my work, kindly consider bookmarking SleuthSayers.org.

If you’re looking for reading material during these crazy times, I hope you’ll consider one of my books or my wife’s. If ever there was a time for escapism, it’s now!

Check out Denise’s latest book here: We Gather Together.

The e-book versions of both of my two most recent books, Murder on Book Row and the fantasy novel, Sorceress Kringle, are available at almost every online retailer. You can order print copies at the usual suspects online, or autographed copies from Malaprop’s, the bookstore in my nabe. They’re up and running, and shipping books all over the USA.

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Bookstore image above by @Paulinel via Unsplash.