It may be that I am a little jaded, or still recovering from the hustle of last month – all the bother about selling the California property, that one-day-but exhausting blitz of having the HVAC replaced, the distraction of setting up my daughter’s website for her art-origami venture, worry over my business partner’s uncertain health, since practically all the business dealings in it now fall to me – but I received the print proof of The Quivera Trail by UPS Wednesday afternoon, and so far it looks totally splendid, Usually I am pretty excited over this – it’s one thing to have worked for months over a computer file, and printed proofs; having the printed and bound copy to see and handle … just as it will be in bookshops and for those who order it from Amazon or Barnes & Noble.  although the cover as printed looks rather darker than I expected. But I tell myself that it was supposed to be a gloomy, dark Victorian interior, almost a prison for the two main characters. The open door shows an empty countryside, in bright contrast, which is exactly the effect that I visualized for the story.

There’s the door, there is freedom outside, in the bright green and golden sunshine … if you are brave enough to go through the door.

My daughter is launching – or re-launching – her little origami art business; she’s lately become fascinated by the possibilities of folding paper and turning it into all kinds of ornamental objects d’art, some of them wearable as jewelry or hair clips. Originally she and an artist friend of hers from high school were going to form a partnership … but it did not work out, so Blondie is going solo, businesswise, with Paper Blossom Productions, although we have committed to a joint booth at the Boerne Market Days, November 9^th and 10^th. I’ll have all of my books, and Blondie will have all of her origami, plus some other oddities and endities. This event is just one of a handful for me, but the first for her. The next few months are chock-full of Christmas markets and craft fairs; this is when retail, amateur and professional alike score enough to coast for the rest of the year. We’re very fond of the town of Boerne, by the way; especially the Squirrel’s Nest on Main, which is a resale shop benefiting Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation, and a particular barbeque place cunningly disguised as a gas station at the corner of Main and River Road, the Riverside Meat Market which has the most scrumptious barbeque for miles around. No, seriously – their whole roast chickens are the food of the gods, and the brisket is to die for. And down a block or two from Main Street is a historic residence that my daughter loves so much that if it were a guy, she would be stalking him relentlessly. As it is, we try to drive past it at least once, while she looks yearningly at it.

So, there’s my schedule so far for November; Boerne Market Days, and then the New Braunfels Weihnachtsmarkt later in the month. See you there, maybe!