So, last week. After all the anticipation and preparation, the book club visit got cancelled. Not because of me. The weather was far from co-operative!

Here in the Pacific NW, we don’t see snow often. Let me correct that a little. The east side of Washington and Oregon do. Us west coast residents are used to a drippy kind of precipitation over a white, fluffy kind.

Now, I grew up with snow. Not a big one to me. I know how to drive in it, and I know how to avoid those who don’t. But when the local area is getting so inundated that higher ups decide to send all non-essential personnel home, cancel visitors and volunteers, and hunker down for the night…there’s not much I can do.

So, I turned around and headed home. Managed to become intimately acquainted with a ditch in the process. I’m fine, van is fine, and a very nice gentleman who helped me get out may see himself as having a cameo in a future book. 

Maybe me being fine was the wrong thing to say. I was disappointed that the event was cancelled, even though we’re already trying to reschedule. This was the first time I’d been invited to come to a group and discuss one of my books. This was huge for me. And more than one or two angry tears fell on the long drive home.

The next day, I felt the aftermath of spending almost 10 hours driving my van non stop. Okay, it was mostly riding my brake as I waited for traffic to move, but you understand the concept. What should be, at most, a 6 hour round trip was almost double due to the traffic and accidents from those unfortunate people who don’t know how to drive in snow. As bad as I felt like my day had been, it wasn’t as bad as theirs. I saw the twisted metal, overturned vans, and camper trailers sitting in the back of a pick up truck. I was sore, and my brain was in a fog most of Friday, but I wasn’t in the hospital. And my car wasn’t dented.

There was some good news to come home to. I ran a five day free promo on Amazon for “Mark of the Successor”. When I got home, it was sitting at #8 for free books>science fiction and fantasy>fantasy>coming of age! Overall, the promotion went very well. 1447 copies were downloaded, the vast majority in the U.S. But there were downloads in eight other countries! I know I hit best seller lists for free books in three of those countries, and I’m thrilled. Now to see if reviews come in, or these readers are intrigued enough by my writing to buy other books.

BB