Trivia Question: Which of the 48 continental states has the most coastline?

Answer: Michigan! Because it has two long peninsulas set in the middle of the Great Lakes.

So “Third Coast Book Festival” is an appropriate name, it seems, as they held it on the left coast of Michigan last Saturday. One hundred authors, give or take, swarmed into the downtown of Grand Haven, and various businesses let us set up sales tables. I estimate about 150-200 book lovers walked about the town, coming in from the cold to talk to us and occasionally buy a few signed copies of our books.

I had a pretty good time, and I’d say the event was fairly well run considering it was their first time doing it. And they invited the authors to a “VIP charity ball” in the evening, where we got to connect with other authors and talk to some readers. I suspect they’ll have the bugs worked out by next year, and rumor has it there’ll be some bigtime authors invited. Mark it on your calendars: March 21, 2026. I’ll be there!

That said, I was absolutely exhausted when I got home, late Saturday night. It takes a lot out of autistic people to be that extroverted and social for that long. I don’t think I could have done it again the next day. I’m going to have to build up my tolerance and incorporate some self-care as I continue to do bigger and bigger festivals as my career develops.

I sold a bunch of copies of Blood Game, and for the first time ever, I also sold some copies of Crying Call, a.k.a. Book 2 of the Thomas Vale series. It can be ordered on my website now, but I’m not really hyping it yet. I just figured — if I’m going to go to the bother of lugging boxes of books across the state, I might as well bring both titles.

Yeah, yeah, I know, it’s confusing. The official release date for Crying Call will be my 53rd birthday, 2/3/26. And that’s when any preorders at Amazon, Barnes&Noble, et cetera will be delivered. If I can manage to get my books on shelves at B&N or other places, that’s the day they’ll appear. My plan is to release a new book every first Tuesday of February for as long as I can keep up.

But as the owner of the copyrights, I can sell my books any time I want. So despite the fact that I haven’t even done a Crying Call “official cover reveal” yet (mid-April, probably), I’ve sold several copies and sent a few more out in ARC packages. My hope is that by the time the official release day comes, I’ll have lots and lots of reviews online. So I’m beginning the process earlier this time, having learned from last time that three months early isn’t enough.

And that’s all for now. This week I get back to just writing, working on the first draft of Drawing Dead (Book 3). I’m looking forward to being interviewed by the hosts of “Poker In the Ears” next week, and I’ll post a link to the show when it drops.