A while back, I saw a post somewhere asking why Amazon couldn’t have a clear way to direct people to products made in America. In light of all the AI ability. it would seem to be something they could do. If so, then other major retailers might soon follow. Although I try to buy made in America, there are times when I have to go through multiple pages to find the country of origin and I just don’t take the time to do so. I have gotten better about adding that as a word when I do an on-line search before going to Amazon – which of course is likely to have the item, but not made in America.

The other point is like with shopping small/local, made in America will probably be a little more expensive. Since we don’t have a tight budget, I don’t mind paying some extra. Once I identify a source – such as My Pillow – I can then wait for sales. Of course that also means I get multiple emails a week about all kinds of things I don’t need or am not ready to buy. Quality is the other issue in that items made in many countries – China being only one example – are generally not the best quality. Last month when I was shopping for some things special for the holidays, the fact is I was pressed for time and after a few stops to a) find what I wanted, and b) find it not made in China, I was forced to give up and once again buy non-American. We’ll have to see what the next year brings.

I’ve posted occasionally about my insomnia. General pattern is three hours sleep. Then I move to the front room on the very comfy love seat with my very comfy throw and tune the TV low. If I’m not back to sleep in fifteen minutes, it isn’t going to happen. Then it’s brew a mug of chamomile tea and come up to the computer. A couple of games of solitaire and I switch over to Twitter/X. The process takes about an hour and then usually I can get back to sleep for another three hours. I rarely get more than six.

The “bad mornings” are when it can take up to two hours to get back to sleep and this seems to be one of them. Not sure why; nothing unusual going on. Perhaps it’s the coming holidays of juggling commitments, kids visit, etc.,. Have multiple tasks to take care of in prep although everything is on track. My to-do list is lengthy as always and a mix of fun items and somewhat bothersome tasks. Again, nothing unusual about that. More likely it’s the annoyance that I don’t have the release date yet for my book and I had truly wanted it out by mid-November. The new publisher I’m trying has been pretty good to work with and if their alleged marketing package is good, that will make up for the annoyance. On the other hand, since I haven’t dealt with them before, this is very much a wait-and-see situation.

Ah well, I’ve almost finished the tea and will head back downstairs to see what happens.

Okay, as I mentioned in other posts, I am using a new publisher for Shades of Remorse. I had hoped to have it out next week and that will not happen. Possibly mid-Dec, but could be as late as right before Christmas. That and one other thing with them has been disappointing although the individuals I’ve dealt with have been pleasant. The primary reason I went with them is because of a marketing package that if done as they say is better than what I’ve had with previous publishers. We’ll see how it actually plays out.

A bit more about “Remorse” first. The regular recurring characters are part of the story and one I keep in a minor role has popped up again. I introduce two new characters who could become recurring, and of course created a number of characters specific to the book. This will be Bev Henderson’s first cold case when a forty-year old skeleton is pulled from the water. There is essentially no forensics evidence and more than one suspect once the victim is identified. The wife, who explained she thought he had simply deserted her, is logically a suspect and she is part of the subplot as well. The theme of “remorse” is played out in various ways as the wife lives in a small complex with three other older women, all of whom have events in their lives they regret. Added to the mix is the niece of the woman who owns the complex. She has come from New Orleans, fleeing a dangerous situation.

Regular crime doesn’t slow down and ironically, connections to the dead man emerge in those cases providing thin threads to follow. As I also mentioned, this book has taken me longer to shape and write because I use three Points of View instead of my usual two. Making the story flow properly was a challenge and I did slightly modify the ending from my original plan. I will keep you posted as we get closer to publication.

As happens in these situations, I had hoped to have a firm release date for Shades of Remorse by now. The cover is not in a format I can show yet and yes, when you see it late and say, “My, that’s kind of creepy!”, I agree. I think I mentioned this is a previous post. Anyway, when I received the interior proof from the publisher, I realized they had converted all the text into regular text instead of leaving certain passages in italics. I use those to designate different things. I thought it was odd to have happened and turns out, there was a glitch in their software and now I have to wait for the next version to come in. I did go ahead and correct the 44 errors I made. While that may seem like a lot, there are 264 pages. Most were small as usual – such as a “him” instead of a “his”. In one case, however, I did inadvertently change someone’s name partway through a chapter which accounted for 8 of the errors.

Okay, procedure-wise, after I receive the new proof, I turn it and then generally, it will be two weeks after when the book is released. In the meantime, I will share with you, my followers, the news that the book has been highlighted in USA Today as, “Mystery Author and Military Pioneer Charlie Hudson’s Journey to Storytelling and Uplifting Women”. Needless to say, I was surprised. When I was approached at trying to make this happen, I was highly doubtful. Here’s the link: https://bit.ly/3NRDwzs

The reason I told the firm to go ahead with publishing this before the book is released is to perhaps get people interested in checking out the earlier books in the series. As a reader, if I am interested in a book and realize it is later in a series, I try to go back to the first one and certainly at least the second.

We don’t decorate  much for Halloween usually, but this year has been basically nothing. Things have been incredibly jammed with extra tasks and I haven’t even stopped to get bags of candy. I was going to yesterday, but I’d already spent more time out than intended with managing another previously unplanned errand. Now, in all fairness, had I gone directly to this one place between my errand and a luncheon, I might have had the required time. Anyway, Hubby is supposed to do grocery shopping today and although he doesn’t usually buy the Halloween candy, he might this time. For the past two years we haven’t had as many trick-or-treaters come by, but of course I figure if we cut back, this will be the year they resume. It is one of those conundrums. The standing joke about leftover Halloween candy is all fine and good, except everyone tends to have it and so if you do manage to eat it over the weeks after, there is often little time before you are now into the holidays and as soon as you get through that, it’s Girl Scout cookie time again. We do have all these odd little situations that crop up, don’t we? That is the collective we because I know we are not the only ones.

Moving on to other things – this weekend, once again, we have a lengthy commitment Saturday evening night and so naturally, Saturday afternoon is when I am now going to have to be at the museum due to another unexpected change. I keep thinking I will get a little bit of a break and perhaps it will happen. Actually, I think we are not going anywhere for Thanksgiving and while that doesn’t mean we won’t be hosting something, it does mean we won’t be traveling.