Don’t talk to me of solemn days
In autumn’s time of splendor,
Because the sun shows fewer rays,
And these grow slant and slender.
Why, it’s the climax of the year,—
The highest time of living!—
Till naturally its bursting cheer
Just melts into thanksgiving.

• Paul Laurence Dunbar

That’s for those of us who love autumn best of all the seasons.  I’ve seen several maple trees starting to show bright orange.  It’s the start of fall.

I have agreed to sit in a booth in Excelsior on September 19 from 9 am to 11 am in honor of Apple Days, an annual celebration. The booth will be run by Excelsior Bay Books, one of my favorite bookstores. Apple Days is fun, lots of food, antiques, art, exhibits, etc. all up and down the main street. If you’re in the area, come on over!

It looks as if Knit Your Own Murder’s new pub date will be in August 2016. That’s a long way from April or May, but my editor says she wants the book to stand out among needlework mystery novels (of which there are more and more) and somehow August is a good pub date for that. So now I have some breathing space to do a better job on the rewrite.

I actually think what happened to my computer worked out for the best. The parts I’m re-writing are perhaps better than those lost, and I’ve got a hotter subplot going now. And a subtler clue I’m working in. I no longer hate word processors, it makes it easier to go back and insert things or make just little changes to sentences without having to retype whole pages, like in the bad old days of typewriters.

Still, cross your fingers that this will actually be a better book.