National Book Month

 

Terry here:

Apparently October is National Book Month. Who knew? For me, every month is National Book Month.

I won't be celebrating with anything other than what I normally do: buy as many books as I can carry out of a bookstore every time I walk in. I wish I had gotten on the ebook bandwagon, and I do occasionally read books on my e-reader. But I much prefer a real, solid, in-my-hand book. I like to be able to flip back and remind myself of some part of the action or of a character I don't remember well. I like the feel of the book, and I like to see it lying on a table somewhere in my house. 

 It doesn't matter that I bought a carload of books in August at Bouchercon (I got to buy extra because I drove to the conference), I've been to bookstores since then and bought books. I've ordered them on-line. I've been sent books for an award I'm judging. 

 By my front door is a stack of books I've read that intend to send on to my sister. We were lucky to have a mother who belonged to a Book of the Month club when we were young. My folks did not have much discretionary income, but books were in that category of "discretionary spending." Mother told me that when she was a child, her daddy, who had a third-grade education, was passionate about reading. She remembered a time when the county library announced that it was culling its books and would be giving away books on the library steps. She said her daddy got the kids in the car and drove there to get as many boxes of books as they could. She passed on that legacy of passion for books to my sister and me. 

 It's fitting that in this National Book Month, the tenth book in my Samuel Craddock Series, Guilt Strikes at Granger's Store came out.

Who knew, ten years ago that I would have ten books published by now? I had a nice reading at a local bookstore, and they sold all the books they ordered, which pleased me. Oh, yeah, and I bought four books while I was there! 

 Two days later I gave a talk to a group of wide-eyed fledgling authors, telling them how I write a book from the beginning (hint: I'm not an outliner). 

 It's also fitting that in this month I just got the cover for my new thriller series, the Jessie Madison Series, that comes out next spring, entitled Perilous Waters.

Isn't it a fabulous cover! 

 And finally, it's fitting that I'm celebrating finishing up the major revisions for the next Craddock book. The next go-round will be an edit, and then it's off to my beta readers. 

 So...Happy National Book month. I hope everyone celebrates by reading...and writing.