SMH

 "I can’t understand why a person will take a year to write a novel when he can easily buy one for a few dollars."

Fred Allen

In the middle of yet another doctor's visit, it came up (I swear not my intention); how was I enjoying retirement? In a room with three young women - an MD, a physician's assistant and the...help me out, here. She is the chart slinger, the one who asks how life has been treating you since the last visit. Technician?

How else would I answer? I love being retired. Love it. It's eighty degrees, not a cloud in the sky. I'm sitting in my summer writing office - my back porch - with my beloved Havanese at my feet and thinking I might do some day drinking. I've gotten in a bike ride, twice visited the kids down the street at their lemonade stand (get the chocolate chip cookies).

How do I keep busy, they ask. Well, I write. Books. About cops. Who are women. Yes, under my own name. Yes, they are on Amazon. A book title? The Fort in the Harbor is newest. One of them actually writes it down.

I used to carry cards, but they were so quickly out of date and it seemed, I dunno, presumptuous. As I've said before, I suck at marketing. I'm a horrible self-promoter. That's okay. As Dirty Harry said, a man has got to know his limitations. But, these folks seemed sincere and if one of them buys a book, I'm ahead.

Curious, I sign onto the Kindle Direct Publishing dashboard that tells me how I'm doing. Usually, it's not bad - a few books purchased, some pages read. It'll tell me if one of these medical folks actually followed through. And... What the hell?

My next check from Amazon will be in the hundreds of dollars. In the hundreds?! Someone, or a collection of someones, has read nearly ten thousand pages of my novels in the last 30 days on Kindle Unlimited. And, I've sold... No way.

In fact, way.

My dear wife found something on line, a marketing company that, for a reasonable fee, puts something on their web site for a day or so. I did it, just for the hell of it - reserved a day in late May. And, holy cow!

Not only that. Posting my blog in my bio led to ten thousand hits this month. Crazy!

And, it seems that one of the folks yesterday bought the Kindle version of Fort.

So, thanks! I hope you like the books, find them interesting, entertaining, informative. Leave a comment on Amazon if you've enjoyed the reading experience.

And, if you couldn't dig it? That, you can keep to yourself.