Arlynn is on cloud nine right now. Her son, Jaime, a Coast Guard security officer, is home for the weekend, which means I had the day off, as he accompanied her to today's treatment, so I had more time to spend at the floating bookshop. It was so beautiful that I thought about setting up at the foot of Sheepshead Bay, but when I found parking ten yards from my usual nook, which sees more pedestrian traffic at mid day than the promenade, I thought What the heck? It proved to be the right choice. I immediately sold another thriller to the merry mail-woman and a Debbie Macomber novel to an elderly woman just back from Florida. I also got a visit from Bob Rubenstein, author of Ghost Runners, who is disappointed that his recent interview on Monica Brinkman's show on Blog Talk Radio did not generate any sales. Nonetheless, he is hard at work on his second novel. He purchased three children's books for his tutoring gig, as he has several times. Hang in there, buddy. Then the building porter, who has donated so many books to me, showed up and handed me a beautiful cookbook, which a woman bought a half hour later. Thanks, folks. The two slices at Delmar were on you.
But the highlight of the day was the feedback I got from Mark, a special ed teacher at Sheepshead Bay HS. Since he's also working on a Master's in nutrition, he doesn't have much leisure time to read. He has enjoyed the first three stories of A Hitch in Twilight, particularly the opener, The Man in the Box, whose ending he'd been certain would disappoint him. Instead, he was "blown away." I was glad I was wearing sunglasses, because I got misty. A comment like that takes a lot of the sting out of the infrequent sale of my own work. Thank you, sir. And thanks to the woman who bought the two Sylvia Browne books yesterday and left saying: "God bless you." And thanks to Jaime, who gave me an authentic Coast Guard cap, purchased at the PX on his base.
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