AUGUST 2026

A Dee Rommel Mystery

Is out, available and so far, so good!

We all know it’s an incredible feeling, holding that book in your hand. Or hearing that someone is reading the book or ebook of your story.  When you start getting notes from people about how they “read it in two days, couldn’t put it down.”  “Best one yet!” Loved it!” (THANKS for all those texts and notes – and keep them coming!) and positive reviews start coming in – you feel yourself calming down.

6 DAYS was over a year’s worth of work. I had prided myself in getting out a Dee Rommel book once a year. I know this schedule is not fast by many of my fellow Maine author’s standards but it seemed to be what it takes for me to get one done. (10 DAYS, 9 DAYS, 8 DAYS, 7 DAYS and now 6… five more to go in the 10-part series!)  I was kicking myself royally on 6 DAYS because it took 14 months to get done.  I kept telling myself that having to deal with (accept) deaths of a few close friends, my family’s various health problems, days of misery watching the America I had been so proud of diminish in my eyes and in the eyes of the world, obsession with making my own sourdough bread, avoiding exercising by gossiping with my neighbors, reading a thousand short stories and friends’ novels and trying like hell to figure out why all the Instagram videos about Oprah’s and Kelly Clarkson’s magic weight loss drinks showed pictures of baking soda when baking soda is not even one of the ingredients in that famous (bogus) magic elixir – and wanting to sleep a lot kept getting in the way on long stretches of writing and revising.

Those things above and a 6 DAYS story problem  (thank goodness it got fixed) got me into a state I had never experienced before. Could it be? Was I experiencing this? (Starts with a D and ends with an N.) Didn’t even know I could have been close until one day I said out loud: “Who Cares?”

I had spent most of my mothering days (one daughter, she’s great) making sure that thought did not become a recurring idea in her head.  “Gotta care about what we do. Where we live. About our friends. About being curious. About being productive.”

That’s the word I began to trip on.  “Productive.”  It was something drummed into me as a kid. How do I add to the universe, not just take from it.  I have a great older friend who I admire and secretly wish I could be sometimes (or could grow up to be) who retired relatively young from a high stress corporate job and took to taking long walks on the beach, attending yoga classes, making mimosas, chatting up neighbors, and making a good all-over body tan a priority (she’s a Californian).  I asked her (because as a Midwestern the call to “productivity” was part of my identity) what else she planned to do. Her answer has always stayed with me:

“Nothing,” she said. “Jule, doing nothing can be very fulfilling.”

It was, to me, like saying, I’m happy just being a tick just sucking on the blood of others.

Time passed. This friend who recommended “nothing” still fills her life enjoying her walks the beach, napping and making mimosas, but she also heads up the Beach Activist Board for Clean Waters, she’s become a docent/guide at a Nature Park and teaches kids about the birds and insects in the Park, she interacts with Hospice and chats up the house-bound in her community. She’s become an avid Crime/Mystery reader, and she’s been one of my most helpful beta readers.

From high-stressed corporate job to “nothing”.  I finally saw what “nothing” got her. Her literal dedication to doing  “nothing” led her to the new “somethings” in her life.  Her nothings led to a big life change. But she’ll still tell me, “Jule, doing nothing can be very important.”

In other words, time is needed sometimes. So take time.

So don’t sweat the difference between 11 or 12 months and 14 months.  And 6 DAYS took the time that it needed.

That was a digression, but what are blogs for? Sometimes.  Mmmhhhmm.

All to say that I am so glad 6 DAYS, A Dee Rommel Mystery is out and if it took me two extra months to find the crux of what I wanted to do with the story – so be it.  The “nothing” feeling I experienced while learning to make a good sourdough, or getting sick of social media’s lies, or reading till my eyes hurt was needed.

If you get a chance to read 6 DAYS – let me know. And leave a Goodreads or Amazon review!  You know how much they help! Thanks!