NEWS FROM AWAY, the fifth book in my Bernadette “Bernie” O’Dea mystery series was supposed to be out by now. I’m reminded about that quite often by readers anxious to get their hands on it.

It’s gratifying and flattering that people are excited about my books, and even that they’re disappointed they have to wait for the next one. But I’m not doing it on purpose just to feed my ego. Believe me, I’d like it to be out too. In fact, I can say with confidence that no one wants that book finished mor than I do.

But writing is a hard, long process and sometimes life and other stuff interrupts and slows it down. It can be hard to get back on track once you’re off, and there are many things that go into getting a book out of the laptop and into a reader’s hands that take time and effort.

That said, News From Away will be out… sometime. I wish I could be more definite. The one definite thing I can say is that it will be out. Sometime.

Is this a blog post about why books take longer than expected to be completed? No. It’s a blog post to simply answer the question. The book is coming. At some point. The fact that a cover for it exists is proof!

I won’t go into a whole “how the sausages are made” blah blah blah about the writing process and the mental and physical aspect of it and what happens when that gets interrupted, because even I am not in the mood for it today. I also won’t go into a long elaboration about the publishing process and why that can take longer than anticipated and what slows it down. I’m bore with that topic, too.

I read somewhere in the past couple of days that August feels like “the Sunday of summer.” In that spirit, let’s take a break from all the thinking and boring stuff and just enjoy the nice (ish) weather. Summer will be over soon enough and we’ll be into the figurative Monday of it all. The metphor kind of falls apart if you think about it too hard, since Monday is at the beginning and fall isn’t… never mind. I wasn’t going to do any brain stuff here.

In fact…

If you’re not feeling the spirit of summer, here’s a photo to help you out. My dog on the dock at my sister’s lake place in New Hampshire. The only thing missing is a book and nice beverage. Dog. Lake. Dock. Sun. Summer. Enjoy it while it lasts. Pick up a book that’s available now, settle in, relax, and enjoy August. There’ll always be time to finish writing books, or ask authors when the book will be finished, once summer is gone.