Two Weeks Out – WTLLM

Okay, two weeks from today, Tuesday, April 16th, Where The Ley Lines Meet drops on all online, major literary distribution outlets – Amazon, B&N, Walmart, Google Books, etc.

If you have already placed your order, thank you from the bottom of my soul. I can only assume that you have also read the first four books in The Claire Saga, otherwise, while you will enjoy the action and adventure of WTLLM as a stand alone – I mean, it is totally a Hollywood blockbuster – you will miss the soul of the story and may not receive its potentially full cathartic experience. Life, even for a literary character, is an amalgam. You’ll want to feel and process it all, along with the characters in TCS, right up to the end(?).

If the next two weeks allow any of you time for a reread of TCS, trust me, it will be worth it.

Looking back over the past four decades, one of the biggest surprises I have enjoyed in my amalgam of experience, is to exceed any and all expectations anyone, including myself, had placed upon me.

It wasn’t really hard to do. I set a low bar. It just was easier not to try.

Come on now, think about it, anyone who has grown up with me during my formative years could not honestly say that they expected me to have the life I have lived. Or even one as long as I have lived it.

Here’s an evidentiary anecdote. Karen “Cruiser” Anderson, one of the older Riverdale girls, who road a motorcycle and gave off a Pat Benatar/Joan Jett vibe back in the day, and appears in an early chapter of FJM,

and who is now a neighboring Bronx Expat living in NoCo, could not even remember what I looked like back in the day. This is despite the fact that we ran with overlapping circles. Talk about failing to make an impression.

I showed her this photo when we first met for breakfast in NoCo –

– and she said, “Wow, I had you pictured as a completely different person. I wonder who I was thinking of? He was good looking.”

Rodney Dangerfield had nothing me.

Just an example of how I raised underperformance to an art form during my childhood.

I’ve shared a lot of those childhood stories in my blogs, and more of it is woven into the underpinnings of The Claire Saga.

For the record, despite any unintentional similarity – you write what you know – I wish I was half the man that Jimmy Moran has become, especially in WTLLM. I am just a shadow.

Truth is, I’ve been extremely lucky. Whenever my life looked like it was going in the shitter, and my ship was about to crash upon the shoals, someone appeared and helped me change course and steer towards calmer waters and more fruitful destinations. You know who you are and I love each and every one of you. You are the reason I believe in Angels.

And while I may not have gotten a Clarence, I have gotten a Claire.

Although Claire has gotten a Clarence, and he’s a vet.

One of the added benefits of Angelic assistance, is that having received it, you don’t want to disappoint your Angels. That includes you, my fine, five readers, who each day represent a snapshot of the many Angels who have accompanied me on this journey.

So one tends to work harder than one probably would have to prove that one is worth saving.

And, while I cannot actually remember the writing process, I can confirm that I put in the time in front of the computer screen that allowed for the creation of The Claire Saga, and surrendered valuable and dwindling time on a long shot – about a calendar year’s worth of days, a couple of early morning hours each day, all in, to bring all five books from first sentence to publication. When you are in your sixties, sacrificing time on a potential folly is as hard as it gets.

In short, I finally give a shit, and want to make all of you who have invested any time in me, even just as readers, proud you went along for the ride.

For me, that would be having WTLLM open as an Amazon #1 New Release on April 16th. The other four books have all held the title.

Oh, and since I’m thanking readers, let me not forget a special mention for “Linhen,” an Amazon reviewer who gave me the idea for the title of what is about to become the final(?) book in the series, back before I even had begun to write the second book. I remember thinking when I read it – “that would make a cool title,” so I kept it in the hopper for just the right time.

Linhen, if you are reading this, I hope I met your expectations. Trust me, I gave it all I have. And thanks for the title.

Well, enough about me.

You fine, five readers better get that last cuppa in you and head off into the world of commerce and productivity. Tuesday awaits.

I will cuddle some kitties without waking the household and then do my rounds. Then see what the legal world has in store.

And I will hang with my Oz family.

But no matter what else we get up to, let us make today a great one.