The promise of Spring has been fulfilled today; a gentle breeze carries temps in the sixties under a clean blue sky dotted with pure white clouds.  And with the advent of Spring came the publication of my latest novel a few days ago, an espionage thriller called The Russian Bride.

It’s ironic that I’m unable to promote the new book back in the States because I’m on a deployment in Eastern Europe in a country formerly controlled by the Russians—a country that hopes the Russians will never come back.

Today I find myself posted in a windowless room with steel walls and floors.  Cell phones don’t work here.  I’m on a U.S. military facility inside a friendly foreign military base.  No photographs are allowed.  The no photos rules goes against the grain of this digital social media age we live in where we post pictures of all aspects of out lives on a daily basis.

After three months on this deployment I realize I’ve taken few photos, even while off base, because we have programmed ourselves not to use our cell cameras.  I’ve stayed low key, but low key isn’t ideal for promoting a book.

So I am forcing myself to take a photo or two for this new blog entry as a way to get back to some kind of balance.  And hopefully, somehow, readers will find The Russian Bride even if I’m not in America hawking it at book stores and festivals.

I’ve learned that writing a book is only a small part of the process one must navigate as a professional author.  Yet even for the most anal retentive control-freak novelist who does every last possible thing to market and promote a book, so much is simply out of our hands.  This makes for a good reminder of who is really in charge of our lives.

I give thanks and offer gratitude that I have five books published, all with mostly good reviews.  I offer prayers to the spirits and heavens that readers who like page-turning thrillers will find and enjoy my work.

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