I’m on tour at the moment. Everywhere we’ve gone, (We being yours truly and Bonnie Abney, both a real person and a character in Second Watch!) there have been traffic difficulties of one kind or another. We haven’t seen these accidents, but we’ve been caught up in the traffic tangles afterward or been just ahead of two fatality traffic accidents, a logging truck that spilled its load, an eighteen wheeler’s tire blew up next to us and sprayed chunks of rubber onto our windshield, a fatality helicopter crash between Phoenix and Prescott, and a truck that took out five parked cars a block from one of our venues. Fortunately our car wasn’t one of the parked ones. Last night we came into Tucson on Oracle Road late in the evening. Less than an hour after we got home, Oracle was closed in both directions due to yet another accident. We haven’t been LATE to any events, two to three a day, but it’s been a nail-biter almost every time, even when we left early enough that arriving on time shouldn’t have been a problem.
In other words, we’ve been living in a pressure cooker for the last two plus weeks since the book came out September 10. (It debuted as # 7 on the New York Times Bestsellers List, so thank you for that!) I’m talking about the pressure cooker of getting to and from events, not about the events themselves. More on that, later. And I think it’s starting to get to us.
Night before last, Bonnie came back to a hotel with a friend and left her purse in the friend’s car. The problem was discovered soon enough that the friend was able to bring the missing purse back. Yesterday at a library event in Chandler, it was my turn. When it was time to leave the library, my purse was among the missing. I remembered getting out of the car and slipping the car keys into my purse. I remembered using the button on the car door to lock the car. I remembered sitting in the library before the event to do some e-mail correspondence. When the event was over the purse wasn’t there, and I panicked.
Our luggage was in the car. We were 30 miles from the car rental agency. We had no car keys. All of the credit cards were in my purse. So was my driver’s license and ID. And we were due at another event, seventy miles away, in a little more than three hours. We called Hertz. They said they’d send a lock-smith. I called Amex and turned off the credit cards. My husband turned off the others. We summoned a police officer to make a police report. And all the while the clock was ticking.
Sometime later, after I stopped hyperventilating and while we waited for the deputy to arrive, I went out and looked inside the car. There was my purse. On the back seat. I hadn’t remembered putting it down when I went there to retrieve the next set of bookmarks. I went back into the library to call people and say that now all we needed was the locksmith. Then Bonnie went outside. And opened the door on the PASSENGER SIDE!!! When I locked the driver’s side door with the button, the other doors didn’t automatically lock.
How do you spell STUPID? But, as Bill told me later, this was a far better kind of stupid than the other one! We’re in Tucson. We’re at the house and I’m sleeping in my own bed. We have no credit cards at the moment, but they’re coming. Actually, I DO have credit cards, but all of them are canceled.
So that’s the story of getting to events, but that is NOT the story of the events, because getting to them is so astonishingly worth it! The people who are talking to us during the signings for Second Watch and the ones who send us e-mails after reading the book are absolutely breathtaking. It turns out, J.P. Beaumont isn’t the only one haunted by images and ghosts from those bad old days. It turns out he isn’t the only one who has a Vietnam wartime box in which he has tucked away all the mementos from that time in his young life. And he isn’t the only one who has kept to himself what he lived through back then all the while leaving behind a trail of broken relationships with his family members. When I wrote Second Watch, I though I was writing fiction. It turns out I was writing far more truth than fiction.
So this has been an emotional tour. The presentations themselves, shared between Bonnie and me, are emotionally draining for us and for the people in the audience. For a pair of “women of a certain age,” we’ve been going full tilt. It’s hardly a surprise that we’ve lost a couple of purses in the process.
But is it worth it? Absolutely. Now I’ve got to hit the showers. The clock is ticking. We have to be wheels up in a little over an hour.
Bonnie, have you seen my purse?
I’m glad you found your purse. It is very frustrating when this happens. I thought I had lost my phone this week when I flew from Philadelphia to Seattle. Turns out I had put it in my sisters car when she picked me up. We are all victims of habit and I had taken my phone out of my pocket and put it on a ledge on the door, a habit I do when I get in a car, in case it rings. We do these things automatic and don’t think about it. Then forget that we did it. For me it was after I went to bed and suddenly had a flash of doing that and went and found the phone. Don’t beat yourself about it. You are so busy now that you do things without thinking. I won’t see you on this tour, but I did see you in Gilbert earlier this year. I’m traveling too and seem to miss you in each place you’re on tour. Thanks for a wonderful book.
I loved Second Watch at times it brought tears to my eyes. the killer was a total surprise.
I’m currently reading After the Fire. I just finished reading the Poem about letting go and the part likening your situation to a Mother being asked to Let Go of her Dead Child hit home. My youngest daughter had to go through that about 16 years ago with her Infant Daughter (Rachel). We were fortunate enough to have Rachel with us for 36 hours and into those hours we as a family packed a lifetime of memories. When it was time to say goodbye, the undertaker was there and my daughter clutching her daughter’s lifeless body was forced to Let Go. It’s a scene that plays often in all our heads I’m sure. My daughter now has 3 beautiful children 2 girls and a boy. But Rachel was her first and still steals our hearts away and unexpected moments like this.
Thanks for writing such a caring and feeling book.
Ah, the trials and tribulations of so much travel, so many deadlines! I know the feeling of “losing” a purse, and also the trauma of actually having one stolen from an office and discovering the fact at closing time. My boss drove me home (40 minutes one way), broke into my house, I got another set of car keys, and drove me back to the car. Purse was found later in a dumpster, with only the money gone. Of course, by that time I had new cards, driver license, library card, etc. Interesting memory though, and made me more careful about placement of a purse
Exactly why I love my Prius — it will NOT lock if the key is still in the car and it beeps at you until you figure it out. Hope you have seen the last of the traffic problems. Arizona is still a wild and wooly place!
Hope to make the 7pm signing at Barnes & Noble in San Antonio. We live in the Hill Country (69 miles away) and returning home in the dark exposes us to the biggest danger we face in everyday life . . . hitting a deer on Instate 10.
I am so sorry for all your trials, but it sounds as if you were watched over during each incident. I’m grateful you were safe, despite harried situations, and that you were still able to make the book signings. Thank you for all you are doing and sharing. Continued peace and safety in your travels, ‘all’ of you.
Marlayne
I was fortunate to attend last night’s signing at Barnes & Noble in Tucson. What an absolute honor to see you again (BHS was a long time ago ) & to meet Bonnie. The experience was draining but I have an inner peace today. Thank you for such an important book.
My husband and I saw you in Port Angeles two weeks ago, and we both enjoyed it very much. You were already encountering traffic problems on your tour, and I’m sorry to hear they have continued. With so many close calls, I do believe the Lord is protecting you, and I pray that He continues to do so! I am anxious to read Second Watch, but I’m saving it until I finish the rest of the series. Since February I have read the Walker series and the Joanna Brady and J.P. Beaumont books, up to Partner in Crime! We both enjoy them very much, and wish to thank you for the hours of enjoyment they have given us. Safe travels for the remainder of your tour!
I will tell you now that I spent a lot of time crying while reading Second Watch. I have nothing to compare it to, must be the writing, eh?
Sometimes it seems that you run in streaks where everything going catty wampus, doesn’t it? Hope it gets better. Congratulations on the best seller slot you snagged!
reeter
I am still in love with J.P. Beaumont and want to read more. Even though I live in AZ, I grew up in WA and loved following him in your books. Thank you for being such a great, descriptive writer to enable me to always join his adventures. Such an awesome experience for so many years. You are wonderful and if you are ever near Lake Havasu City, I am in the phone book and a pretty good cook.
Take care and be safe in your travels.
With sincere thanks, Dorend
Thank you one and all for your kind words and good thoughts.
JAJ
I finished Second Watch the day after I got it. Your writing usually connects with me well, but Second Watch really reached pretty deep. I’m going very slowly through After the Fire. I think it must be because there seems to be some familiar feelings I’m having difficulty getting through.
Thanks again for being so prolific and a very engrossing writer.
I’m sorry I missed the Village Books stop, but I’ll try to connect next time.
I’m glad you found your purse, losing wallets etc. is extremely trying.
Best Regards,
Lynn
The following is from a reader named Julie, and I’m posting for her out of respect for her privacy concerns.
I want to add to the chorus of those who have thanked you for this incredible book; the blending of stories was “edge of seat” perfection and the emotion-filled ending in Bisbee left me sobbing. It is by far the best of the Beaumont series; the background information you supplied at the end was unlike anything I had read previously by an author of fiction books.