Remember that wonderful book by Robert Fulghum, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten?  It came out in the late eighties, and all the words of wisdom found in that book are as true today as they were then:  Play fair; share; clean up your own mess; don’t hit people; take turns; put things back where you found them; don’t take things that belong to others.

Last year, when my publisher suggested that I write a book that would bring J.P. Beaumont and Brandon Walker together in one volume, I was right there.  I thought it was a great idea, and it was—right up until I started writing it.

It came as a big shock to me to learn that someone I have known and loved for more than thirty years had somehow missed some of those valuable kindergarten lessons.  It turns out J.P. Beaumont doesn’t have the foggiest idea of how to share a book.  Oh, I understood that he had a problem with having partners—for good reason, too—but what I didn’t understand was his complete inability to take turns.

Beau has this book to himself.

I’d try to get started on a Walker part of the story, and Beau would just march in and take over—for NO good reason!  He wanted to hog the stage.  He wanted me to tell his part of the story first.  Finally, the only way to get him to sit down and shut up was to let him have his way.  I DID tell his part of the story first, and it’s  due out next week in a novella called Stand Down.  It will be published in both e-book and print (original paperback) formats next Tuesday, July 21.  It’s an important part of Beau’s saga.  You won’t want to miss it.

Once I finally got Beau back on the straight and narrow, he shaped up and does play a pivotal part in Dance of the Bones, the Walker Family book coming in September.  And if you haven’t tried the Walkers yet, you’re missing out.  Start with Hour of the Hunter.  You won’t be sorry.

And if you’re a bookmark sort of person?  Now’s the time to send your business size SASEs to me at P.O. Box 766, Bellevue, WA 98009.