It’s August, and I’m on summer vacation. What does that mean? It means I finished writing the manuscript for Smoke and Mirrors last Sunday, and it’s currently in the hands of my agent for a session of reading/editing. That mean’s I’m also holding my breath.

Handing over a manuscript to my one and only agent is a lot like turning in a paper to Bisbee High School’s Mrs. Medigovich. She was tall and model thin. Dressed in designer sheaths and high heels, she walked the halls with the stride of a gunslinger and cast a daunting figure. She was anything but beautiful. With a black mole on her chin, sharp facial features, and her black hair pulled back in an immense bun, she was downright scary. When she knocked her knuckles on the blackboard and said “Hell’s bells, you hounds!” even the toughest varsity football players sat up and took notice. But if you walked away with an A from her senior English class, you had a ticket to sail straight into any freshman honors English class at any college or university in Arizona.

In other words, Mrs. Medigovich was tough, and so is my agent. Over the years I’ve benefited immeasurably from their guidance. One of the smartest things I ever did was listen when, unable to sell my first manuscript, my agent suggested I write something else, and so I did. Instead of firing the agent, I fired that manuscript and wrote the first Beaumont, Until Proven Guilty.

Wait a minute here, you’re probably thinking. Didn’t she say she was going to be talking about summer vacation? Well, yes I am—in a very roundabout fashion.

When I was growing up, summer vacations were for one thing only—READING. My elementary school, Greenway, kept the library open one day a week during the summer months. On those days, I’d drag the family’s RadioFlyer wagon to the school and come back with that week’s wagonload of books.

There wasn’t an actual bookstore in Bisbee. By the time I got to high school, the books that came into our home were in the form of Reader’s Digest condensed books. That’s how I read James Michener’s Hawaii. I believe they boiled it down to about seventy pages, so I don’t think I got the whole thing—and I’m sure they short-circuited a good deal of the material dealing with the missionaries who were focused on sharing a lot more than the gospel. And when I happened to venture into the Copper Queen Library? Mrs. Howe kept an eagle eye on my selections to make sure I didn’t take home something she considered inappropriate.

So I loved reading. I’ve always loved reading, but when I’m writing a book, reading someone else’s poses a real drawback. Other people’s characters take my attention away from my own, and that’s a problem. So most of the time I don’t read.

But this week, when I can’t work on my book, I have King’s X. I’ve read two so far—a Louise Penny and a Daniel Silva. (Yes, I read mysteries. What a surprise!)

One of the things Mrs. Medigovich insisted upon was COMPLETE SENTENCES—something with both a subject and predicate. She didn’t allow any sentence fragments. Ever. For any reason. Louise Penny uses sentence fragments. With wild abandon. And it works. Encountering one of those passages is like taking a breath. Of fresh air. And it doesn’t do anything to keep her from telling her story.

Daniel Silva? I love his geographical references. His art history references. His ability to create iconic characters. (See there? I can write in sentence fragments, too. If I have to.)

Today the manuscript isn’t back in my hands, my computer, or my head, so I’m going to go shopping through Bill’s massive ebook library and see what else is hiding there.

This year’s summer vacation may be short, but I’m enjoying every minute of it.