It is late Wednesday afternoon. We are sitting in a parking lot in Fountain Hills, Arizona. For the first time I am dictating my blog on the iPad, because my computer is back at the hotel.

The next event, the fourth one of the day will be starting soon. The question is will I be able to do it again for the fourth time? The truth is, I probably will. Two weeks ago I saw my friend Janis Ian, bone weary after being awake for almost 24 hours, stand up and do a dynamite performance. If she can do it, I suppose I can too.

If you have been following my travels you know that I’ve done 10 events in the past four days. Not bad for an old girl. But I just want to say before I give out and so does my battery, a sincere thank you to all of those of you who have bought Cold Betrayal during its first few days on sale. We won’t know until sometime next week whether or not we made the bestseller list, but if we do you can bet your sweet bippy that I will let you know.

Now where is that microphone? Let’s go do a sound check.

That was a VERY tired and whiney blog.  Sorry about that.  So here’s a PS.

Yesterday was a long day with the first appearance at 9 AM, an hour from our hotel, and a 7 PM talk an hour from the same hotel in the OTHER direction, plus two more apperances and hundreds of books signed in between.  All told we drove 143 miles and did four events that day.  No wonder I was tired.  We staggered into the hotel at 9:30, had two full bowls of chicken soup, and fell into bed.  Zonked.

Today was a light day.  The first event was at 10 AM—same direction as yesterday’s 9 AM but a little farther away from the hotel.  The next signing was at 2 PM and an hour plus away in the completely opposite direction.  Contrast that with yesterday: we went from central Phoenix to Sun City, Sun City to Tempe, Tempe to Mesa, and finally Mesa to Fountain Hills.  I can tell you that’s a whale of a commute.  

So today was a LIGHT day—only two signings and 243 miles in the car.  It’s a good thing Bill and I are a pair of tough old birds, and Bella was very fortunate to be home here in Tucson in her own yard instead of out with us burning up our steel-belted radials.

The events have been crowded but fun.  I’ve met so many wonderful people in the last several days.  Yes, I do the talking and the signing while Bill does the driving, and that totals 903 miles driven so far, Saturday to Thursday.

So tonight we’re home in Tucson, sitting in chairs that aren’t moving, watching a TV set that has fast forward and our own recordings waiting for us.  When we got out of the car, we received an unexpected but incredible gift—orange blossoms.  The orange trees in our back yard are blooming, and there nothing that compares with evening air perfumed with orange blossoms.

Once again, I appreciate all the people who have shown up at events this week.  It means so much when I’m able to speak to a roomful of laughing, appreciative, applauding people.  That’s what holds me up, folks, the energy that comes back to me from the people sitting out front.  When I’m tired beyond belief, when my voice sounds as though I’ve been a life long smoker—which I’m not—there nothing like an energetic audience to keep me up and at ‘em.

Thank you.