{"id":1259,"date":"2016-09-09T06:05:16","date_gmt":"2016-09-09T13:05:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/?p=1259"},"modified":"2016-09-08T20:41:15","modified_gmt":"2016-09-09T03:41:15","slug":"tales-from-the-downfall-trail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/2016\/09\/09\/tales-from-the-downfall-trail\/","title":{"rendered":"Tales from the Downfall Trail"},"content":{"rendered":"

When you\u2019re an author on tour, geography is your natural enemy. \u00a0At the moment we\u2019re on AZ 51, headed from Phoenix to Prescott. \u00a0Siri must have been out partying last night. \u00a0When I asked her the distance between the two, she claimed Prescott was \u201cnine miles as the crow flies\u201d from Phoenix. \u00a0It\u2019s actually 99.4 miles. \u00a0We\u2019re supposed to be there by 9:45 for a 10:00 AM event. \u00a0That made for an early up and out, which included makeup, washing and ironing my hair, and having breakfast. (Since there\u2019s not enough time between the first scheduled event and the next event to a: drive there and b: have something to eat, breakfast was a must!)<\/span><\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t matter what time zone you\u2019re on\u2014daylight savings or not\u2014being \u201cshow ready\u201d and on the road at this hour is challenging. \u00a0And by the way, although this is Arizona, it is definitely NOT a dry heat.<\/span><\/p>\n

Last night, a few hours after we traveled this same freeway, AZ 51, there was a road rage shooting. \u00a0A woman on her way home from work was pursued by three men in a pickup truck. \u00a0Several motorists had reported aggressive driving on the part of a \u201cwork\u201d truck prior to the incident, and the woman herself was on the phone to 911 reporting what was happening when the truck sped by, firing three shots into her vehicle through her passenger window, causing her to crash into the median, taking out three other cars in the process. \u00a0She was transported to a hospital where she later died. \u00a0I\u2019ve been too busy getting ready this morning to watch the news, so I have no idea if her assailant has been caught. \u00a0I expect the guy doing the aggressive driving is the one who pulled the trigger, and I hope one or the other of his two passengers comes forward and identifies the creep.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yesterday, during a Q & A session at one of the events, someone asked me why I used a freeway shooter as the center piece of the Random Acts novella. One of my recent book tours took place while Arizona\u2019s \u201cfreeway shooter\u201d was active. \u00a0Believe me, that made a big impression on me, something that was only underscored by last night\u2019s senseless violence. \u00a0I have a few choice words for people like that\u2014those would be UGW\u2014Un-Grandmotherly Words\u2014but since I try to write this blog in the manner in which morning newspapers used to be written, I can\u2019t use ANY of them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Geographical considerations aside, however, the tour is going well. \u00a0Lots of people at the signings; lots of interest in the book. \u00a0Having a chance to talk to people is always fun. Yesterday in Mesa, a woman told me I was her inspiration. \u00a0When she saw my weight loss results last time, she said, \u201cI told myself, if she can do it, I can do it!\u201d \u00a0She\u2019s lost 38 pounds and shopping for clothes is “fun again.\u201d \u00a0Someone in the audience at Sun City West, turned out to be from Rapid City, South Dakota, and that caused me to relate the story of the tragic loss of my gospel singer cousin, Polly Johnson. \u00a0And something else brought to mind the story of Bill\u2019s astonishingly expensive, cruise ship, limited edition, Faberge tie. Those of you who read this blog are already well versed on all those topics, but for most of the people in book tour audiences, it was all brand new.<\/span><\/p>\n

Book tours also put me in touch with people I\u2019ve known for years. \u00a0Ralph Whitehead, a kid from my neighborhood in Bisbee, showed up at the Poisoned Pen. \u00a0I hadn\u2019t seen him in more than fifty years. \u00a0Tom and Carol Quijada, friends from my college days at the University of Arizona, were also in the audience that night, as was Barbara Alvord who was first my District Manager and later my Agency Manager back during my insurance days in Phoenix. And last night we had dinner with a friend from more than thirty years ago, Anne Corley. \u00a0She and I met in Al-Anon during a very tough time in both our lives. \u00a0And yes, there is a connection between my Anne Corley and Beau\u2019s Anne Corley. \u00a0I intended to name that character Anne Morley, but no matter what I did, I couldn\u2019t get my M finger to work faster than the C finger. \u00a0(This is a whole lot like trying to train myself to put only one space at the end of a sentence instead of the old archaic way of putting two\u2014the way was taught to do it back when dinosaurs still roamed the earth.) \u00a0On the Morely\/Corley Issue, I finally just gave up. \u00a0Anne Corley she is, in fiction and in real life!<\/span><\/p>\n

And so, here we are now, turning off I-17 and headed to Prescott.<\/span><\/p>\n

As former Governor Jack Williams used to say, \u201cIt\u2019s another beautiful day in Arizona. \u00a0Leave us all enjoy it.”<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When you\u2019re an author on tour, geography is your natural enemy. \u00a0At the moment we\u2019re on AZ 51, headed from Phoenix to Prescott. \u00a0Siri must have been out partying last night. \u00a0When I asked her the distance between the two, she claimed Prescott was \u201cnine miles as the crow flies\u201d from Phoenix. \u00a0It\u2019s actually 99.4 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[33,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-tour-2"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3nsBA-kj","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1259"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1260,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1259\/revisions\/1260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}