On tour I have a little rolling Rick Steves bag that my mother would say contains a \u201cDuke\u2019s mixture.\u201d \u00a0The term meant a little bit of everything as she used it, and I always assumed it had something to do with British royalty. \u00a0It turns out, I was wrong, and I think Evie, my mother, would be surprised to know that it was actually a brand of tobacco used for rolling your own cigarettes.<\/p>\n
For me the bag\u2019s Duke\u2019s mixture is made up of an oddball collection of necessary stuff that needs to come into the hotel with us each night\u2014electronics, special pillows, big containers of hair spray, hearing aid batteries, charging cords, extra scrunchies, a new packet of makeup remover towelettes, and my nightgown. \u00a0In other words, it contains a collection of necessary but unrelated items. And this week\u2019s blog\/newsletter will be the same thing\u2014a Duke\u2019s mixture.<\/p>\n
In all the uproar of touring, the paperback edition of Proof of Life showed up on sale without my making note of it or informing my DTRs that it was available. \u00a0Sorry, guys. \u00a0The book is out there. This is your official notice that Beaumont is back, and I should have let you know about that in a more timely fashion.<\/p>\n
I had hoped to announce that Duel to the Death made the NYTimes list. \u00a0We didn\u2019t. \u00a0Missed it by one. \u00a0And being #36 on the USA Today list is a pretty reasonable showing. \u00a0Thanks to everyone who bought early and often.<\/p>\n
Audio readers often write to me asking about how to access those early books in my series. \u00a0Tricia Clapp from Mostly Books in Tucson sent me the following information which I\u2019m copying here so the links will work: \u00a0“I have asked\u00a0Libro.fm<\/a>\u00a0to create 4 playlists, one for each of your series.\u00a0 They have done so.\u00a0 Here is the link: \u00a0https:\/\/www.mostlybooksaz.com\/librofm-playlists.<\/a>\u00a0 Any indie store that has signed up with\u00a0Libro.fm<\/a>\u00a0can add them to their site.\u201d<\/p>\n Moving on, in last week\u2019s blog I recounted how, at a signing in Mesa, I met up with a woman related to a serial killer from Tucson in 1970. \u00a0My first husband\u2019s\u00a0encounter with him is what ultimately compelled me to write my first never\u00a0published mystery. \u00a0In that blog I promised another book tour miracle this week, and here it is.<\/p>\n At the signing event in Sedona, a man came up to the table, held out his hand, and said,\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m here, and it\u2019s a God thing.\u201d \u00a0I wasn\u2019t at all sure what was coming next. \u00a0Book signing encounters can be disturbing to say the least. \u00a0Years ago, a man\u00a0approached me at a signing table and asked,\u00a0\u201cAre you the lady who writes the mysteries?\u201d I told him yes. \u00a0\u201cI\u2019ve just been acquitted of murdering seven people,\u201d he continued.\u00a0\u201cDo you want to write my book?\u201d \u00a0NO, THANK YOU!!!! \u00a0And I was concerned the\u00a0\u201cGod\u201d man would turn out to be a similar\u00a0kind of nut job.<\/p>\n He motioned to a woman standing at the end of the table. \u00a0\u201cI want to introduce you to Douglas Davis\u2019s first fianc\u00e9e, Mary\u00a0\u2026.\u201d \u00a0Those of you who have seen me at events know that I have a hearing loss that hearing aids don\u2019t quite overcome. \u00a0In the uproar of people around the table I never did catch the last name. \u00a0There was a long line of people waiting to have their books signed, so I asked him if he would mind stepping aside and waiting to the end so we could visit.<\/p>\n People who have read Beaumont # 21, Second Watch, know that Doug Davis was a real person\u2014a bright, handsome, wonderful guy from Bisbee, Arizona, who was valedictorian of the BHS class of 1961. \u00a0He went from Bisbee High to West Point, West Point to Ranger School, and Ranger School to Vietnam where, on August 2, 1966, he died in the Pleiku Highlands. \u00a0With the help of Bonnie Abney, the woman who was engaged to Doug at the time of his death, I intertwined Doug\u2019s real life into Beaumont\u2019s fictional one in a book called Second Watch. \u00a0At the end of the book is an essay called\u00a0\u201cThe Story Behind Second\u00a0Watch. \u00a0At the front of that essay is a photo of Doug that was taken by one of his West Point classmates on July 30, two days before his death. \u00a0It was a picture that was located and sent to both Bonnie and me only after the book was written.<\/p>\n I think you could say I was gobsmacked by the God man encounter. \u00a0Doug had another fianc\u00e9e? \u00a0Really? \u00a0I remember him as an entirely honorable guy. The idea that he might have been two-timing Bonnie was unthinkable, and yet the whole time I was signing books in Sedona, that was exactly what I was thinking.<\/p>\n At last the signing ended, and I had a chance to speak to the couple in private. \u00a0It turns out Mary hailed from Bisbee and was a neighbor of Doug\u2019s family up on Quality Hill. \u00a0She was several years older than he was. \u00a0They began dating and became engaged while Doug was at West Point. \u00a0She told me that during his Junior year, when she was visiting him and they were discussing wedding plans, she should see that something was wrong. \u00a0\u201cI don\u2019t think your heart is in this,\u201d she told him, and he allowed as how maybe getting married was a bad idea. \u00a0They called the whole thing off in an amicable manner but only on the condition that Doug tell his mother, Bena Cook. \u00a0Mary and Bena remained friends.<\/p>\n So there was no overlap between first and second fianc\u00e9es. \u00a0Bonnie didn\u2019t meet Doug until a year and a half later. \u00a0When he died, Mary wrote to her mother in Bisbee asking if she should come to the funeral. \u00a0\u201cNo,\u201d her mother told her, \u201cthere\u2019s another young woman in his life now.\u201d So Mary graciously stayed home.<\/p>\n The husband, whose name I never did catch, recounted how, when he was out of town on a trip, he picked up a copy of Second Watch. \u00a0When he turned the page and saw that photo, he immediately called Mary and said, \u201cOur Douglas is in a book.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s how they both referred to him as \u201cour Douglas.\u201d \u00a0 The man especially seemed overwhelmed by emotion. \u00a0\u201cI wish I\u2019d had someone like him as my commanding officer,\u201d he said. \u00a0He told me that he\u2019d had a half-written e-mail to me sitting in his computer for months. \u00a0I hope he finishes and sends it, because I\u2019d like to know more. \u00a0And I\u2019d like to be able to put Mary and her husband in touch with Bonnie. \u00a0More that fifty years later, they\u2019re all still grieving over losing him. \u00a0Mary said she had some photos and mementos that she\u2019d like to pass along to Bonnie, and I hope we can make that happen.<\/p>\n As for how this couple from somewhere else happened to show up at my book signing that day? \u00a0They came to Sedona to visit some friends staying in a time share, and the friends happened to mention that I was going to be in town that afternoon. \u00a0See there? \u00a0The man was right\u2014it really was a God thing\u2014what Bonnie and I like to refer to as a Second Watch miracle. \u00a0Having that photo of Doug show up in Bonnie\u2019s and my e-mail accounts was another one. \u00a0And having someone in San Antonio recognize Doug the moment he saw Michael Reagan\u2019s Fallen Heroes portrait made from that photo was yet another.<\/p>\n I wrote Second Watch hoping to make sure that Doug Davis, or Lennie D, as he was known in the Army, was not forgotten. \u00a0And that Sunday encounter \u00a0in Sedona with his \u201cfirst fianc\u00e9e\u201d continues to provide proof positive that he is not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On tour I have a little rolling Rick Steves bag that my mother would say contains a \u201cDuke\u2019s mixture.\u201d \u00a0The term meant a little bit of everything as she used it, and I always assumed it had something to do with British royalty. \u00a0It turns out, I was wrong, and I think Evie, my mother, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_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},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3nsBA-pk","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1570","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=1570"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1572,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1570\/revisions\/1572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}