What A Summer, Good and Bad

I know I've been MIA for a while. It was a busy summer, with highlights and lowlights. First, my trip to Book Expo America at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York took place in June. A reader's and writer's paradise! Thousands of square feet of books and more books on the Hudson River. In July, the second book in my Home series, Home By Nightfall, was released by Amazon and my readers' response has been thrilling! I am honored by all of your kind words and kind reviews.

In August, I planned a trip to Seattle to meet with my author team. It would be a long weekend and because I love the city, I'd planned to do other fun things too. The weather was beautiful. I checked into the hotel on a Sunday night--and never left that room again until Tuesday morning. At first I thought I just had a cranky stomach. But the problem didn't go away and all I had to eat in those two-and-a-half days was a little water and a cup of soup from Kell's (Irish penicillin). Finally, I decided I needed to check out and come back to Portland. I wasn't getting better and I figured I could suffer at home in my own bed as well as I could up there. It's a three-hour trip back and by the time I got here, I passed my own freeway exit and continued to a hospital about 15 miles south.

Well. I got to the hospital at about 2:00 pm and was in surgery around 4:00 for an emergency appendectomy. Bummer, right? It was the last thing I expected. But what with complications and a post-op infection, I was in and out of the hospital three times, and spent a total of nine days there over the course of about three weeks. During most of September, I couldn't make my tired brain think about anything except getting well. I'm just now finishing the last course of antibiotics I was given, and I think I'm pretty much mended, but not 100%. I'll get there yet! And now I'm back at my desk, working on the third Home book, which will be out in 2013.

That brings me to the next topic of our meeting here. Some people read Home By Nightfall without knowing about the first book, Home By Morning. Each book stands on its own, but there are characters who appear in both books and it might be more illuminating to read them in the correct order. So . . . I'm giving away three sets of both books to the first people to respond to this offer. In paper or Kindle format, your choice! Send me an e-mail at alexis@alexisharrington.com, and be sure to tell me which format you'd like.

Now get ready for Halloween--and don't forget, there are only 87 shopping days until Christmas!