Haskins, Michael's blog

I just returned from the four-day SleuthFest gathering of writers and fans in Deerfield Beach, Fla. It is sponsored by the Florida chapter of the Mystery Writers of America (I am on the chapter’s board) and its two guests of honor were writers John Hart and Brad Meltzer. John spoke at the Friday luncheon and Brad on Saturday.

I am a believer in writers networking. We are solitary people, sitting often for hours, if not days and weeks, alone with our thoughts, sometimes a blank screen, and an idea. We play God to a world we create and bleed to bring our creation to life. Could God be as lonely as a writer trying to pound out that one true sentence?

I just finished three book signings in less than four weeks and I learned a lot about the buying public, readers, and how the current economic crisis is affecting book sales.

Friendships are priceless
Vero Beach Book Signing Blog

My signing at Waldenbooks in Vero Beach, Florida, the first of October went very well. Bob Soos interviewed me on his Morning Magazine radio show Friday, Oct. 3, and we talked about my book, Chasin’ the Wind, and the signing. Bob gave three copies of the book away to people who could answer Key West trivia questions he came up with.

Joan Reeves, from Slingwords.blogspot.com, tagged me to write “6 things about me and books.” She also tagged: Sweet But Sassy Adina, Bill Crider, Cait London, and L. C. Hayden.

Books, as I look over my computer desk I have four room-length bookshelves above me, filled past capacity with books I’ve read and, laying on their sides, books on my ‘to read’ list. So 6 things . . . here goes . . .

As a journalist/mystery writer, the following quote frightens me and holds various meanings, as it should to anyone that uses the written word to make a living or to blog. So many of our freedoms are in peril these days and way too many of us are willing to give them up for feeling secure when we fly or visit the mall or drive on our roads.

Personally, I think Homeland Security is made up of smoke and mirrors and security at our airports is still being run by the seat-of-its-pants, a fact that has been proven by the media that has been able to smuggle contraband aboard plans.

(Before blogging about past signings, I want to let you know of two recently scheduled signings in Florida. On Sept 12 & 13, I will in St. Augustine at the Florida Heritage Book Festival – www.fhbookfest.com – and on Oct. 4, I will be at the Waldenbooks in Vero Beach, Fl., from 1-4 p.m. If you are in the neighborhood, please stop in and say hi.)

(When Patti Abbott asked me to write a blog about a book I thought had been forgotten, it didn’t take me but a nanosecond to know what book it would be about. When I pulled it off the bookshelf, I realized I couldn’t explain it without going into explanation of the author, because the book affected my teenage years and the author a good part of the rest of my life.)

Writer Dennis Lynds had many claims to fame in his lifetime; being one of the most prolific writers in America has to be the one that will remain on the record books for years to come.

I’d written my book, in blood it sometimes seemed, but it was all worth it when I received the email from a small publisher informing me that there was a contract in the mail. Ah, I beamed to myself, as I danced around my crowded home-office; the gods had finally smiled on me!

Little did I know that the hard work hadn’t even begun. My small publisher did nothing to help with book signings, and only a little for getting reviews, so off I went on my own and soon discovered that my excitement wasn’t necessarily shared by the rest of the world.

For anyone who has visited Key West, or any Caribbean island, the first thing they notice is a phenomenon known as ‘island time’. Things travel at their own pace. If a beer takes 10 minutes to get to you, so be it. If you have to wait in line 15 minutes while the clerk and a shopper chat, life goes on. What visitors don’t realize is that ‘island time’ is just one outward sign of an entire lifestyle which is totally foreign to most Americans and Europeans. While non-islanders see it as rudeness and slothfulness, locals wonder what all the rush and demands are.