The Countdown...

So there's just 8 days left before my book is officially published and I'm firmly entrenched in what my friend Mark Katz calls "the calm before the calm." So what, one might wonder does an author do in the days leading up to publication? Well, let's see--today I bought some heirloom tomato plants and transplanted them. I read a bit, checked my Amazon rankings half a dozen times and generally pondered the question of what else there was to do short of standing on my balcony and screaming that might get word of the book around.

Of course while I sit around in a narcissistic haze, things are going on the world. In Central Illinois, the Galesburg Mail His the excellent headline"Public Defender May Get Pay Raise" I love that even the prospect of paying a PD a bit more makes headlines. And of course down south In other news a judge in Louisiana has finally said "enough is enough" and ordered the release of inmates who have been denied legal representation.

So while I twist in the temperamental winds of public opinion (or worse public invisibility), the people who are actually doing the work and fighting the good fight battle on. Hat tip to all of them.