Now — what else can I offer the universe today, of all days? It is, after all, the day the Lord has made, so I for one will rejoice and be glad in it. Of course, that could be said of any day, but the thing about days is that each one is different from all the rest, just like snowflakes or humans.
Even when you have rituals you follow day after day, each day is unlike every other day. The ones you remember are the ones where the ritual is interrupted. For example, I recall the kickoff of the Green Bay Packers game of Sept. 30, 1984, because the phone rang with a coveted job offer while the ball was in the air.
This morning I’m planning to do a little yard work before I tackle my morning web surf, because the forecast is for highs around 90 degrees and my brain starts to wilt when the temperature climbs much higher than 80.
Will this day be more or less memorable than any other? It’s hard to say at this moment, but I need to take this moment to remember that the Lord gave me another day and to be grateful about that, which brings me joy. May I suggest that you consider the possibilities, too?
Why did I change the cover on Dejah & Summer in the Time of Magic anyway? In my readings about cover design — especially from Dean Wesley Smith, who has sold a book or two — I’ve come to realize the cover should reflect the genre of the book, and while yes, two golden retrievers of my acquaintance are the main characters of DASITTOM, the book is a fantasy filled with odd and fantastic magical beings, and so it makes more sense to put Seth the dragon up front. Don’t worry, the cute picture of the dogs is still on the back cover of the paperback.
The other big change is my name goes up top, in bigger type, with a line about who the heck I might be. As Smith points out, my name is the brand. If someone likes another one of my books and wonders what else I got, throwing the brand name up there in big letters helps them find it. It’s true — I don’t remember the names of all the Michael Connelly or William Kent Krueger books I’ve read, but I react to the author’s name.
I added “Author of The Man Who Crossed Whimsy Avenue” to remind the casual reader where they might have heard of me before, and also to make a suggestion to the person who enjoyed my Halloween fantasy, in case they liked it enough to sample another one of my wares.
I am pleased enough with the new Time of Magic look that I decided also to tweak my Christmas story, which has my favorite cover among my books. Much as I like the cover, I realized it lacks a key ingredient for drawing potential readers, the subtitle, “A sequel of sorts to ‘A Christmas Carol.’” Ebenezer could be the name of the horse who pulls the wagon in the foreground; by adding the subtitle, you get a better idea of what the dickens this little book is about.
In this case, I left off any little blurb with my name. I’m gambling the chance to peek into what happened with Ebenezer Scrooge after that fateful night is more important than whoever this Bluhm guy might be.
Only the covers are changing, so the ISBN remains the same, in case you want to encourage your favorite bookstore to order these books for you in time for the respective holidays.
I am not a very good marketer — or else sales of my 17 books would go a lot farther toward paying my bills — but I’m learning a thing or two, at long last.
Here we are at the last day of June — the end of the sixth month in our 12-month calendar, or the end of the second quarter, if you wish — always not a bad time to assess how the year is going.
You probably don’t remember or didn’t see my post of Jan. 1, in which I wrote in part …
o o o o o
“Man plans, God laughs.”
Still, if you were to ask what I hope to achieve in 2026, I would say:
• 365 more blog posts
• Two to six more books, including a novel or two, another collection of 96 flash-fiction stories, and at least a couple more collections from this space
• A recording or two of songs, including “Suite: Sarah and Her Children,” a collection of eight songs I wrote between 1984 and 1986 and then hid under a bushel basket
• Audiobook versions of my books
• Some of the home repairs and upgrades I intended to do in 2025
• 365 days in which I pursue the fruit of the Spirit as much as humanly possible, and to love God and love my neighbor.
o o o o o
Progress report:
• I have maintained my daily blogging streak. This is the 2,160th consecutive day that I have posted in this space.
• For the first time in quite a few years, I have gone a full year without publishing a new book. This does not mean at all, however, that “two to six more books” with my name on them will not appear by the end of 2026. Expect some more specific information along those lines in the not-too-distant future. In the meantime, please enjoy the lovely new cover to my Halloween fantasy, Dejah & Summer in the Time of Magic, which is so hot off the presses that it may not have appeared on the various sales pages yet.
• On the musical front, I hope you have been enjoying Crimson Sky on New Year’s Morn, which has been available at your favorite streaming and downloading services since May. I am still hoping to pull “Suite: Sarah and Her Children” out of the bushel basket and perhaps this year, although it’s possible another project or two may arrive first.
• Oh, look, Warren, you talked about launching your audiobook career this year. Well, there’s still a half-year ahead.
• I have made more progress on my home repairs and upgrades than on my audiobooks. We’ll leave it at that.
• I have indeed striven daily to pursue the fruit of the Spirit as much as humanly possible, and to love God and love my neighbor, with varying degrees of success depending on the day.
As we ease out of June and into the beginning of July, I hope and pray that you and yours are enjoying this fascinating year and moving forward with as much joy, love and peace as you can muster.
