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When a book is more than just a book

IF YOU AIM AT THE MOON, YOU MIGHT AT LEAST LAND AMONG THE STARS!

I think it was my good friend Nina Osier who said that, and Star Publish LLC, my publisher and much more, soon adopted it as their motto. This month of May, it seems like everything's coming up roses for me. Below you will see the strange coincidence that happened with Mary Higgins Clark's new book, Ghost Ship, and my book, House Call to the Past.

As if that wasn't enough, my first new book in over a year, Bank Roll, was released from Ingram (the major distributor for bookstores, both online and brick and mortar) on May 7. The main theme of the book, a "Max Stryker Mystery," was a young woman who had lost her job at the St. Paul (MN) Pioneer Press and returned home to small town Willow Creek--a thing she had vowed never to do. I finished the edit on the book the day before it was announced that the Knight Ridder chain of newspapers was putting a whole lot of their newspapers, including the Pioneer Press, up for sale.
In the book, Max toyed with the idea of trying to get a job at the Minneapolis Star Tribune, but decided against it. Thank heavens! If she had, she would have awakened this morning to the news that the Minneapolis Star Tribune was cutting 145 jobs!
This is truth, mixing with fiction, making me ask if it is karma, fate, good luck, or God smiling at them. I think it is a combination of all of those elements.
For more on this strange event, and the remarkable timing, go here to read the details.

ON BORROWING MY ANCESTORS

It is often said that truth is stranger than fiction. Back in 1991 I ran across a book by Mary Higgins Clark, Anastasia Syndrome and Other Stories. The main character was Stephen Hallett, a "lord" from England. Because Hallett was my maiden name, I tracked Mary down and that led to a friendship, first through old-fashioned letters and now through e-mails.

Now, following on the heels of the re-release of my last back-title book from Star Publish LLC, House Call to the Past, she has done it again. House Call to the Past came out on Thursday, March 22. The following day Publishers Weekly Daily (how oxymoronic is that?) announced that Mary Higgins Clark's first children's book would be released on April 3. The title of Mary's book is Ghost Ship.

As if that isn't coincidence enough, here are the facts between our two books.
House Call to the Past is a time travel; Ghost Ship is a time travel.

House Call to the Past is set on Cape Cod; Ghost Ship is set on Cape Cod.

House Call to the Past goes back from today to the 1700s; Ghost Ship goes back from today to the 1700s.

House Call to the Past goes back to the Hallett family of Yarmouth, MA; Ghost Ship goes back to the Hallett family of Yarmouth, MA.

And no, neither of us knew of the other one's book.

Mary, if anybody is going to borrow my family, there is nobody we'd rather have as kinfolk than you!

I urge you all to check out both House Call to the Past and Ghost Ship, both available at online bookstores or your local bookstores.

A great book is like a great mind; it keeps on giving

over and over and over again!