I just don’t know how to act anymore. I start out each day fine, reading the polls (which are good), and then looking at the stock market (which often starts out good and turns bad when some government official says things are actually quite dire)…and then I sit down to work on my book (sometimes good, but lots of days this novel feels like it’s just taken a turn in the spin cycle of the washing machine)…and YIKES, THE DEADLINE IS COMING.

I can get very hyperventilational easily–an unruly paragraph can do it, as can a 678-point drop in the stock market (even though, as a disorganized person who never quite got around to investing, I don’t have an awful lot of money there). But then, just like a child, I can get all excited and happy again simply by the fact of end-of-the-season tomatoes, which are so sweet and full right now that you can just stand at the sink and eat them like apples. And that reminds me that I bought a big sack of apples and will make apple crisp this weekend, and I am absolutely POWERLESS before apple crisp. Can’t resist it!

But then I wander over to the laptop again, having worked out a crucial scene in my head…and whoops, there is the stock market again, falling below credibility, and then I have to go read what all the economists think about it, and these days it may only be Kai Ryssdal’s casual, cheerful voice that is keeping many of us from freaking completely out. Today he came on the radio even when it wasn’t time for Marketplace, just to announce that this was NOTHING like the Great Depression. Nothing at all like it.

But good news came today on the computer! Yes! I received another review of KISSING GAMES OF THE WORLD, which is waiting in the wings for its debut on November 4. This one came from Romantic Times, a site that reviews fiction. And here is what they said, making me happier even than the ripest tomatoes:

"Shelton’s warm, sentimental love story is told with a tenderness of heart and a nurturing eye guiding complexly drawn characters. She effortlessly melds love and loss with heartrending care, exposing the layers of a budding romance with a deft hand.  It’s full of humor, flaws, and a togetherness of spirit fit for any modern love story where family is what you make it." 

And tomorrow I get to catch the train and go to New York and sit down with the publicist for the book, and we are going to figure out how to, you know, actually get the book into people’s hands! Involving perhaps readings and blog tours and calls to book clubs and oh, who-knows-what-all. If you have any ideas for any of this, I would of course LOVE to hear them!