Summer doldrums

The end of summer approaches rapidly now. I can't say I am disappointed. The record heat this year in the northeast has sapped my energy and reduced the time i can work outside. I look forward to returning to work after Labor day. Other than a trip hiking in the Rocky Mountain National Park the summer has dragged. We look forward to four days in the New York Finger Lakes the first week in September. The wine trails around Lakes Cayuga and Seneca are worth doing.

The summer has been largely non-productive. Private Practice has been slow. I've submitted a grant proposal to a private foundation for a leadership training program conducted at the high school to which I consult. I have had a short book of poetry, Oliver Twists in America, published by PublishAmerica. They have raised their prices and do not respond to telephone calls for author discounts. I order two copies of my new book and only received one. They continue to offer promotions attached to book purchases. I have resumed writing the fourth Morrie Scwartz story after about a year layoff. I wrote myself into a corner and was disappointed with book sales of Shrink and Finding Jackson. In Nobody, Morrie visits his future gravesite and finds it occupied. The grave marker indicates his date of death. The book depicts the ultimate identity theft. Morrie becomes involved in finding the culprit, who has also attacked his mututal fund savings. I was a victim of identity theft myself but it occurred after beginning this book. This will be the last Morrie book. I would like to bind them all together in one volume if I even finish this latest adventure.

My summer reading included Dan Brown's latest, "The Lost Symbol." It is a real page turner. A more ambitious read is Mark Twain's "Innocents Abroad." Someone published his autobiography recently, which was reviewd by Time Magazine. It motivated me to tackle this very long narrative in an Unabridged copy of Twain. He was a very funny man but a bit of a misanthrope. I follow his travels in an atlas. So far he didn't like the Portugese, the Italians, the Turks and the Catholic Church. Politically correct he was not. I particularly enjoy his reactions in the 1860s to cities I visited a few years ago.