Wow, the last few months have been so crazy-busy, I feel like I’ve been living under a large rock. I kinda look as though I have, too. I’d like to blame the COVID-19 isolation for my dishevelled appearance; but with gardening season in full swing, well… even basic personal hygiene seems a bit futile.
I get up, shower, and sit down at the breakfast table all shiny-clean. Mere hours later, I’m caked with dirt, soaked in sweat, and greasy with sunscreen. My fingernails are pitch-black crescents, and I have hat-head worthy of a clown show or a horror movie. (Is there really a difference between the two?)
Here’s the embarrassing truth: I’m perfectly happy like that. What’s more, I love wearing old clothes because I don’t have to worry about wrecking them. I’ve been wearing the same gardening jeans for at least fifteen years. They’ve been exposed to so much sunlight that they’re almost white, except where they’ve been permanently stained by dirt, engine grease, paint, caulking, glue, and/or other unnamed substances. They’ve fallen apart and been sewn back together so often that even their patches have patches.
But they’re comfortable. And I live out in the sticks so nobody can see me; and even if they do see me and judge me, they’re far enough away that I don’t know they’re doing it. So it’s all good.
Problem is, that kind of laid-back comfort gets insidious. If I’m not careful, I’ll become that stinky old lady with the tattered clothes, matted hair, and feral expression, who shows up at the grocery store twice a year to buy staple foods before vanishing back into the dilapidated hovel whence she came.
Fortunately Hubby is much more civilized than I, and he somehow manages to stay clean(ish) no matter what he does. So I have a model for normal human behaviour; and at least I’m still capable of cleaning up when it’s time for cover photos (albeit with a big assist from Photoshop).
Which, of course, is my ever-so-subtle segue to dishing today’s dirt:
It’s release day for Book 15, A SPY FOR HELP, woohoo! (And whew. It’s finally done! But the next book is already knocking at my mental doors…)
Off-duty secret agent Aydan Kelly knows she shouldn’t interfere when her lover finally locates his long-lost sister, but she’s afraid Arnie’s too upset to stay on the right side of the law.
Arnie’s sister has been outed in a social media firestorm, and threats against her escalate to a violent attack. Aydan and Arnie rush to her rescue, only to discover she’s being targeted by a powerful crime lord from her unsavory past. As danger mounts, Aydan realizes Arnie will do anything to save his sister… including murder.
Caught between love and legality, Aydan faces an unthinkable choice: Risk her career and freedom by turning a blind eye to Arnie’s deadly plan, or save the crime lord and condemn Arnie to prison and his sister to death.
Author Diane Henders 