Hello, gang!

Ever since I was a kid, I've been aware of how quickly time passes. Things change, friends and lovers come and too soon go, people die; the mirror becomes more and more unkind. Time moves like a launched rocket. Slow at first, then faster and faster until it reaches the limits of our world and moves out into eternity. And it can't be slowed and it can't be stopped. Except with words.

Words are time's brakes; a word set down on paper exists as long as the paper exists. They never change, never age. Characters in a book exist in their own world and their own time. All it takes is for eyes to pass over the words for the characters to live. Words form a never-ending "now".

I envy Dick Hardesty and all the characters in the Dick Hardesty mystery series. Fifty years from now, they will be exactly the same as they are now, just waiting to be read to come back to life.

Before I get too carried away with philosophy, just a brief update on what's happening with the D.H. series.
"Open Book", one of the largest and best gay/lesbian bookstores on the west coast (located in Sacramento, CA), has a great website-- www.openbooksltd.com -- and the site is featuring "The Butcher's Son" in it's "New Additions" section. Gay Chicago Magazine--that city's largest, has requested a review copy, and it is hoped they will like it enough to do a review. And "The Hired Man," the fourth book in the series, is just a little over halfway finished.

Anything you can do to spread the word will be greatly appreciated. Oh, and if you have trouble contacting me here, please try emailing me at doriengrey@hotmail.com
I really do enjoy hearing from you.

And now, still on the subject of words, a couple haiku on the theme:

Words like black footprints
walk across the white paper
leaving trails of thought

Writing, like apples,
usually benefits from
a good polishing.

Later,

Dorien