Neat stuff happens when you’re a writer, usually when you least expect it. Like the time the ticket agent upgraded me to first class because he liked what I said* on television about banning books.

Or like yesterday when the wonderful Fed Ex guy found his way to my house in spite of the wrong address on the label to deliver my author copies of the Czech translation of A Fine and Bitter Snow.

Kate Shugakovou. Yep, that’s absolutely what I meant to name her back in the day.

It’s a lovely hardcover edition with a red bookmark so you’re never lost, and you’ll notice Jim Chopin remains Jim Chopin in the Czech Republic. (And in Czech I’m an Autoři, which is way cooler than author.) Thank you, Mystery Press!

And then last Thursday, in my weekly Google Alert, the top link went to “10 GBH Staff Share Their Summer Reading Picks, where Donna Danielewski wrote

Fun summer read: The Kate Shugak Investigation series by Dana Stabenow. “These books [23 so far] are thrilling and twisty mysteries but also introduce readers to Alaskan life, history, politics, and the culture of Alaska’s Indigenous communities.”

Sure, there is some ego involved in my sharing that “thrilling and twisty” rec, but there is also a sense of wonder that a series that has been around since 1993 is still finding new readers.

And gratitude, too. It’s how I make my living, after all.

*”It is unAmerican to allow anyone to tell you what you can or cannot read.” It was Banned Books Week and the local TV station sent a reporter to the library to film what the guest speaker had to say on the subject. So I told him. I never saw it but the ticket agent sure did.

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