Happy New Year 2020
The beginning of a new year forces one to reflect on last year’s fumbled goals and future aspirations. 2020 also kicks off a new decade, which provides even more reason to assess concerns of upward progression or downward spiral. It’s unlikely I will quit—or start anything that might nudge me from my comfortable furrow. Moderation may come into play, but even that decision is muddled, and likely to be put off until spring grass, by which time I can ditch the sentiment until the next calendar year.
Newspapers love to roll out “looking back” reprints in their last calendar issue. I doubt they realize how utterly boring that moldy fodder is to their long-suffering readers. Nevertheless, the custom fills columns and pages in a time of year generally devoid of newsworthy events. My criticism allows me no license, nor do I have any inspiration to do the same, other than to report a productive month in the Yucatan finishing the second novel in The Freedom Series. Without Redemption hit the shelves just before Christmas. It’s had some outstanding initial reviews, for which I’m grateful. It’s a compelling story, though you my readers will continue to be the final arbiter and judge of that.
The most important reason for a northern Yucatan location scout was to follow Lonnie Bowers as he attempts to unmask the man behind one of the most dangerous cartel assassins in the western world. Lonnie Bowers fans will be happy to know that a fifth book in that series will hit the shelves in 2020. I would love to give you the title of this, the fifth book in The Border Series, but Lonnie has not allowed me to pass on that information—yet. However, I promise that early in the year, I will make a special trip to the Blackwater Ranch to press him for the particulars. I do know that much of the story is set at the ranch, Lonnie and Clarissa’s remote hideaway from the world of drug cartels and crime. But perhaps the peaceful ranch life on the Blackwater has made Lonnie forget. If you cross the cartels, there is no place to run, and nowhere to hide.
Happy new year to all, and may 2020 be the year you have the courage to do more, be more, and to love more. Let this be the year you reach for your own personal star.
