Readers and writers blog

I’ve gotten to know Tess Dyer pretty well in the past five months, and I’m going to miss reading more about her and her lover, Brian LaChance, as well as their friends Jeff and Laura Burke and their daughter Cassidy, Tess’ brother Dave and his wife, Kim, ex-husband Jason, Zeke the gay bartender and other denizens of small-town Maine.

Today we present the final two chapters of R.J. Keller’s novel Waiting for Spring, and I’ll miss it. We’ll still have installments of another book, Ann M. Pino’s Steal Tomorrow, but I’m sure when we’ve posted the remaining chapters, I’ll miss that one, too.

And sadly, we won’t be accepting any new books for a while.

I’ll be taking a break, probably after my next post Oct. 26, for an indefinite period while I give more of my free time to other pursuits — mostly music, much of it as a volunteer in area nursing homes and senior residences. Hell, I’m pushing 70, and I can’t think of a better way to spend some of my remaining years. But don’t think I’m being noble. Because a large share of that time still will be spent, as usual, sleeping late and lollygagging. And — oh, all right — some more exercise and other healthy stuff.

Meanwhile, R&W Blog isn’t going anywhere. We don’t have a huge library of works, but what we have is pretty good reading and should remain on the Internet for those who haven’t seen it — or, as in my case, would like to read it again.

I know I’ll be reading Waiting for Spring again. Anyway, here are the summaries for its last two chapters:

Chapter 42: Winter is approaching, and Tess, still missing Brian after their breakup in April, learns he has torn down the house they once shared. She visits a spot they also once shared at a local lake, then drives on to the site of a house he plans to build in the spring. As luck would have it, he also shows up. They talk. They make love. She says she wants the rest of his life. He says it’s hers — and always has been.

Epilogue: It’s May, nearly two and a half years since Brian’s younger sister Rachel died. He and Tess still hurt about that, but they also have cause for happiness — their first wedding anniversary. Oh, and something else. In a week and two days, their daughter is due. And they’ve already chosen a name for her. You’ll never guess it.

Next week, we’ll be offering not a new book but a new version of Jeri Cafesin’s Disconnected, an e-book-in-progress currently in our Works section as five chapters and an epilogue. The newly edited version will be complete at nine chapters, with epilogue, although Cafesin tells us she intends to make the novel part of a trilogy with this as its first book.

Also next week, we’ll have a new poem by Laura Elliott. We’ll also post the remaining chapters of Steal Tomorrow. And whatever else happens along. Then it’ll be so long. For a while.

Also now in Works:

• Chapters 18 and 19 of Ann M. Pino’s novel Steal Tomorrow:

Chapter 18: On a trip to a library, Cassie hears a rumor that she rushes back to report to her fellow Regents gang members — sightings of adults who apparently survived a viral pandemic that was believed to have killed everyone in the world but teenagers and children. If adults survived, the Regents leadership concludes, they must be scientists either with or close to a cure for the virus.

Chapter 19: Cassie learns that Galahad, the boy she loves, may have killed his previous girlfriend when he was a member of a death-squad gang called the Kevorks. When she confronts him about this, he says his memory is hazy about the killing, but he assures Cassie his love for her is true. She rejects this — and him. Frightened and angry, she begins training as a warrior.

– Sid Leavitt

NOTE:

The image at top is based on one found at Inmagine, a digital photography and photo processing website.