Greetings from Bucks County, Pennsylvania! It is verdant, beautiful, lush with luxurious gushing rain and thunderstorms that made us ask, “did someone turn on the hose?” and, “will the river be too high for the fireworks barge tonight?” and other homey questions that sound foreign to our L.A. ears.

My book tour has moved eastward. It is one month and one day since the hometown crowd packed Diesel Bookstore in Brentwood, and we’ve been to San Diego, San Francisco, Marin, all before Independence Day.

Let me just get it out there: there is nothing not good about a book tour. I love it. I don’t care if no one shows up (it has happened), because I am still in a bookstore, chatting with booksellers for an hour or so, making new friends and seeing new places. It’s better when people do come, of course, because then we talk about the story, about writing, about perseverence and low times and persistence.

More that I love: the excuse to spend time with friends and family.

As we leave the kids in the comfort of their grandparents’ home while the parents head off for more friends and more bookstores, I wish you all the things that make you happy, and count you as my blessings.