Open the door to the tiny soundproofed room. Enter solitary confinement. Close door one and door two. Stare at the large microphone. Don't rustle your clothes! Inhale off to the side! Don't smack your lips! No loud swallowing! Extraneous noises are verboten. Remember which character has which voice, and hey--who wrote sentences with so many "s" sounds? "She slid sideways..." --for heaven's sake!

Now Ghost Cave has gone live. The sound engineer is snipping with virtual scissors any unduly long gaps in Ghost Dog. Ghost Dagger is recorded and Ghost Letter is in the on-deck circle. I hope it's another way to connect with readers.

Because connecting with readers matters! Yesterday I met such interesting people at Lakeshore Library in Buchanan Dam, Texas. Fielding their imaginative questions, their perceptive comments, sharing favorite books, talking about genres, made me feel like I'd been at the best sort of dinner party, sitting with the liveliest and most thoughtful guests. On the watery way home, driving along the lake, crossing two rivers, braking down the steep hill to splash across the low-water bridge on Flat Creek, and finally making my way home to the three burros, I knew those readers' names and faces would stay with me, stay before me, as the next book begins to take shape. Which is happening.