When DEADLINE was published there were  newspaper reviews. Now there are online reviews. To which do you give more weight?

A show on the History Channel about a World War II naval battle: two U.S. destroyer escorts vs. Japanese cruisers in Leyte Gulf. The destroyers happened upon a much larger Japanese battle group, took them on to keep them from overtaking American troop transports. The DEs were sunk, some sailors survived. Their bravery saved the transports from certain destruction.

A very good chance they saved my father’s life as he was aboard one of those transports. The U.S. sailor interviewed was an old man, as they all are now from that era. I gave him silent thanks.

The Eagle has Landed: In the tree above my head. This was at the lake this morning. First a cawing, then a crow flying in, then another and another. Right above me, a bald eagle sat high in an oak tree, the crows darting around him or her. The eagle was huge, unflappable. Until it flapped once and glided down and away. Is that where the word comes from?

Sight of the week: a merganser with a dozen babies, skittering away from a loon, just popped to the surface. Babies ran along the surface like skipping stones.

Truth is stranger … Topless Donut Shop, Vassalboro, Maine. In an office trailer since the old place was torched. Local conservatives suspected; turned out to allegedly be a guy whose ex was working there against his wishes. Isn’t it always the way?  In the trailer, the donut shop is diversifying. Sign in window advertising, “Worms and Crawlers.”

Next weekend, signing books at my alma mater, Colby College, Sat, June 5, 3:30 p.m. Here’s a graphic by a Colby student, Dash Wasserman. More appearances on the list. Hope to see you along the way.

Very nice time yesterday at a book launch party thrown by Tess Gerritsen for Paul Doiron and his debut novel, The Poacher’s Son.
Good guy. Good book. They always say that nothing matches the rush of the first one and this gathering of friends and family was a very happy event. I was glad to be on hand.

Other news, a Q&A with the Maine Sunday Telegram’s Bob Keyes appeared today. Fun talking to a newshand, Bob, about a couple of other  newshands, Jack McMorrow and me.

Next stop on the reading/signing/chatting schedule is at Mr. Paperback in Belfast (a lot like Galway), Maine, Friday, May 14, 1-3 p.m. If you’re on the mid-coast of Maine, I’d love to see you.

Two things to report this morning:

One, I’ll be at Longfellow Books in Portland, Maine this Thursday (May 6) at 7 p.m. to chat and sign DAMAGED GOODS. Longfellow is a “fiercely independent” bookstore, the kind that every town and city should have. It’s a shop run by and for book lovers. I’m looking forward to it and hope to see some of you there.

Two, I’m a dedicated obituary reader. I read about the “notable”  people in the NY Times. I read about the quiet accomplishments of the people in my local paper here in central Maine, the Morning Sentinel. Today’s Sentinel had a small gem. His name was Harry E. Carter, and he lived in Moscow, Maine, up in Somerset County. If you’ve driven up to Quebec, you’ve been through Moscow.

Anyway, Mr. Carter worked for paper companies, mostly, the biggest landowners in his parts. He retired at 62, and for the next 22 years, his obituary said, “continued to work from home as an inventor, builder, metal worker, mechanic, carpenter, and welder. A more clever man would be hard to find.”

There was other news in my paper this morning: a guy stabbing another guy after being chased by a mob from a local bar. Some other items reflecting general mayhem.

Mr. Carter’s obituary offered some reassurance. It told me that  I live in a part of the world where his  sort of cleverness is valued, and would be offered as a last testament as to the kind of person he was. Good for him.

The day began with a knocking outside the study window. It comes nearly every day about 6 a.m., from the trees on the hill. Today I went out with binoculars, followed the sound of Morse Code from the top of a big maple. And after a few minutes I spotted the tree-knocker, a yellow-bellied sapsucker, letting the world know that this was his tree, his turf, his place to do his percussion thing.

After that it was all gravy, something already accomplished before 6:30 a.m. An interview with Dan Harrington of the Capital Weekly in Augusta, Maine. We had coffee at a diner, paused our talk while the waitresses sang happy birthday to a diner. Couldn’t see whether they put a candle in the eggs.

A lot of talking about DAMAGED GOODS of late. Maine Sunday Telegram, Bangor Daily News, 207 TV show (all in one day). I’m gratified that people are interested in Jack’s comings and goings. Tomorrow (Sunday, May 2) it’s a talk in Kennebunkport, Maine, summer home to George H.W. and Barbara and the rest of the Bush clan. Probably too early in the season for the former president and first lady to drop by, but you never know. In any event, it’s at 2 p.m. at Graves Library. Come by and say hello. If the prez is there, I’ll introduce you.

The T-shirts are made, the bus loaded up. DAMAGED GOODS Tour: 2010.

Well, not really, but on Sunday I start heading out to meet folks, talk about the new McMorrow novel, writing, mysteries, and anything else that comes to my mind and yours. We start off in China! (Maine, that is) on Sunday, April 25, at 3 p.m. at the Albert Church Brown Memorial Library in China Village, between Waterville and Augusta. This will be my only Central Maine speaking engagement so if you’re in that neck of the woods, please stop by. Bonus: at this one there will be homemade refreshments (great baked goods), nice people, a very cool early 19th century building. Good times!

From there, it’s on to Portland, a few stops on the Maine coast, New Hampshire, and a possible Vermont loop in September. Check out the list under events. We’ll be adding to it  as new stops are scheduled.  I hope to see you.

Well, the news from my neck of the woods is the early spring. Birds all back two or three weeks early. Phoebes, tree swallows, the flicker at the suet feeder outside my writing study window. The flicker is a first in all the years I’ve had the feeder out there.

Those of us who have lived in central Maine for long know that we’ll pay for this good fortune on the weather front. This year we’ll be mowing in April; next year we’ll have a blizzard. Or two. We know that eventually Mother Nature comes back and smacks you upside the head. As they say in these parts.

Speaking of smacks in the head, I’m well along in Brandon Blake No. 2, working title PORT CITY UNDERGROUND. There are notes spread all over the table: plot points, lists of cops, background sketches for various characters, some villainous, some good, most somewhere in between, photos of Bay Witch, Brandon’s boat (see pic above). This is an interesting project in several ways; like the last Brandon Blake, PORT CITY SHAKEDOWN, there are parallel plots and the challenge is moving from one to the other in a way that doesn’t break the pace of the book, or seem jarring to the reader. Also, the suspense has to build on two fronts as Brandon peels back layers of deceit.

I’m enjoying my time with Brandon, getting to know him better. He is hard beyond his years, and in some ways is an anachronism; in a world of shifting principles, blurred morals, and convenient ethics, my boy Blake is black and white. There is right and there is wrong. Right is its own reward; wrong should be punished. It’s a viewpoint that gets Brandon in trouble in this one. A good test of his conviction. (Will he bend? Maybe. Will be break? Never.)

Hope to finish the first draft this summer, writing in between appearances for DAMAGED GOODS. Just read a Robert B. Parker novel, SPLIT IMAGE, where Parker has Jesse Stone and Sunny Randall hook up. Seriously considering introducing McMorrow and Blake one of these days. One is older and wiser, the other is bold and brash. I’ll just stand back and watch.