I was naturally concerned when I saw the recent articles about the proliferation of crap books impersonating established authors. Jane Friedman did a great post on this. And Chris Fox revealed another twist on the scammer problem. Fox predicts that these kind of quality control issues will hurt Amazon in the long term.

I believe I have them all beat. What I’m reporting here is not a scam issue. At least, I don’t think it is. I do think it’s just an egregious example of nonexistent quality control.

I looked at one of my self-pubbed books the other day on Amazon, and discovered this. Yes! I am an author not of books, but PANTS!

I used to think I could march my way through all my daily to-dos in an orderly fashion. But I soon realized that if didn’t write them down, I’d forget the one or two things I thought were important, and that would slowly drive me crazy. (This is aside from the fact that I never really complete everything on my to-do list. As soon as I cross off three things, another four or five take their place.)

I used to think I could keep track of these tasks digitally. I spent a lot of time and money on software applications. Probably the best I’ve found is called Things, and I still use it, though not as much as I used to.

Then I tried the Bullet Journal thing. That worked for a while, until I got tired of rewriting all the tasks at the end of the month. My wife loves the system, and still uses it religiously. Me, I grew to dislike carrying a large hardcover notebook everywhere I went. At $25 a pop, the price wasn’t doing me any favors, either.

So I regressed—back to the world I lived in the 1990s, when I first went freelance. This is what I use to organize myself these days…

My novel Jersey Heat is live and available for purchase in the Apple audiobooks store! This is the fourth book of mine to go live for readers who prefer to consume books that way. It’s also the first of my novels to become an audiobook.

You can check out the book right here, and buy it outright for $4.99. It’s a crime caper not unlike those of Elmore Leonard or Carl Hiaasen.

Steve and I checked out Botiwalla, a new-ish restaurant in West Asheville. I’d been watching the renovation from a distance for a while now, and when I saw it was finally open, we had to try it.

Basically this is a very casual eatery from Meherwan Irani, the chef who brought Chai Pani to Asheville back in the day. Chai Pani is all about Indian Street food. Botiwalla is a tribute to cafes created by Iranians who settled in India. Irani’s great grandfather ran such a place…

I couldn’t let another 9/11 anniversary pass without comment.

The thing is, I was there, watching the tragedy unfold from across the river.

Here’s the story…

Busy weekend for us. A local book festival, a friend over, and another book event. Through it all, a flurry of old friends and new, and an unexpected Elvis mystery.

Here’s how it all went down…

My books are packed, and we are headed to the Carolina Mountains Literary Festival in Burnsville today, Friday, September 8. We’re doing one talk at 3 p.m., and signing books at 5 p.m.

Details here. The full schedule is here. Hope to see you there if you’re going…

From Hoboken, NJ, this week comes the sad news that John Amato died at the age of 88 on August 30.

Mr. Amato played an interesting role in my childhood and later life.

He was the Hoboken cheese man!

Here’s the story…

My wife, Denise Kiernan, did a fun interview last week with Eastern Panhandle Talk, the morning talk radio and TV show for WRNR in Martinsburg, WV. It’s a full 30-minute chat, mostly on the topic of The Girls of Atomic City, her 2013 bestselling book.

You can watch the video right here…

When I meet math teachers at schools or conferences, they assume that I am a lifelong math lover since my picture book is about Leonardo of Pisa, namesake of the Fibonacci Sequence. I should come clean. Math teachers, here’s what I’ve been ashamed to confess: When I was a kid, there was no subject I feared more than math.