June Gillam’s “House of Erie” on Tour

Our article today comes to you courtesy of June Gillam, author of the Hillary Broome Novels series.

Book three continues an entertaining mystery series, this time set in lovely Ireland. The location itself is enough to draw many readers, myself included.  You can read our review of the novel here on Mystery Suspense Reviews.

As part of her book tour, Ms. Gillam has written a guest post for us here.  It is always interesting to hear more from the author about her/his writing.  The article below reflects that…Here’s a look at a day in the life…

Writing:  Good for Your Health?

by June Gillam

Sometimes being a novelist can be good for your health. Or for the health of your gym. Okay, let me explain. Keeping strong mentally is one benefit of writing novels but sitting at the computer for long hours is not all that good for your body.

I try to combine both kinds of conditioning as much as possible because my mother died of coronary artery disease when I was fourty-four years old. Even though I’d been a health nut about eating, I’d not played sports or been more active than required when raising five children while married to a man who was building a ferro-cement boat in our back yard. Okay, that kept me pretty busy but after my mom died suddenly with heart disease, I knew it was time to hit the gym. Around then I was pretty busy with writing poetry, too, as part of getting my master’s degree in English. So, I began a balanced lifestyle.

Years later, my husband started suffering complications from diabetes and after a couple awful surgeries had failed, he had to have his leg amputated above the knee. He was a big guy and had a heavy custom wheelchair made for him. After he got transferred into the front passenger seat of my PT Cruiser, it was my job to fold his chair and heft it into the back section of the car. The first time I did that, I slightly tweaked my back. It hit me that I had to become super strong or I wouldn’t be able to help him. So I paid the cost for a twice-weekly trainer to keep my core strong. My darling husband passed away a few years later and I mentioned to my daughter that I could quit the trainer now. She said no, Mom, we need you to be strong.

So, here I am seven years later still with the twice a week trainer at the gym in my small Northern California town. Well, we are supposed to give our member number to the staff behind the counter when we go in or if they are busy, to sign a sheet with our number. Today I was late for my trainer appointment, partly due to helping a tennis player find the ball she’d hit into the parking lot—then retrieve it and throw it back to her, so I was in a rush and the counter was packed with people so I could not reach the sign-in sheet. I figured I’d sign on the way out.

Well, after working with my trainer, I stopped by the counter to “sign in.” It was still packed with staff and people with problems crowded around their sign-in sheet. I waited patiently until a young woman asked how she could help me. I told her my story and she nearly gasped. “You have to sign in when you come in,” she said. I explained there was no room around the sheet earlier, so I was doing it this way. “If the owner finds out, you can have your membership suspended,” she retorted. I expressed surprise at that and noted it seemed excessive as a consequence.

“If you don’t sign in, the staff person at the counter will be fired!” She was nearly shouting, and I was standing with a stupiefied look on my face.

“Then people need to be informated about such extreme consequeces,” I said. “That should be put next to the sign asking people to sign in.” I was amazed that such grievous actions could be taken without telling folks about it.

I told her I was going to write a suggestion to the effect that the information about such dire consequences needed to be made known to everyone. So I got a couple suggestion box form slips and proceeded to write the story. As I got halfway through the backside of one of the tall thin forms, she asked in an irritated tone, “Are you writing a novel?”

That was my opening. “I’m a novelist,” I replied and waved to indicate the counter, staff and adjacent gym rooms. “And I might include this in my novel.”

Her face change from annoyed to kindly. “I hope it’s in a positive way,” she purred.

“Not today,” I snapped and proceeded to fill out that back side and the front of another form, glad I had the writing skills needed to tell what happened and ask for action. Now time will tell the ending of that story.

The Tour

Ms. Gillam’s tour for House of Eire runs from September 6th through September 16th. Check our her iRead Author page here to visit other stops along the tour. You will find interviews, more reviews, and guest articles from this delightful author.

Tour Schedule:

Sept 5 –  Library of Clean Reads– book spotlight / giveaway

Sept 5 –  Over the hills and far away– review / guest post / giveaway

Sept 6 –  Working Mommy Journal– review / giveaway

Sept 6 –  Mystery Suspense Reviews– review

Sept 6 –  Rockin’ Book Reviews– review / guest post / giveaway

Sept 7 –  The World As I See It– review / giveaway

Sept 7 –  Heidi’s Wanderings– review / giveaway

Sept 8 –  Jaquo Lifestyle Magazine– book spotlight / guest post

Sept 8 –   Books for Books– review

Sept 9 –   Bless Their Hearts Mom– review / author interview / giveaway

Sept 9 –   Deal Sharing Aunt– review / author interview / giveaway

Sept 12 – Book reviews nature photos– review

Sept 12 – My Journey Back– review / guest post / giveaway

Sept 13 – Readers Muse– review

Sept 13 – Jessica Cassidy– review / author interview / giveaway

Sept 14 – A Bookaholic Blog– review / author interview / giveaway

Sept 14 – Olio By Marilyn– review / author interview / giveaway

Sept 15 – Sahar’s Blog– review

Sept 15 – The Autistic Gamer– review

Sept 16 – Bound 4 Escape– review / giveaway

Sept 16 – Dab of Darkness– book spotlight / author interview / giveaway

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Merry Citarella, often writing as Merrci, writes on a wide range of topics. Recently relocated to the Oregon Coast in the northwest United States, she frequently writes travel features on the beautiful Pacific Northwest. She specializes in health and aging, Alzheimer’s Disease, food, lifestyle, and book reviews. For more information you can see her on The Writers’Door. You can read more articles here or at her websites Alzheimers HQ and Simple Living Ideas