Dear well-loved and appreciated readers,
I’m wondering if I might ask you favor.
If you’ve read and enjoyed either of my books,
Here are the links:
For Amazon:
"Equal and Opposite Reactions": http://amzn.to/2xvcgRa
"Hail Mary": https://www.amzn.com/1684334888
For Goodreads:
"Equal and Opposite Reactions": https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35521059-equal-and-opposite-reactions
"Hail Mary": www.goodreads.com/book/show/53468697-hail-mary
Online reviews are the best kind of word-of-mouth for helping an author’s book make it in the world and a few words from you would be much appreciated.
Thanks so much, and enjoy today’s Ailantha!
THE WEEK THAT WAS

Prior to that week I'd felt the undercurrents of anxiety that were all around: We'd been warned that the epidemic was coming, approaching like an invading army, but we weren't sure exactly when it would really happen, how bad it would be, or what we should be doing in the meantime, other than stocking up on cleaning supplies and disinfectants,
I had a piano recital, for which my students had been preparing for half a year, scheduled for March 19,
I even wondered if I should discontinue my daily visits to my 99-year-mother in the memory care unit of the Sunrise senior care facility.
All the answers came the following week, the week of March 9, 2020, when the COVID-19 epidemic officially arrived in Ohio.
Monday, March 9, was the last time I fetched my mother at Sunrise to take her out to eat. (I recall that at the sign-out desk there was a pen-sanitizer. How optimistically naïve we were back then to think such a little gizmo as this:
That day, Monday, March 9, was the last time in her life that my mom was at a restaurant. It was also the last time I was at a restaurant.
The following day, Tuesday, March 10, I composed a notification which I handed out to the parents of my piano students ― I teach ―used to teach― in-home lessons ― asking them to please clean their piano keys and to go over them with a disinfectant wipe before my arrival and also to make sure that their children washed their hands immediately before their lessons.
One of the mothers read my note and laughed. "Are you freaking out over this coronavirus thing?" she asked.
I had to admit that I kind of was.
The next day, Wednesday, March 11, our Governor Mike Dewine came on the air and announced that starting the following week all schools in Ohio would be closed for a month.
Friday, March 13, was the last time I saw my mother in person for months,
And that beginning marked the end of a week that I will never forget.