Fall has arrived officially in the Mohawk Valley! But we didn't need the calendar to tell us that, did we?  We know it because:

• The days are cooler, especially in comparison to the hot, hot, hot days we had this Summer
• At night you need the extra blanket to ward of the crisp cold so that you don't cave in to putting on the heat
• You wake to the shadowy, misty, icy cold fog that settles into the nooks and valleys of our Adirondack foothills
• School is in full swing, as made evidence by the hums and screeches of school buses and the quietness of the village streets between 8 and 2:30
• The hills are beginning to show evidence of the Master Painter's palette, washing away the various greens to reveal a sea of reds, oranges, yellows and browns.
• The local stores are putting up Christmas decorations a couple of aisles down from the Halloween candy and costumes
• The days are growing ever so shorter and are whizzing by in a race to close out this calendar year-or at least that's how it seems! Do you know what I mean?

All of this may be true for you and me, yet for our featured author, Rod Riesel, this September holds an entirely different meaning, and time has not gone by as quickly for him.  That's what anticipation of something big does-slows time to a snail's pace until it seems as it has almost come to a complete standstill.

As each day, slowly fades away, the emotions grow more and more intense.  Nervousness, anxiousness, impatience, excitement and joy intertwine. When I spoke to Rod briefly last week, he seemed to take it all in stride, but admitted that the hardest part of this process is the waiting. 

Waiting allows the brain to think and question.

"Will people read it?"

"Will they like it?"

"Will they buy it?"

The time in which those questions will be answered is near.

Meet Rod at his inaugural book sale/signing event 

Sleeping Dogs Lie

Tuesday, October 9

5pm-7pm

Frank J. Basloe Library

Main Street

Herkimer

Mark your calendars and come to support 

Herkimer's latest author!

Rod came out to the Herkimer Farmers' Market last Thursday to show support for another local author, Mrs. Dorothy Stacy.  Shown here is Mrs. Stacy signing a set of her books for Rod.

The rest of this week, I will tell you a bit about the book and reveal Rod's advise for others who dream of becoming a published author.

But until then . . . Find time to take a walk, read a book, and visit with friends!

"I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read, and all the friends I want to see" (John Burroughs as quoted at coolquotes.com).