August | 2021 | Andrew Spradling

If you could take a penny and turn it into two, double the total each day, in thirty days you would have $5,368,709.12. Hard to imagine but it’s true. Don’t believe me? See the graphs on the web. Of course, you’d have to have a Richard Dreyfuss “Let It Ride” month to make it happen, otherwise we would all be multi-millionaires, right?

Readers seem to be more difficult to draw than dollars. There must be millions of serious readers worldwide, but they’re as elusive as financial security. An author’s ultimate desire is to simply be read, to tell a tale that engages the reader, makes them hungry for what comes next. My hope has always been that one satisfied reader would then tell another, or maybe two. Diagram of Death A Detective Harper Stowe Mystery, my third novel, was released July 6^th. It’s a page-turner and books are moving.

*Scott Pringle, outside Metz Cathedral in France. Photocredit: Jennie Meredith Pringle*

My friend Scott Pringle works in the Air Operations Center at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, managing military flights in and out of Europe and Africa. Scott reached out to me, telling me he’d ordered the book. Wanting to keep an eye on Amazon, I asked him to let me know when it arrived. It took 14 days, but when it got there, the first hard copy of my novel in Europe that I knew of, I was excited. I asked him to please take a picture of himself with a backdrop that would say ‘old country,’ you know, where it all began. Scott told me he was heading to France for the weekend. Perfect!

Jeff Buckalew, Hilton Head City Engineer, Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. Photocredit: Eileen Buckalew

Then one good idea led to another. Jeff Buckalew in Hilton Head, where the novel takes place. Jennifer Hawkins Smith in Nashville, Tennessee; Karen (Slaughter) Weaver in Kentucky; Ross Harrison in Hilton Head. It was Jennifer’s idea – let’s Let It Ride! #readharperstoweonthego Please send me a picture from a vacation destination or your part of the world, or post it on Facebook. Detective Harper Stowe is a go! My email is andyspradling@gmail.com