It was December 19th, my thirtieth birthday. I left work early and stopped on the way home for a bottle of champagne and planned on ordering out for dinner to be delivered when Dana got home. I walked into our apartment and noticed something was not right. It took me several moments for me to realize that Dana’s things were gone: family photos and various knick-knacks. My comfort level was starting to drop like the temperature right before a midwestern thunderstorm. I began looking around for anything of her presence: her closet, her drawers, her medicine chest were all empty. Her luggage, the pieces of silver given to us by her family at our wedding, her books; every last trace of her existence had disappeared. I fell into a chair, dazed, stunned, not believing what, I realistically knew to be true. She was gone,

An hour passed before I was able to get up. I went to pour myself a scotch and saw a plain envelope on the counter and opened it:

My new novel, “The Awakening of Russell Henderson”, is now getting a final proof and should be available before Christmas. Will keep you posted.