I forgot to post my holiday mantel books. Here they are–and about to change for the orange of this steamy summer surrounding us. (Sorry…I couldn’t resist.)

In O, the Oprah Magazine, Harper Lee also writes for the first time in … how many years? Since To Kill a Mockingbird. In her letter to Oprah, she says, “Now, 75 years later in an abundant society where people have laptops, cellphones, iPods and minds like empty rooms, I still plod along with books.”

But where are the books? Ms. Lee, please … we have been waiting.

Her letter to Oprah is short but I’m a Harper Lee fan and anything at all will do.

(I’d give you the link to the magazine, but the letter’s not online; you have to buy it–or go to the newstand to read it. It’s on page 151 of the July issue.)

A great use of your rejections letters. Toilet paper!

We’re on vacation, in the desert, and Brian is finally reading my book, one year and eight months since it was published. I can prove it. Here are photographs.

Lest you get the wrong idea, he read many pages, many chapters over the years I was working on it, but after it was published, he says he didn’t read it because he felt like he had already read it. I think he didn’t read it because he was afraid of what he would find. Friends of his bought it and told him what they’d learned about him from reading my book.

I just asked him why was he reading it now and he said, “I don’t want to be on the Internet.”

Travis said, “Put that quote in!”

Ah, but when you’re married to a writer, well, you don’t have much choice. You’re wherever your writer chum puts you.

We’re going away for a few days for sun, sand. No, not Hawaii. We’ll be roasting in the California desert. Our annual after-school-is-out-get-out-of-town trip. It’s become a tradition, one my son won’t let us forget.

Actually, I’m glad he won’t let us forget. I love that about him. I grew up with few traditions so now I welcome them.

After getting my computer back from Apple, it seems like it’s been nothing but catch up on projects that should have been done weeks ago. And I’m still catching up. One big OY VEY on this end. So it’ll be good to get away. Get some writing done, too.

Thanks so much to those of you who are promoting my book in airports and to friends everywhere. Every little bit helps, as you know. Harcourt seems happy with me and says the book continues to sell, with very few returns. My editor told me there’s something like 40% returns!

If you want, I’m happy to send you a few postcards of the cover of the book for you to give out. Harcourt had a ton made and gave me a bunch. Email me (penonfire at earthlink.net) with your address and I’ll send them to you, with a lil surprise of thanks.

You know those license plate holders enclosing your license plate? Most of them say the name of the car dealer where you bought the car. Mine says “Pen on Fire” along the top, and along the bottom is says, “www.penonfire.com.”

I bought it before my book came out with the hopes that it might have some effect.

Yesterday morning I pulled into Albertson’s Market and parked. The white SUV behind me parked, too. I walked up the ramp to the store behind the woman from the SUV, who had damp hair and looked dressed for a corporate job, turned around and said, “What is pen on fire?”

I told her it was a book I had written and she said, “Is it a novel?”

“It’s a quirky book about writing,” I said.

She nodded and smiled.

In the checkout line, she was before me. As she picked up her bag to go, she turned to me and said, “I’m going to buy Pen on Fire.”

I thanked her and wondered how many other people have wondered what “pen on fire” was and if it prompted them to visit my Web site or buy my book.

A license plate holder is space to be used. Don’t let it be free advertising for a car dealer.