A person could get used to this. Friday 13 is supposed to be bad, but I’ve never heard a word about Monday 13 one way or the other. Now I can count it as a lucky day. I may be the only person to do so.

The occasion: a presentation before the San Joaquin County Historical Society. My charge: ( I made this up, and they accepted.) To describe the process of turning historical “fact” into historical fiction. The date had been made a few months before, so I had plenty of prep time, and I had some ideas. What could go wrong?

Well, unlike the comment that usually follows that question, nothing much did. We (Susanne and I) drove the hour-plus to Stocton/Lodi on Sunday, scouting to be sure we’d know where we were going the next day. The event was scheduled to start at 9 a.m. so we had little room for error in respect to time. Finding the place was not too difficult, thanks to our trusty navigator. But hooray for the navigator, Micke Grove Park, the location of the museum, is not just around the corner. It’s rural. A real grove of splendid oaks and other arboreal delights amid fields all around.

We were to meet our host at 8:30 the next morning at the main gate. Turned out there are lots of places around there that look a bit like a main gate. We found the right one fairly easily, though. Talked to the lady in the entrance way, and departed fairly confident that we could get back there on time. Thanks to our navigator, that is. (I should really give her a name, shouldn’t I?) If we’d been dependent on our memory or even one of those old paper service station maps, we might have ended up in the San Joaquin River.

However, we got there as scheduled. What wasn’t scheduled was a relatively sleepless night. We forgot our suitcase, so slept in street clothes. Cold for me. Hot for her. Plus she had a sort of hollowed out place in her mattress. As Bobby Lewis said in that immortal classic song, “We tossed and we turned all night.” But that was minor. The only hitch after we arrived at the venue and met our host and some other folks was that the slide show meant to accompany my presentation didn’t work. Bad connection between my computer and their projector.

But was I rattled? Not so. I always suspected the tech stuff was chancy. It always is, going in without knowing exactly what I was dealing with, so I just barreled ahead. As it turned out, the talk seemed well-received, and we sold a couple hundred dollars worth of books. Know anyone who’s looking for a super presentation by a first rate historical novelist? I’m right here and can be right there, wherever you are. Even if it’s the thirteenth of whatever.