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No, I’m not going to write about visualization techniques for authors. We don’t need any help in that department — our imaginations tend to be overactive when it comes to our writing. I was thinking about the expression when it’s used as an exclamation. Someone tells you a man has walked on the moon and you respond by saying, “Imagine that!”

Well, imagine for the moment that you are signed up for a mystery writers convention. In high hopes you drop off ten of your books with the bookseller and wander into one of the sessions. Then, unfortunately you fall ill. I mean really sick. You go home. You are no better, perhaps even worse, the next day. And the third day of the convention.

You persuade your partner to drive to the hotel to pick up your books. The bookseller asks if you were on a panel. You reply no. “How unusual! Generally the books we sell are by authors who were participating in panels. Congratulations! We sold two of yours.”

Imagine that!

I confess that until that moment I had not even tried to imagine someone browsing through hundreds of books, finding mine, and purchasing it. Even though it is now fact, I still have trouble picturing it. I keep wondering why. Why did they buy my book out of all the others that were available? Mind you, I’m not complaining. I’m very pleased. But when I think of all that goes into a purchase — when I’m doing the buying — I can’t help but wonder why.

I have to admit the cover is humorous — an elderly woman with a butcher knife. And I’m guessing that many, if not all, the convention attendees were local, so the name Park Ridge would be familiar to them. Ah me. Beyond that, I can’t even guess.