Cool green intrigue, Camano Island State Park, northwest of Seattle — another August trip for my new novel, thanks to Darla Hoff.

In August, my new novel climbed to roughly 8,000-feet elevation in the cool forest on Mt. Lemmon, the biggest peak looming over Tucson. Thank you, Doug Biggers, a longtime leader of Tucson journalism (Doug was the original editor and publisher of the Tucson Weekly and the Edible Baja Arizona magazine).

In late July, Margaret Regan made my new novel another beach read along the Jersey Shore, at Brigantine Beach. Margaret is a wonderful writer. Her career includes two heartfelt pro-immigrant books and a stint as “a French editor for TV Guide.”

Also in July, history prof Kevin Gosner read my new novel while he was traveling to and from the East Coast (he shot this photo during a layover in the Dallas-Forth Worth airport) — thanks, Kevin!

In July, Montana Blues showed up in the green hills of Vermont, thanks to John Karath.

In mid-June, Montana Blues traveled to the immense Great Plains grasslands. I grew up on Illinois prairie, next to a great swamp that got me interested in the wild at a young age. Some scenes in the novel are on Montana’s grasslands. Thank you, Colorado friend Jim Horvath, for taking the novel out on the grass during a road trip.

In June, Montana Blues made it to a rightwing crime scene mentioned in the novel, thanks to my kids.

My new novel travels to Alaska’s Exit Glacier, in late May, thanks to Mark Turner, who’s based in Homer.

Here’s Montana Blues in the hand of a different world-traveling friend, Rob Rachowiecki, in a Mexican beach town — Puerto Peñasco (Rocky Point) — in early May, for a Cinco de Mayo sailboat race. Rob wrote a Lonely Planet Guide to Ecuador a while ago, and led treks in the Andes, among his many travels and associated writing. He says his favorite trip was to Antarctica.

Readers are sending me photos of their Montana Blues in picturesque settings, through my professional Facebook page or by email. Here’s the first one — Montana Blues on a windowsill in Italy in May 2023, carried there by Mike Simmons, who’s based in Seattle. Mike got the idea to do this, and once I posted his photo, other readers began doing it too. Thanks, Mike.