For as long as I can remember, I have been superstitious about the number 13. The irony that the final book of my trilogy will be released in 2013 is not lost on me. During my last week in Costa Rica, I completed yet another round of edits for Choosing: 1940-1989, knowing full well that September 29th will be upon us quicker than we can imagine.

The excitement is mounting, especially when Sara joined me for a long overdue mother-daughter vacation for our initial two weeks at the exquisite Villas Las Ventanas. She had decided to bring Arriving and Thriving with her, and after racing through both books again in two days, she started to become very insistent about reading Choosing. She experienced little consolation in my well-founded supposition that she would hardly appreciate being presented with an unfinished version.

Fortunately, the passage of time can avert many a crisis, and she had to return to the wintry climes of Alberta before she succeeded in convincing her mother that she had an irrefutable right to be the first to read the concluding novel of my trilogy. It is with confidence I write that the assiduously guarded manuscript has been returned to my editor, without having been perused by one consummate reader.

During my fourth annual visit to this beautiful country, I have once again enjoyed its rustic charm and the relaxed pace of its friendly inhabitants. Playing daily in the crashing waves of the warm Pacific Ocean and strolling along its enduring shore have readily rejuvenated my mind and restored my soul.

This year, I have had the rewarding experience of sitting poolside to observe and converse with Susan who was absorbed in Arriving, and Barbie then joining her, deeply engrossed in her copy of Thriving. Later Sybil, a long-ago immigrant from Austria to Costa Rica, promptly purchased Arriving, offering to translate it into German once she had finished reading it. When Edwin, a native Costa Rican who had studied to become a chef in New Jersey before returning home to open his own restaurant decided that he wanted to read my books, I was thrilled.

Then, this past week when an individual from Harvard University liked my Facebook, it was affirmed that my Understanding Ursula trilogy is indeed travelling, with word being spread to many different parts of Canada and the United States. Still, there is much preparatory work to be done before the launch of Choosing: 1940-1989.

Not only are my books journeying about the continent, but the story is now on the move across the Prairies with members of the Warner family leaving Saskatchewan, residing briefly in Manitoba before bringing the series to its eagerly anticipated end in Alberta. I would be remiss, if upon my return to Canada, I did not endeavour to increase my reader base by arranging book tours to Red Deer, Calgary, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, and Grande Prairie.

Corinne