It’s funny, Jack Preston King , that you should bring up novels. Just this afternoon I was thinking and I realized that it has been almost five years since I’ve written and published a novel. That may be the longest time I’ve gone without doing so in decades. Of course I’ve written thousands of articles and stories since then but there is something very different about novel writing. I am feeling ever more certain with each passing month that the time to go back to novel writing is very quickly approaching. I can feel it in my bones.

You know what else is funny about novels? I live just two blocks away from the local Catholic thrift store. I go in now and again — mostly just to check out their teeny tiny book section. You just never know when you’re going to stumble on an autographed Ernest Hemingway first edition or some other jewel.

So the other day I went into the Catholic thrift store to see what was new in their teeny tiny book section. I was browsing a shelf at eye level from right to left. None of the books are alphabetized so there is no point in browsing from left to right. It is a chance to defy social convention.

And suddenly, what to my weary eyes should appear but one of my own novels! I seriously freaked out. I’ve seen my books on bookstore shelves before but never, ever on a thrift store shelf! (Especially a Catholic one.) I felt I had just attained a new higher level of authorship.

I rejoiced. I laughed out loud. And I was also confused. In the seven and a half years that I’ve been living in this town I haven’t told anyone here that I’m a writer. That’s secret. Like Salinger was, I’m a privacy freak. So how the hell did my novel (and favorite one) end up on a shelf in a thrift store in this town?

When I was done rejoicing I touched the book with my hand to sort of re-charge it with my energy then proceeded on with my book browsing.

Of course now I will probably be visiting the Catholic thrift store more often. Why? Because I will want to see if my book is still there, hoping that it is not; hoping that someone had pluncked down a quarter for it (even though the Catholics get the quarter).

But I digress. You asked for novels so I will recommend the last two novels I wrote before I quit writing novels, beginning with the most recent. Both novels are available on Amazon through these links in either paperback or ebook as well as at Barnes & Noble and who knows where else. You might want to check your local thrift store.

Park Bench Mojo — One wintry day Penny Crawford, a middle-aged cashier at the local Wal-Mart, went to the park and sat on a park bench overlooking the lake. A white-haired old man soon came and sat next to her. What he told her changed her life forever.

The Reincarnation of Edgar Cayce — Sarah Benson, a young country western singer/songwriter had writer’s block. She hadn’t written a song in over a year. Then she had a series of 22 recurring dreams. And then she set out on a journey, a quest, a rejuvenating path of self-awareness and when she got home everything had changed more than she could ever have imagined. (This novel, by the way, is the one I saw in the thrift store.)

I look forward to seeing what other Medium novelists have to offer. Go novels!