Last night was the unofficial start of my book tour. This first autographing took place at my local Barnes & Noble in Silverdale—and I didn't have my earring stuck inside my ear, or anything! The store sold out of THE SHOP ON BLOSSOM STREET paperback and only had three or four copies of A GOOD YARN left at the end of the night. This is my own backyard, so to speak, and it was a great way to start off my tour.

Wayne is driving me to the airport this evening and then the wonderful craziness officially begins in Omaha. I'll be keeping in touch with you through Renate, my able-bodied assistant, with regular updates from the road. My last signing (as part of the tour)is May 16th and I'll arrive home on the 17th. I'll tell it like it is: the good, the bad, and everything in-between.

Remember how I mentioned God has a way of keeping me humble. It happened again. A friend Sharon and I went shopping after work last evening. I was telling her about my radio interviews and why I love radio so much. We had a great time and I found a couple of things to take on tour with me. As we were walking through the Mall we both saw a woman sitting on a bench reading. Sure enough, (God bless her!) she was reading a Debbie Macomber book. Before I could stop her, Sharon walked over and asked this dear soul if she'd like to meet the author. The woman was delightful and very polite not to point out a rather embarrassing fact. I seldom wear dangling earrings, but I happened to yesterday. Unbeknownst to me, the dangly part of the earring had gotten stuck inside my ear! I'm gearing up to leave for tour on Saturday and I promise you I'm not packing my dangly earrings and am doing everything I can to look as close to the publicity photo on my flyer as possible.

I have two radio interviews this morning. I love radio. What's not to love? First off, I look so thin on the air and, secondly, I don't need to go into a studio. I do for some, but both of these interviews will happen over the phone in the comfort of my own office. I'll sit back with my Wal-Mart water in my hand and chat for a few minutes. I really enjoy that.

Some of these interviews are scheduled though my personal publicist, Nancy Berland. Many of you will recognize her name because my e-mails come through her. For book tours, my publisher employs another publicity firm to arrange media and schedule my tours (I leave bright and early Saturday morning—more about that later.)

Usually, right before I have a book out, there's a flood of such interviews. Just think–one day you might be innocently driving down the road, and hear my voice over your local radio station. Just remember, if you should hear me talking: I'm really, really skinny, my hair is perfect, and so is my make-up. Oh, and I'm wearing a ravishing gown with panty hose that fits perfectly on my long, shapely legs.

God keeps me humble. Yesterday afternoon was a good example. On my way home from the office, I stopped off at the local QFC grocery, where I do the majority of my shopping. As I walked in the door, I did a double-take. There was a wonderful display of A GOOD YARN, surrounded by the paperback copies of THE SHOP ON BLOSSOM STREET. Right there inside the door. As I pushed my cart through the aisle, I was doing a little jig of joy. I thanked Mike, the store's manager, and he pointed out that all 85 QFCs are offering A GOOD YARN with a 25% discount. It's even in their ad that came out in the newspaper.

I took a copy of the ad home and gleefully showed Wayne the picture. It was then that it happened. I should have known better than to read the small print. It read: Local New York Times Best Selling author Debbie McComber brings us Another Good Yarn. Just to set the record straight, it's Macomber.

It feels good to be back to work this morning. Much more of this cleaning frenzy, and I'm going to keel over.

I have to come into the office to rest up. Wayne's been tackling the downstairs. Everything has been stuffed down there, including a good majority of my mother's things. As Wayne says, it looks like we've been shopping at the Stuff-Mart.

My yarn room is nicely organized, but that's only one small area. I've been zeroing in on the main floor (neither one of us can bear the thought of tackling the upstairs bedrooms yet). My desk in the den is cleared off for the first time since before Christmas. My granddaughters Jazmine, Bailey and Maddy helped me sort through all my bath goodies and carted off any and everything they thought they might need themselves. As Maddy told her Mom, "Grandma's giving it away."

I've been listening to a lot of music lately. Almost always I have a book on tape playing. They feed my creativity and help keep me current on what's selling. Lately, however, I find my mind wandering, so I'm listening to music. I play a lot of contemporary Christian rock, along with a few of my favorites, including Barry Manilow. I sang along to his CD on the drive into the office this morning. Tomorrow, I'm doing a one-day, round-trip to Yakima (where I was born and raised), and I'm already looking forward to the drive. The Bee Gees have never sounded better.

Mom had a lovely white antique jewelry box, decorated on the top with toll painting in a floral print. I thought I'd use that for my small, but very precious, cameo collection. So last night I cleaned out my own jewelry box . . . and discovered the most amazing treasures!

After I transferred my lovely cameos to mom's box, I discovered in my own box an entire layer of jewelry that I'd completely forgotten. It was like stumbling upon buried treasure. My favorite find was a black pearl Wayne bought me when we were in the Cook Islands. It's pear-shaped and about the size of my thumbnail. It used to be one of my favorites, and I used to wear it nearly every day. It's astonishing to me that I could have forgotten it.

The cleaning madness continues. If this goes on much longer, I think I should get vaccinated or start some sort of drug therapy. I'm beginning to realize what this is all about. First, Wayne started it with that labeling contraption. Then I went into my closet, which has a peculiar problem. It seems if I keep clothes in there for any length of time, they shrink. It must be something in the air filter . . .

At any rate I'm sorting through everything, because I'm getting ready to go on tour for A GOOD YARN. Now most of you think touring is the glamorous part of a writer's life. In many ways it is wonderful—I enjoy meeting and talking to my readers. But it's also exhausting. The key is to pack the most comfortable clothes I have, and to be extra careful to avoid the ones that have shrunk (due to that air filter problem).

Something is in the air around our house, and I'm afraid it's catching. It all started with Wayne and his labeling contraption. Despite my best efforts to keep him out, he's in the house now, his eagle eyes scouting out any unlabeled area. Thankfully, he's concentrated his efforts on the basement.

Then it happened. Out of the blue, I developed this insatiable urge to reorganize my closet. While I was working in there, the neat stacks of stuff in the bedroom caught my eye, and, before I knew it, I started thinking about cleaning that room next. I'm not sure if this is a good thing. To be on the safe side I'm contacting our family physician.

Wayne and I rolled into the house close to midnight last night after a thoroughly wonderful weekend in Vancouver, B.C. Many thanks to the readers who came to the autographing at the Chapters store in Burnaby on Friday afternoon. On Saturday I spoke to the Greater Vancouver RWA (Romance Writers of America) chapter. What a terrific group they were, too!

On Sunday we took an all-day tour of the city and came away with a renewed appreciation of our northern neighbors. Vancouver B.C. is a great place to visit. If your vacation plans bring you into the Pacific NW, I would encourage you to stop off in Vancouver, Victoria and in . . . Cedar Cove, which is really Port Orchard. I can guarantee you a warm welcome in all three cities.

For this trip Wayne and I took the train, which was an experience in itself and a great way to travel.