First Greetings of 2026

To start, many thanks to all of you who have placed orders for either Paperback or eBook copies of Furtive Retribution! Initial order activity has been brisk, and a few reviews have already appeared on Goodreads. I value all your support with this pre-launch of book number nine.

If all goes according to plan, by the time you receive this email, we should be in Vancouver, British Columbia—our first stop before heading out to the South Pacific for a couple months.

“We” is not my wife and me. No, Linda had both knees replaced in 2025, so she’s not yet ready for such a long trip. Instead, my companion is a granddaughter, Sydney. She’s headed to the University of Auckland for a year, and when her mother asked if I might travel with her to see that Sydney settled in nicely, it took me about 1.5 seconds to assure her that I would.

This, however, is the same young woman who just backpacked through 5 Southeast Asian countries over five months last year. So, I’m guessing the amount of time she’ll need my help in New Zealand will probably be measured in minutes, not hours. Then, we’ll do some sightseeing before she starts her studies.

And that’s the reason I’m making you aware of this story. I want to invite you to join me on my first visit to New Zealand, Fiji, and Western Australia. I’ll do most of my exploring on foot and don’t plan to visit all the tourist spots. Instead, I plan to poke around areas I can reach easily and quickly during my short stays in each country.

Most importantly, I’ll be posting photos of my journey on social media. I won’t promise pictures every day, but most days I’ll share some of the sights I’ve discovered during my walks around cities like Auckland, Christchurch, and Perth. If you haven’t had a chance to visit these areas, I invite you to follow me on one of these sites now. Welcome aboard!

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