August 24. The hottest day of the year. One hundred and two degrees. Superiorly hot. Seeping hot. So hot that, if you leave the house without sunglasses on, you’ll go blind.
I’ve trapped myself in the air-conditioned office, working. My goal is to finish speed-reading three novels and critiquing each. My boss at Glossner Books is going to be so happy with me if I complete my task. Good for me.
I have approximately fifteen more pages to read in a book called Haunting Stella. It’s about a missing woman who is murdered outside Pittsburgh. Her captive—Reese Molten, her mother’s brother—tosses her in a pond, and she drowns, unable to swim. Most of the book is comprised of Stella’s stream of consciousness. Before passing from this world into the next, as a ghost, Stella supernaturally leads he
