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Outside Temperature: 72 °F
Outside Relative Humidity: 95%

Sunrise: 5:43AM EDT

August 8, 2021 - Falmouth, MA
In this issue:
Professionalism
Unfinished Business - J.A. Jance
EPA's Indoor airPLUS
Edgartown Books
Benjamin Bunny and the Rabbit Hole
PHR Books
PHR Work-in-Progress
Your Turn

Professionalism -
I love professionals -- not just people who are professional because they get paid for what they do. But people who love what they do and do it with skill and grace. I remember watching a crew behind the counter at a delicatessen dance around each other, never missing a step and never missing a beat. I just had an

enormous tree removed from my back yard. There were three professionals who all knew their jobs and how their tasks complimented and did not conflict with each other. I really love customer service professionals. They are pretty rare, but when they can do their (often thankless) job with compassion and grace, it is a joy to behold.
I understand that finding good help is a problem everywhere. Usually, here on Cape Cod, students love to come and work the retail jobs and enjoy the sun and beaches. These folks have little training or experience in the jobs they are doing, but there is absolutely NO REASON for customers to take out their frustrations on them with expressions like, "I hope you get hit by a car on your way home!"
The fact is that we all need to be professionals too, especially when we are customers. it's an interaction of people's lives. Thank a professional today!

Stay well,
Paul
Paul H. Raymer

Unfinished Business - J.A. Jance
Ali Reynolds Series #16
Genre: Thrillers & Suspense

"In this heart-pounding and sharply written thriller from J.A. Jance, the 'grand master of the genre' (The Providence Journal), Ali Reynolds's personal life is thrown into turmoil . . ." so the review promises. I mean, I've had a hear attack but this book didn't send me to my cardiologist. "Sharply written"? I'm not sure what that means.

J.A. Jance has written forty-six contemporary novels in this genre. She is a professional. She travels a lot (at least she used to before the pandemic). I like professionals as I mentioned above.They know what they are doing, and they do it well.

But this book seems like it was written in a kind of a hurry to meet a contract obligation perhaps. There is an interesting plot element of a guy in jail for a murder that he didn't commit and is unwilling to admit that he did it just to get out earlier on parole All the while he is in prison he studied computer science so that he can get a good job and turn his life around when he gets out.

Pasted on top of this is a nasty character who has killed a number of people--including his mother--who has settled into trying to make a living as a home inspector. But he doesn't pay his rent and gets evicted by Ali Reynolds, which causes him to develop a serious grudge putting Ali and members of her staff in the way of a psychotic killer.

Meanwhile, Ali's father is losing his mind, causing Ali other extenuating problems.

Ali is the thread that ties all these pieces together, and I guess if you've read the other books in the series you could empathize with the character develoopment. But this was my first experience with J.A. Jance and Ali Reynolds so I found this story a bit like one of those threatening murder notes where the words are cut out of different printed articles: they delivered the message, but it wasn't a joy to read.

EPA's Indoor airPLUS

If you are building a new house, you might consider having it built to ENERGY STAR for Homes or even Zero Energy Ready Homes (ZERH) standards. Those programs include fantastic details for energy efficiency. With ZERH, the house can actually generate more energy than it uses so that instead of paying for electricity, you can get PAID! This was just a theoretical dream until recently.

If you are going to go that far, it doesn't take much to consider the air quality in your energy efficient home. Indoor airPLUS (IAP) does exactly that. The standard builds on the energy efficient criteria.

IAP highlights seven elements: moisture, radon, pest barriers, hvac (heating, cooling and ventilation), combustion pollutant control, low emission materials, and home commissioning. Most of the elements are only minor, common sense adjustments to a well built home. The fact is that just building to code now requires a very tight house, so it is an excellent and common sensical (if there is such a word) idea to not keep nasty stuff inside. And the first step in doing that is to not bring it into the house in the first place. So keeping the water (and moisture) and pests out just takes careful attention to the details and should be a part of professional construction.

There is no level of radon that is perfectly safe -- keeping it below 4 pCi/L the EPA threshold action level is a good place to start. But even if the house is not located in Radon Zone 1, radon levels can vary from house to house and day to day. It just makes sense to test. It's not expensive.

Indoor airPLUS is the next step in a state-of-the-art home.

Edgartown Books

We are a beloved independent bookstore nestled on the island of Martha's Vineyard where readers, leaders, and day dreamers can pick up great books as well as thoughtful gifts for every celebration.

Drop into our beautiful Main Street location for the ultimate old-fashioned bookstore experience or support us from afar through our online store!
Edgartown Books
(508) 627-8463
44 Main Street
Edgartown, MA 0253
Martha's Vineyard

Benjamin Bunny and the Rabbit Hole

Checklist for self-publishing

There's a lot to do before a book gets published. Jane Friedman created a LIST to keep track of it all. This parallels similar lists that I have seen, but all the necessary elements are there.

Reading list
Bookbub is a great resource for finding your next book to read. You can get a daily list of books in genres that you enjoy.

Tracking sales
BookTrakr is a very cool way to tack all the sales and rankings on your books so when you query an agent and they ask how many copies of your books have sold you can give them an accurate answer.

PHR Books
Residential Ventilation Handbook V2
Recalculating Truth
Death at the Edge of the Diamond
Also available on-line and in fine bookshops.

PHR Work-in-Progress
The new novel - Second Law - only 9 months before the launch. Starting to feel a bit of pressure to get it all done!

Your Turn: Favorite Way to Stay In-Shape

In my last issue I asked you about favorite ways to stay in shape this summer. Here's a selection of what you said:

Walking - anywhere, on the beach, in the woods, or through the neighborhood;
Swimming - the warm weather let's me swim in the lake in front of my house. Like to get to the ocean once in awhile;
Peloton - I can exersize inside in the air conditioning;
Yard work - No, really. You can get a lot of exercise behind a lawn-mower. And it's got to be done, right?

Next Question: Did you watch the Olympics?

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