On Saturday, November 1, after you stagger awake from your Halloween festivities, come to Lark & Owl Booksellers between 1pm and 3pm for a book signing and fundraiser. The whole Black Orchid Enterprises Mystery series will be available, but the day focuses on the short story collection, Rained Out and Other Texas Holiday Disasters, about a devastating flood in Central Texas. Proceeds go to Central Texas flood recovery.

Inspiration for “Rained Out” came from the author’s Gulf Coast childhood, where she lived through five hundred-year hurricanes before she turned eighteen. She’d never heard the word “climate change,” but she thought something was definitely off with either the weather or terminology. She hoped audiences would suspend disbelief that such a terrible flood could happen in Central Texas, but since July 2025, no one has had any trouble with the idea.

Sadly, JD, Johnny, and Dianne other commitments that day—It’s Día de Muertos, Dianne would like to remind you—but they’ll make their presence felt in other ways.