When my brother and I were in Pittsburgh, we stayed in the Fairfield Inn on Neville Island. Some of you might recognize the hotel from the books in The Dreamer’s Alliance series. Neville Island is one of the Pittsburgh landmarks mentioned in every one of my books. The hotel isn’t mentioned in Bridge to Nowhere, but it does show up in my current work in progress.
All marketing aside, each morning I began by going down to the lobby for coffee. They make pretty good coffee, and they put a pitcher of cream out for folks like me. If our room is near a stairwell, I walk down and take the elevator back up. This time, our room was one door away from the elevator, so I rode both ways. One morning, as I was getting coffee, four women were getting in the elevator as I was getting out. The elevator is one of those quick-closing jobs designed to grab your luggage and spill your drink, so I held the doors open. We shared a few morning greetings as they stepped in. After they were all in, one woman looked over at me and thanked me with an odd twist:
“Thank you — you’re a very nice young man.”
One-Liner Wednesday by Linda G. Hill
I’m almost 70, but I didn’t bother to correct her.
The gallery includes some photos from our stay. A couple explanations might help. 1) I mentioned earlier that we brought takeout back to the hotel to avoid having to go out during the storm. It was Polish food. 2) Neville Island historically is an industrial island. During WWII, they made landing crafts (Higgen’s Boats) on this island and sailed them down the Ohio River to the Gulf of Mexico. About 1/3 of the island is residential. 3) Linus is the name we gave a squirrel who has a habit of burying peanuts and seeds. He has buried a number of raw pumpkin seeds and the plants are growing.
All five of my current books are now available in audio book form thanks to Amazon KDP’s Virtual Voice process. The voice is AI generated, but I can honestly say, it’s pretty darn good. The audio books are reasonably priced (all below $7 US) and, if you already own the Kindle version and want to add an audio version, you can do that for $1.99. There is a five-minute sample on the book page for each book. If you’re interested, click on any of the Dreamer’s Alliance book links below the image or on the link below for my latest book.
No Facilities 
Add your thoughts or join the discussion. One relevant link is OK, more require moderation.