My brother called me the other night to recommend a book he thought I’d like.

Bill, who is a year younger than me, and I have been close through chicken pox, trips on the family sailboat, teen angst (both ours and our kids’), and now growing older and maybe wiser.

As usual, he called while he was driving. No one interrupts then, I guess.

He just finished a book and he needed to talk about it. Though he doesn’t usually read novels, he said he picked this one up, along with a couple of non-fiction titles, to give him something to do while he waited during his youngest child’s swim meet. Because of covid restrictions, he wasn’t allowed in the indoor pool area.

He said the book started a little slow (ouch, the writer in me said) but then it grew more and more interesting until he couldn’t put it down. Three hours later he’d read the whole thing.

If you get a chance, you should read this author, he said.

Yeah? I asked. Who is it?

Um, he paused as if he was checking the cover for the author’s name.

Mary K. Tilghman, he reported.

Which book did you read? I asked.

“Your first one, Divided Loyalties.”

You gotta love brothers. And when they read your book, they’re golden.

BTW, I just re-released DIVIDED LOYALTIES as an e-book, available for 99 cents.

Available online from Kobo, Scribd, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble.