This post isn't going to be all about writing, although (fingers crossed) I am back in business with my new ACER laptop that replaced the thirteen month old HP that died a month out of warranty. Whew. Everything was saved! So I'm back working on all of my projects... the next Silver Sisters Mystery---Vanishing Act in Vegas, Welcome to Paradise-- a women's fiction revenge novel like Nine to Five meets the First Wives Club, and one that I'm still hoping to find just the right tile for. It's been through four already and I'm thinking about "A Matter of Fate" for number 5. This is women's fiction about the turns fate takes when an aspiring sixteen-year-old ballerina is kidnapped, raped and left for dead. The last title was "Death Takes a Curtain Call," but it's more than that. It's her life. If anyone has a suggestion for a title, I'd love to consider it.

Anyway, on to today's topic. I've been watching TV commercials about not patronizing stores like Walmart because they sell so many offshore imports. This post isn't about low wages and no benefits --- it is about the subject of the imports.

It is absolutely true that the majority of the merchandise is imported, but I got to thinking about it. Step back for a moment and look at what has happened to our manufacturing base, the thing that used to drive America.

If you shop in a department store, even the very high end ones, and check out the labels on clothing and other merchansise you will find very little made in America, and you're paying deparment store prices even though most chains have evolved to "no-service." Hooray Nordstroms and Saks, the customer service is still good for those of you who can afford to shop there.

Now let's go to the hardware store, or the office supply store, or shop for a new car. What do you see? An overwhelming percentage of imports. Let's face it, guys, this has become our way of life and it isn't restricted to one or two discount chains. It is everywhere. The office furniture and cubicles you spend your working life in, the food you buy. All of it.

Did you ever stop to consider that products manufactured in China, for example, from raw material like steel, no longer use U.S. steel. They use Chinese steel or raw materials from whatever country manufacturers the product in question. I was in commercial office furniture project sales and design for several years, and can tell you that a large percentage of your cubicles sold by U.S. companies are fabricated off shore and sent to the U.S. for assembly.

We need to take back some of our infrastructure. That doesn't necessarily mean anything radical and doesn't mean sanctions. It just means getting our economy back in balance with a distribution of intellectual and manufacturing bases. Think about it.

MORGAN ST. JAMES
www.morganstjames-author.com

I will be signing copies of the audio version of A CORPSE IN THE SOUP in the USA Book News booth on Saturday, May 31 from 2:00-2:30.

                
For you funny mystery lovers out there who haven't discovered the Silver Sisters Mysteries yet, check out A CORPSE IN THE SOUP, the first book in the series. You can find it on Amazon in both audio and paperback. When a competing TV Chef is murdered during the "Greatest Gourmet Gladiators Tournament," Goldie and Godiva take the reader on a zany romp through Hollywood in search of the real killer and get some unwanted help from their eighty-year-old mother and uncle, former vaudeville magicians. Some of their plans backfire and they almost wind up in that soup pot in the sky.

And hold on to your hats. The second book, "Seven Deadly Samovars" is now in production for the audio book at Books in Motion. Goldie finally receives a missing shipment of samovars from Vladivostok and awful things begin to happen. This adventure takes twins Goldie and Godiva from Juneau, Alaska to Seattle and on to Los Angeles as they try to figure out why bumbling Russian thugs, the Dumkovsky brothers, have left a trail of murder and mayhem behind them. Look for release in late 2008.

That's all for today. I've been working on editing my recently finished stand-alone manuscript, "Death Takes a Curtain Call," a woman-in-jeopardy novel. Guess I'm tapped out and my eyes are crossing.

More about our family memories next time. As the old commedian said, "I've got a million of them."...stories, that is.

MORGAN ST. JAMES
www.silversistersmysteries.com
www.morganstjames-author.com