I always loved the way Roger Miller strung words and thoughts together.  For instance, &quot;the last word in lonesome is ME.&quot;  And his ode to love gone wrong, Engine, Engine Number Nine, was one of my favorites which, to this day, I can still sing from beginning to end in a key that my friend, Janis Ian, charitably calls &quot;the key of R.&quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But this blog isn&#039;t really about that song.  It&#039;s all about Betrayal of Trust being # 9 on the New York Times Bestsellers List. So here&#039;s a big thank you to all of the people who went out this past week and bought their copies.  To make the list on that first partial week of sales is truly a remarkable achievement.  And, considering that the book&#039;s publishing date was moved up in a way that put me in competition with the summer&#039;s &quot;blockbuster&quot; books makes me even more grateful.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In the Eighties, Bill and I were early proponents of audio books, but we did it the old-fashioned way, but reading aloud to each other as we traveled up and down freeways.  Of course, back then we were still driving at 55 MPH, so we had longer to read.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;That&#039;s how we experienced our very first Tom Clancy book, The Hunt for Red October, by reading it aloud.  At that point, however, as the author of several &quot;original paperbacks&quot; which a New York Times book critic once disparagingly referred to as my &quot;funny little books,&quot; it was inconceivable that Judy Busk Jance from Bisbee, Arizona, would ever be on the same New York Times Bestsellers list along with Tom Clancy.  But happen it has!  Amazing.  And the fact that it&#039;s for Beaumont book # 20 is even more amazing!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When I submitted the manuscript for Beaumont # 1 to my agent back in 1983, the title page said, &quot;Until Proven Guilty by Judith A. Jance.  My agent was well versed in the ways of New York publishing houses.  She understood that since this was a police procedural written through a male point of view that ditching the Judith Ann part was probably a good idea.  Before sending the manuscript on, she retyped the title page to read:  &quot;Until Proven Guilty by J. A. Jance.&quot;   &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The second editor who saw the manuscript, called my agent and said, &quot;The guy who wrote Until Proven Guilty is a good writer.&quot;  My agent replied, &quot;What would you say if I told you the guy who wrote Until Proven Guilty was a woman?&quot;  His response?  &quot;I&#039;d say she was a helluva good writer.&quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The upshot is that he bought the manuscript as the first book in a proposed series.   Months later, when marketing got ahold of the manuscript, they were appalled.  They didn&#039;t think male readers would accept police procedurals written by someone named Judy.  They wanted to stick with the initials.  And so, for the first book and the five that game after that, there was no author bio or author photo, and the gender neutral J. A. Jance came into existence.  (Hey, don&#039;t knock it.  Autographing J. A. Jance is a lot easier than the full-meal-deal Judith A.!)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It turns out marketing was both right and wrong.  I still meet people who, in order to get someone to read one of my books, first removes the dust jacket so my photo isn&#039;t visible.  They don&#039;t spring the fact that I&#039;m a woman on the hapless victim until after he (and it is usually a curmudgeonly he) has already read and liked the book.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So this week, going through my e-mails, it&#039;s been gratifying to hear from any number of men who have loved J.P. and who have aged in real time right along with his doing so in fictional time.  What that says to me is that I&#039;ve made the character come alive for them.  Those are words that writers love to hear.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The professor of Creative Writing who wouldn&#039;t let me into his class back in 1964 because I was a &quot;girl&quot; is probably spinning in his grave.  I have a message for him:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;You snooze, buddy, you lose!  &lt;br /&gt;