Fall has arrived and taken over everything like a controlling partner. "Maybe you should slow down on the coffee, dear," or "We're having dinner with the Mufflins tonight. Try to look presentable."

Because the air and the colors are changing around us, does that mean we have to change as well? And if we're being nudged by that same chilly gust scattering dried leaves around the patio, how do we know what to change?

Whether we have the awareness, we change daily.

I hit the snooze six times today, instead of four. That was different. The freeway was down to a single lane because of construction—that's a change from yesterday. I decided to stop watching American Horror Story after the first three episodes of the new season. Total change.

But the changes that matter aren’t the small, daily shifts; they’re the quiet ones that rearrange us from the inside out. Some intentional, others we're dragged through.

But all of them leave a mark we don't notice until much later. And when they are discovered by artist-types, songs are written.

Changes, David Bowie

Wind of Change, Scorpions

Change of Heart, Cyndi Lauper

Change the World, Eric Clapton

Change, John Waite

Don't Change, INXS

Only three states remain before The Maroon Candle lights up the entire country. If someone had told me in June that I would have sales in 47 states, I would have laughed until snot shot from my nose. Alaska and Hawaii!

October will be a month of horror films, horror novels, and plotting my fifth book, an idea already brewing that will move me from the scary human killers in my stories to something a little more mysterious. Dare I say, supernatural? Otherworldly? Monstrous?

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