If you're not familiar with |
If you're not familiar with |
It's been a busy streak of weeks. As you can see from my event list on the side over there --> , I'm in the midst of 11 weekends in a row. June 7&8, I'm very much looking forward to you. That said, I'm also having fun meeting readers and making book sales. It's fun to write books and all, but it's also nice to pay bills and that means getting my books out there for people to find.
Events have been going fairly well, my favorite for the year so far was Viking Fest in Whitestown Indiana. I had a fun booth neighbor and other than some light rain on Friday, the rest of the weekend was gorgeous. Books were sold, beer was imbibed, acts were enjoyed, and I got to introduce my newest little chicken into the world of meeting people and traveling in the car. Peep did well.
My least favorite event of the year was this past weekend at the Southern Indiana Renaissance Faire. This was a new to me event and pretty much all the things went wrong. I've been doing events for ten years and hands down, this is was the biggest mess I've ever had to deal with. Yep, it even beats the year we had hail at Viking Fest making it so cold that I didn't realize I'd broken my finger loading out until later during the car ride home when my hand thawed out, and the Sturgis event where the organizer thought it would be a great idea to place the author tent at the far end of the field with nothing else around to make it a 'destination' for patrons to venture over to. Hint: they did not venture over.
Rather than rant about all the bad things, I'll skip to the star of the show.
It rained intermittently for four days. When I got there to set up, it looked like this:
By the Sunday, the area in front of my booth looked like this:
We could not drive in to load out and so all the vendors had to carry or cart their items through 6 inch puddles and shoe sucking mud all the way to the parking lot to get out of there.
Having done shows for ten years, I'm prepared for a lot of things, but this was a challenge I'd be happy to never repeat.
Onward to this month's Insecure Writer's Support Group question: What are your greatest fears as a writer?
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1. A reader discovering a plot hole or inconsistency that I missed. This is what my brain tells me is going to be revealed every time someone starts a conversation with #3 on this list.
2. Inadvertently reusing a name from another one of my novels. With 18 books currently published and several more in the works, this one becomes more challenging every year. Is this actually a huge deal? Probably not, but in my head it is.
3. Anytime someone comes up and says: "I read your book." Readers have no idea what kind of anxiety this lead in instills in a writer. And? Did you hate it? Loved it? Give me a little something with those words so I can either relax or brace myself. 99% of the time, it's good things, but that line still makes me wince.
March was fun, with some new to me events.
We started the month at Mona Shores Comic Con, which was great because it was free for vendors, and also, many of my fellow author and vendor friends were there so we got to catch up. This one was put on by a high school so we met many students as well as some of the general public. I've been informed that next year, the chicken should also be in attendance. 🐔
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I even had a few early copies of Nugget for Fantasticon. |
Next, I ventured over my first Ohio event in Toledo. Fantasticon was full of new to me vendors. New friends were made and I got to chat with a few old ones too. It was great to get to meet a new audience and introduce them to my books.
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I had a tiny table for Third Coast so we had a book mountain instead of my usual spread. |
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Author friends, old and new |
I wrapped up with month with my annual across the state college con in Alma, MI. Attendance was down this year due to a lack of advertising, but I did meet some new readers, as well as visiting with a few fans and I got a lot of reading done.
There are lots of places to find me in April on the list -->
Now that Nugget the Space Chicken is out in the world, I'm onto the second project of the year, I9. I closed the window on beta comments on Monday so now comes the fun of compiling feedback and digging into revisions.
Audio narration of Sahmara is also in the works. I'm guessing I'll have a few more chapters in my inbox at some point this month.
Interface is making slow but steady revision progress and going well with my critique group.
I also may have started writing the second Nugget book.
Can one have too many projects going at once? Nah. Ok, maybe, but I'll do it anyway because that's how I roll.
If you're not familiar with and find links to all the other participating writers. |
Onward to this month's Insecure Writer's Support Group Question: What fantasy character would you like to fight, go on a quest with or have a drink with?
Have a seat, Vlad, we're gonna have a few beverages and see what happens.
It would probably start as a drink, then we'd get talking and either end up in a fight or find ourselves on a quest or a combination of the two because really, what's a quest with a fight in there somewhere?
It's release day for Nugget the Space Chicken and the Dragon of Ishenor!
I had so much fun writing this book and watching my daughter's illustration sketches come to life. Now, here we are in print. Woohoo!
Jasper and Opal’s first mission with their scientist parents
is to study the world of Ishenor to see if it could be a home for humans. They
travel to the planet’s surface with Nugget, their pet chicken, to collect
samples. Everyone has a job to do.
While their parents explore the landscape, Opal gathers
plants and Jasper collects rocks. Nugget’s job is to stay out of trouble, but
hunting for bugs leads her to a lost baby dragon.
Can Opal, Jasper, and Nugget get the dragon home safely before their parents return, or will they all be grounded forever?
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If you'd like a preview, I did a reading of the first chapters on Indie Reads this week. It's available on Spotify and YouTube
You can find me and Nugget's book at the Third Coast Author and Book Fest today (March 22) in Grand Haven, MI, along with a hundred and some other authors who are taking over the downtown shops.
Jasper and Opal’s first mission with their scientist parents
is to study the world of Ishenor to see if it could be a home for humans. They
travel to the planet’s surface with Nugget, their pet chicken, to collect
samples. Everyone has a job to do.
While their parents explore the landscape, Opal gathers
plants and Jasper collects rocks. Nugget’s job is to stay out of trouble, but
hunting for bugs leads her to a lost baby dragon.
Can Opal, Jasper, and Nugget get the dragon home safely before their parents return, or will they all be grounded forever?
Amazon / B&N / etc. and also signed copies direct from me on that handy tab above
If you're not familiar with and find links to all the other participating writers. |
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After three long days of pitching books, most of us still managed to smile. |
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Hanging out at my booth at the Women's Expo |
Last weekend was my first comic con of the year. A small show but perfect for getting back into the swing of things after the holiday break. It was fun getting the con vendor gang back together and meeting new readers.
This weekend I'll be remembering how to do three day events again at the Mid-Michigan Women's Expo. Our author alley will feature eighteen Michigan authors (who will likely be chugging a lot of caffeinated beverages). Books are stocked and my event gear is ready to roll.
Nugget the Space Chicken and the Dragon of Ishenor is ready for ARC readers. If you're interested in a review copy of this early reader chapter book aimed at ages 5-9, there's a sign up form here.
If you're not familiar with and find links to all the other participating writers. |
If you're not familiar with and find links to all the other participating writers. |
Let's see what was on the agenda for 2024 and how I did.
New books I hope you'll see in 2024:
Frayed - out with ARC readers RELEASED!
One Shot At The Sphinx - in the last round of edits RELEASED!
Laya's Vacation - waiting for illustrations RELEASED!
Projects I hope to get to or wrap up in 2024:
Godmother - currently just notes I did start this one. So yay? Is it wrapped up? Nooooooo
i9 - first draft in progress First draft complete! Hooray!
Interface - first draft in progress Ooooooh, yeah, so uhh..... FAIL. AGAIN. Sorry, Interface.
On the bonus side, I did write Nugget the Space Chicken, which wasn't even on my list (currently out for edits and a reading by my target audience). Woohoo!
Other goals for 2024:
As always, I'm hoping to read more. I have so many books on my TBR stacks and on my kindle. I did get at least one if not three books read a month, so I'll call this a win. Did I also add to my TBR stacks so I looks like I accomplished nothing? Yep.
I'd like to get out in my flower garden more. We'll see if my body cooperates. I did return to the flower garden and cleaned out / replanted several large sections, redid my stone stairway, AND built a large raised vegetable garden out of five pallets full of very heavy blocks. #muscle
Maybe work a little less. Yes, I'm laughing at that one while looking at my 2024 events over there on the right, but we're back to that hope thing. On paper, I did work less. A little. I only did one book event Sept - Dec so yay me. The down time would have been fantastic had I not also taken on two exchange students in Sept for the rest of the school year. Are they fun kids? Yep. Are we having a good time? Yep. Am I relaxing? Umm Nope.
Which brings us to... Goals for 2025:
Publish Nugget the Space Chicken
Publish I9
Finish writing Godmother
Finish writing Interface (Shaking my head at this one. Poor Interface)
Successfully juggle enough book stock for all those events --->
Read two books a month
Keep working on the overgrown flower garden
Did you have a good year? Do you have goals for the year ahead?