Plot Walking

Last week, in addition to a book release, I had a visit from my friend Marian Thorpe, whose books I've spoken about here before.

Marian is one of my favorite writers, and also one of my closest friends. She drove down from Canada and we spent the better part of four days eating and talking and walking off all the food while talking some more. We both have our next books fairly firmly in mind because of all that plot walking.

One day we spent at the John Heinz Wildlife Refuge. Another was spent at Longwood Gardens, which I have somehow managed to never visit before this. I think part of me had waffled because of the $25 admission fee, but we ended up spending more than five hours there, so it was certainly worth it. All the photos here are from Longwood, because I forgot to take any on the other days.

It was absolutely perfect October weather - just cool enough, just sunny enough, leaves just beginning to turn.

By the time she went home, we had worn ourselves out. But is there any better way to be tired than from spending time with friends?

Today's the day!

Coming Together is officially out in the world, and I'm so happy and excited and exhausted and proud to bring you this last book of Ava & Claire's adventures. A few early reviews are in, and I'm going to share them with you and then go and collapse in a corner. 

Update

It's been a week, folks. I might not have had a craft show this past weekend, but I had an order of custom bears, several Christmas stockings, and a doll to get finished, along with finishing a slightly overdue freelance editing job - the client understood because he hadn't been scheduled, and he was fitted in around another job and the completion of my own book.

But it's been a lot. Still, Coming Together is now ready for its release on the 18th. I just got the paperback files loaded, and the hardcover is almost done. I just need to get the full wrap cover from my designer and that's the last thing checked off the publishing list. For now.

All this to say I don't have much to say, so I will leave you with a link to a really cool historical fiction blog. Tony Riches had me on last week to discuss the fun and challenges of writing a series set in my hometown, and I got to blather on about all the interesting things I learned about a place I thought I knew well. Check it out.

Not as young as I used to be

This was a big weekend. And I wasn't happy about it.

For the most part, I no longer schedule back to back craft shows because they just beat me up too much, and usually by the second day I don't have the strength for people. 

But this weekend was an exception on several fronts.

One of my best friends turned 50 this past week, and her party was Friday night. They were having a house concert, so we decided we would eat dinner at home, stop there for about an hour, and duck out before the music started. Nothing against potential music we didn't know, but it always feels rude to leave before it's done and I wanted to get home early.

Instead, we went early, assuming we would scavenge food there, enjoyed the entire concert, and hung around chatting afterward. needless to say, I woke up Saturday morning with a sparkling rosé induced spike in my forehead. I can't believe I used to do that for fun up until 20 years ago. Also, just like 20 years ago, I didn't eat enough.

After breakfast and much coffee, I set up in West Philadelphia for show number one. It had rained the night before; it was chilly and damp; I didn't get a single sale for the first hour. And then the sun came out and the customers came out and it was bedlam until 5:00 p.m.

That evening, I was supposed to go to an art opening in my town - where my pandemic lap quilt was on display - but because craft show number two was the next morning, I decided that it even vaguely intelligent woman would stay home, reload the car for the next day, and get some decent sleep. Which I did, except for a bit of last-minute sewing.

Sunday was busier, and yet less profitable than Saturday, in part because the Eagles game overlapped nad then went into hyper-dramatic overtime. But it was in my town, so that meant when it ended at 6:00 p.m., our car was loaded by 6:15 and we were in the driveway by 6:30.

Dinner and a glass of wine later, and I was ready for bed. I unpacked the car Monday morning as Mario was getting ready for work.

I'm definitely getting too old for this, and yet I have two more doubleheaders scheduled before the end of the year. Yay me.

Bonus Content Question

Have you signed up for my mailing list? This isn't a request that you do sign up (although I would appreciate it) - I'm just curious, for those who have, what you thought of the bonus content delivered at the time you signed up. Currently, it's a prequel novella to the Ava and Claire stories.

Once I finish the series - October 18, coming soon! - I'm debating between an epilogue which didn't fit in the book, or a PDF of photographs of locations used in the books, paired with snippets of text and/or local history.

If you were to sign up for a mailing list, which would be more interesting to you, having read the books?

Rainbows

Most people, looking at this photo, would see oil on the ground. Pollution, or a car in need of repair.

I see magic.

When I was little, my dad told me a story about a fairy ring in Ireland. I asked whether there were any fairy rings where we lived, and he said he'd never seen one, things worked differently here.

Not long after, we were coming home from the supermarket on a rainy day and I pointed out a rainbow on the surface of the wet parking lot. He told me that was where the fairies hid when they had to live in cities.

So next time you see a rainbow on the ground, tread carefully. There are fairies underfoot. 

What happens in Vegas

Writing is weird. I'm surrounded all the time by imaginary people, but there aren't a whole lot of real people I can talk to about my writing. When I find them, virtual or in the flesh, I tend to hang on.

A few years ago I joined a Facebook group for writers called 20Books to 50K. It's a weird name, but the explanation is this the founder wanted to make enough money on book sales to retire to Cabo. He figured he could do that on $50,000 a year - but rather than put all the responsibility on one or two books, he did some advanced writer math and realized that if he wrote 20 moderately-successful books - books that made $7.50 each per day - he could make that $50,000 without having a runaway bestseller. So it's a retirement plan specific to one writer, but a group of writers have grown up around it, most of whom have found various ways to get where they want to be. 

It's extremely motivating. In two years, I still haven't worked my way through all their online content, but I'll get there eventually. But the big deal - the big dog, as it were - is the yearly conference in Las Vegas.

You can pay for a virtual ticket and watch the live stream, which I've done for 2 years. Eventually the videos end up on YouTube and I can watch all the presentations I wasn't able to see at the time. But like any event, much of the important stuff happens outside of the presentations and classes, meeting writers you admire, comparing notes with someone on your level or just above.

So I've wanted to go, even though I knew it would be massively overwhelming. I couldn't justify it last year, and I had pretty much talked myself out of it this year until they put out a call for volunteers to handle the live streaming of the presentations. They hired professionals last year, and it didn't go well, so this year they decided to go back to volunteers - and those volunteers would get a conference pass, a free room, and a food stipend. I convinced my husband that with his background in communication (job) and film and TV production (in college, but still) he would be an ideal fit. Then I could share his room and his food stipend, and all I would have to pay for would be my conference fee and the airfare.

Also, we haven't had a vacation since 2018, which is one of the reasons I put off going to Vegas last year. Our March 2020 vacation was canceled, obviously, and two rescheduled trips since then had to be put off because of other issues. This isn't a trip to Paris, but we can go and stare at a fake Eiffel Tower if we're not too tired.

This is the only way I would ever want to go to Vegas. That much noise and lights and crowd is enough to send me into a hole but only if I could pull it in after me. And I will do that, the very evening we land back in Philadelphia when the conference is over. My introvert self will suck it up for 5 days, retreat to the room when necessary, meditate in the toilets, do whatever it takes to get the best experience possible out of this.

What happens in Vegas won't stay in Vegas. I'm going to bring it home and implement it and hopefully take my writing career to the next level.