Wagapalooza and Updates

Well, we were very excited to have a booth at Wagapalooza, a fundraiser for the Gentry Arkansas Animal Shelter. I think they made some good money, but I don't think any of the vendors did. Folks came out with their dogs and to play, but no one was buying. We have found this many times at events like this, and this was our final attempt to prove that theory wrong. My husband--the guy who does the books and pays extra attention to this stuff--begged me to finally learn my lesson. Yes, I get it. No more pet events. At least, this time, the booth fee went to a good cause. We both are happy with that.

It was a very long day and around 98 degrees. Whew. We had thought that being near the bounce house and water slip-slide thing would be good, but it only meant that I spent a lot of time worrying about dripping wet kids backing into my tables. Having fun, they become completely unaware of anything around them. Many of the kids liked the look of my books, but their parents weren't buying. Maybe a couple of kindle sales will follow. I'm not holding my breath.

This is the thing about events. It has to be a good match. We did a Jeep Festival on Holiday Island that actually led to some nice sales. You never know. Animal events have consistently been bummers. There's lots to look at. Dogs are cute and all.

This little guy, with his pony cut, was adorable. He pranced around for hours, mane flying.

But it usually eats up the entire day and my time is better spent. No one but me is going to finish that rough draft of Slinky Steps Out. We are getting pickier and pickier as time goes by. I love sharing my books, but this is a business I'm running.

Events that I am looking forward to are school visits for 2015-2016. I haven't put a lot of push into school visits. It's tricky with a self-published series. So we are reaching out to a few area school districts that are large enough to support an author visit financially and already plan them. We shall see where that leads.

Editing jobs for Pen-L Publishing continue. I just started the 15th book since December. Whew, again. I really love being a part of bringing someone else's book to the world. This morning, I finished a "brush up" job on Waiting for Paint to Dry. Sometimes production schedules mean that final polish happens later than anyone would like, but I bet most of the edits are things only I notice.

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If you haven't read this book, I highly recommend it and loved reading it again. Inherently, it is a story of recovery from the trauma of a teenage rape (never described in detail). But on this second reading, I just enjoyed the love story and watching Matty's life bloom. Wonderful book!

That's sort of my "work" reading. I usually have more than one book going. I just finished Bossypants by Tina Fey, which was delightful, but she needs no promotion efforts by me to help her success.

I also won a copy of the new release from blogger-supreme Heather Davis and am loving it. Most entries are only a few pages long, so it's great for when I only have a few minutes. I'm not saying "in the bathroom" because that's not quite true, but I'm sure the queen of TMI doesn't care where I read it.

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Arriving hot from the library yesterday is Invasion of the Tearling, for when I can really settle in to read for a while (aka before bed). I just finished the first book in this series and feel sorry for people who had to wait for the second one. Fantastic writing and story!

Next time I will have some updates about At the Corner of Magnetic and Main. Publication has been delayed a tad due to some unexpected and completely understandable events in the life of my publisher. It will probably be more like September at this point. But we do have a cover (which I will share shortly) and the preorder page will be up next week. Yay!!

And mark your calendars to join me on August 22 in Branson for the Ozark Writers League meeting. I'll be sharing a presentation about how to make your manuscript and pitch so beautiful that publishers and editors can't help but read it. Lots of other fun speakers and presenters will be there. Join us!!