War Eagle 2016

We had a fantastic time at the War Eagle Craft Fair last weekend! It poured rain on Wednesday, and that made set-up a bit interesting. We managed to get our tent up between storms, but the field was super muddy and full of puddles. Fortunately, it only sprinkled on and off from there on out. Thursday was still muddy, but thousands of people turned out. The weather was beautiful on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Normally, we freeze until about noon. Not this year. If anything, it was a bit too warm for comfort. You never know what you will get with an outdoor fair. 

We tried a bit of a new set up this year, and I was pleased with the results. The display rack made the books more visible, and the signs on the canopy did a better job of advertising what we had to offer among the daze of booth and goods. Someone even suggested that I need a book about ghost cats and dogs. Hmmm. I'll add it to the list of books I'd love to write.

Zombie hoards or shoppers? Sometimes it is hard to tell.
This crowd is crossing over the bridge to the far side of the mill,
but just as many are waiting for their turn to come join us on the Sharp's Field side. 

Scott kept busy passing out bookmarks and getting folks to stop and say hi.
Hiro kept him company.

It is a long four days, and it helps to have wonderful neighbors. We were across from La Shay and her hand-painted decor again this fall. Besides the fact that her kids enjoy my books, she and her husband are just fun and entertaining when traffic gets slow at the end of the day. She is taking some custom orders this year, so you should check it out.

While the overall traffic was lighter this year, we still met some lovely new readers. Thank you to Luke, JoHanna, Tasha, Cade, Luke, Emerson, Ryan, LeeAnn, Laila, Witney, AnnaClaire, Miss Tori, Ashly, Heather, Rachel, Emily, Gavin, Lucas, Tyler, Sadie, Julia, Abbie, Vincent, Lyla, Averi, Cassie, Luke, Preston, Rachel, Alexander, Noah, Alexander, and Melanie, who went home with new books. And a special thank you to Becket, who went home with the whole Cats in the Mirror series, and Aryel, who now has all five of my children's books to enjoy.

I snapped this photo as a joke. I thought this Kimba toy was looking at me so sadly because no one had taken her home yet. Within a few minutes, a young man stopped in and bought her (along with a book) and had me sign the tag too. She went home with a very delighted friend.

What was really exciting was to have repeat visitors find our booth. One group was sent on a mission to get Vacation Hiro, and others were excited to get Slinky Steps Out as the new book this year. More than one child told me they have read Why Kimba Saved The World over and over. That is about the best compliment a writer can get. Yay!!

I'm also happy to announce the winner of the free Kindle Fire: Shonda from Red Oak, Texas. Congratulations, Shonda! She says that her daughter is already loving her copy of Why Kimba Saved The World. Outstanding!

Kimba helped me select the winner. At first, she was not terribly interested in all those slips of paper. It was nap time and all that.

But curiosity won out. She came down from her favorite perch and finally touched her nose to one. I pulled it aside, just to be sure. She agreed. "Yes. That's the winner."

Then, of course, she had to play in them for a bit. I didn't want to disturb her fun by trying to get a video, but she chased her tail on the pile and had a lovely time.

Everyone was a winner in Kimba's opinion.

While I was having lunch upstairs, I could hear her singing down in the office. Apparently, y'all met with Pooh Bear's approval as well, so she placed him on the pile.

Seriously. She did this. Adding Pooh to the mix means she is very happy. 

We have sold out of Slinky and Max toys, but more are on the way for my next event on November 12th at the Bella Vista Christmas Bazaar. I'm trying for at least one book event a month in 2017, and so far it is all falling into place. Except for January. The weather is too unpredictable to plan anything, and I'll be busy doing final formatting and editing on Dottie's Daring Day then anyhow, still on schedule for a February 1, 2017 release date. The cover reveal should be coming shortly, along with my fall newsletter. Don't forget to sign up here at my blog or at my website so you don't miss out on special Holiday sales.

Now I'm just hoping for more fall-like weather (what's up with this 80 degree stuff?) and getting Dottie off to the editor by the end of the month. Here's to campfires and hot chocolate and all the fun that the chilly weather has in store in the weeks ahead.

Reflections on a Big Plan

In 2010, I sat in a booth at Dave and Busters in Houston, Texas, while "Mindy" and a handful of friends played games and enjoyed being teenagers. Ignoring whatever sporting events were on the multiple TVs in the bar, I took pen to white legal pad and said "what if." I had a cute little early reader book about my cat Kimba, but it seemed like it could be more and bigger and better. I'd even gotten that advice from an agent at a SCBWI conference. But what would that story look like?

After several hours of making notes and letting ideas flow, I wrote down the names of what I could now see was a series of books: Why Kimba Saved The World, Vacation Hiro, Miss Fatty Cat's Revenge, and Slinky Steps Out. I wasn't even sure what Miss Fatty Cat would want revenge for, but the title was too fun to not write down.

Back in 2010, I couldn't have begun to imagine living in Arkansas, my work with Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge that gave shape to Miss Fatty Cat's book, and all the events that would lead up to self-publishing the Cats in the Mirror series. Life is a funny thing.

Today, the paperback editing proof of the final book in that pre-planned series arrived.

It was hard to imagine Slinky going off to college with "Mindy" back when I started this writing journey. Now it has been a fact of life for a couple of years. It makes me step back and take note that the goal I set six years ago has come to total fruition, with even another book about Max in there as well, not to mention At the Corner of Magnetic and Main, which was nowhere on my radar back then.

It makes me wonder where I will be six years from now. Already, big changes for our lives are on the horizon--not the least of which involves "Leia" heading off to college in August and leaving us with the first stages of being empty-nesters.

I often see the joke meme passed around that says, when life hits us with big stuff we don't expect, writers should know enough to yell "plot twist" and go with it. Control freak that I am, I am really going to try, though it may come off more as mumbling while I bang my head on my desk.

My hope is that there will be Dottie's Daring Day on the horizon, featuring our granddoggie Dottie and some parallel adventures to Max's book.

Dottie is certainly deserving of her own adventure story.

There really should be a Kimba's Christmas story because every series needs a good Christmas book, but I haven't got the faintest idea what that would be about.

Kimba reminds me daily that it is still HER series.

Cheetara is quite confident that she deserves her own book, sooner rather than later. Cats are so demanding.

Chee is a character and will be easy to write about if I sit down and try.

It would be really great to take some time to put together learning guides to go with each cat book and get more involved with home schooling groups. I'm giving lots of writer talks this year, and I'd love to keep that going and kick it up a notch. But there are plot twists ahead that I am as clueless about as any main character could be. I'm just taking each day and the list that goes with it and trying not to freak out too much.

In the meantime, you will be hearing more than you could ever want to about Slinky Steps Out come April 1st. Release date is on schedule, and it's nearly time to party about Book 4 in the Cats in the Mirror series. Whoot Whoot!!