July 21st

Hi it’s Christina –

Good Morning! First, Happy Birthday to one of my best friends, Fran! I hope you have a day as wonderful as you are, LUV YA! Yup, two of my closest friends’ birthdays are a day apart, it happens again in November with Barb and Nadia, and then in January, Sharon and Kelly share a day. That’s almost as bad as all the birthdays on holidays in my family.

Again I survived yesterday’s book signing without melting or passing out. It was actually a much better day…weather wise. History did not repeat itself, book sales were dismal, but I got a chance to be outside, in the fresh air, and to talk with living, breathing people, not just the characters in my head.

I’ll be going back to Canterbury Tales for Peach Festival, August 9^th & 10^th. There are going to be other authors there as well, and I think that will help. When there is only one author sitting outside, I don’t think folks realize what’s going on, and they pass right by without even a glance. I smile and say hello to everyone who passes by, but unless they pause, I don’t do a pitch. I do lure some in with candy, or if they have their fur-baby with them, a dog biscuit. Then when they stop, I tell them about my books.

I have noticed it works like a snowball effect; one person stops, and then another person overhears what I’m saying and stops, and then others stop to see what the crowd around my table is all about. The trick is to get that first person to stop. One thing that really cracked me up was how many people asked, after they heard me say it was a book signing, if they were my books. Really? I was so tempted to reply, “No, I’m signing for John Grisham. Here’s your sign.”

I am a little annoyed, well actually a whole lot more than a little. I worked all weekend long. My husband busted his butt doing yard work all weekend long. My daughters sat on their butts most of the weekend. Do you think they would have found the time to empty the dishwashers or change their cats’ litter box like they were supposed to?

Sandy Hook

I am not a happy camper this morning. Even though Dani did nothing all weekend, she’s still getting rewarded. We had planned a beach day, for today, several days ago. I felt bad. The kid has had the most boring summer on record, and I wanted to give her a treat. But let me tell you, if her friend Bri hadn’t been invited, I would have cancelled this trip. Bri didn’t do anything wrong, so I couldn’t punish her.

I’m in the last ten days of NaNoWriMo. Officially I have 6,753 words to go, but unofficially I have 21,753, so I’m stressing just a bit. I’m going back and forth over bringing my computer with me today. Last time I tried (again because NaNo was going on), the results weren’t so good. It was almost impossible to see the screen at the beach. This time however, I have a real umbrella, not one that’s been jimmy-rigged, so I may have better results. Why not give it a try? It’s not like my daughter is going to be hanging with me, right?

We’re supposed to be leaving in forty-five minutes, and I have nothing ready yet, so I should go. We’ll do the writing challenge tomorrow. I hope you have a marvelous day, and happy writing!