November 20th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Good Morning! Today’s blog is going to be an eclectic jumble, just random points I want to pass on to you, with no interlocking theme, so please bear with me.

One – I know I mentioned, probably on more than one occasion, that even though my author’s photo was only taken a short time ago, the picture does not look like me, at all, anymore. If you don’t know the story, I’ll give you a quick recap. I have been blessed with the lovely condition of Psoriasis.  A little over a year ago, the psoriasis had spread to my scalp, making coloring my hair – hair that has been grey since I was 17 – a painful experience. I’m not talking painful for the time the gunk was on my head, I’m talking painful for several days afterwards. So, I stopped coloring my hair. Then, because I looked like an inverted Bozo, I chopped off all the hair that had color on it.

Since then, I have been saying I need to get a new author’s photo, because I didn’t think it was right to look completely different than advertised. The thing is, I am not very photogenic, and there are VERY few pictures of me I find acceptable. That changed on Saturday.

Susan Gulliford, a local photographer and journalist, came to the Hillsborough Public Library Authors’ Day to show her support. She was nice enough to snap several pictures and then email them to me so I could have a new profile photo. I think it came out pretty good. What do you think?

Two – One of the biggest things we have to deal with as authors is the marketing of our work. Time and again you have heard me bemoan this necessary evil, but it is a fact of this career. If you’re lucky, you can surround yourself with like minds, lean on them for support and they can lean on you. We discuss issues and share best practices, and whenever we can, we help out. Today I have the opportunity to help out one of my “support system”, and I hope you will at least check out what she has to offer.

Lilo Abernathy was selected for the Amazon Deal of the Day and has the opportunity to hit the best seller list with a little help. Her book, The Light Who Shines, is being offered today for only $1.99. Lilo was a sweetie and she wrote up the whole blurb to use on the blog post so all I had to do is cut and paste. Here’s what she provided:

The Light Who Shines
by Lilo Abernathy
Genre: Urban Fantasy / Paranormal Romance / Mystery
Amazon Rating: 4.7 Stars
Regular Price: $4.99
Sale Price: $1.99 (One day only)
Kindle Daily Deal Sale Date: Thursday, November 20th, 2014

Amazon Link

When Supernatural Investigation Bureau agent Bluebell Kildare (a.k.a. Blue) arrives at the scene of the crime, it's obvious the grotesquely damaged body of the deceased teenage boy was caused by far more than a simple hit and run; and she vows to catch the killer. Using her innate sixth sense, Blue uncovers a powerful magical artifact nearby. She soon discovers it acts as a key to an ancient Grimoire that was instrumental in the creation of the Vampire breed and still holds the power to unravel the boundaries between Earth and the Plane of Fire.

Blue and her clever wolf Varg follow a trail that starts at the Cock and Bull Tap and leads all through the town of Crimson Hollow. Between being sidelined by a stalker who sticks to the shadows and chasing a suspect who vanishes in thin air, the case is getting complicated. If that isn't enough, Dark Vampire activity hits a record high, and hate crimes are increasing. However, it's Blue’s growing feelings for Jack Tanner, her sexy Daylight Vampire boss, that just might undo her.

While Blue searches for clues to nail the perpetrator, it seems someone else is conducting a search of their own. Who will find whom first?

Danger lurks in every corner, and Blue needs all her focus in this increasingly dangerous game or she risks ending up the next victim.

PRIMARY CHARACTER PROFILES

Bluebell Kildare: Blue is a Supernatural Homicide Detective and a gifted empath who has a pure spirit and a will of steel. She was orphaned at a young age and has had a tough life so far. Yet, she continually picks herself up by the boot straps and fights to do what is right, regardless of the cost. Just how high will the cost be?

Jack Tanner: He's Blue's sexy boss, the head of the Supernatural Homicide Unit in Crimson Hollow. Jack is very old and powerful Daylight Vampire with many layers. He is driven a little crazy by his desire to protect Blue in the face of her independence. Can he keep his cool when Blue needs him most?

Varg: He is a great grey wolf who comes out of nowhere and decides to be Blue's companion. He seems to have some mysterious magical abilities and uses them to guard Blue's life. Can he keep her safe?

Maud: She is Blue's dear friend and mother figure. Maud used to visit Blue in the orphanage and read to her as a child. She can't cook but she makes awesome Southern beverages. What color is her hair today? Is it blue, fuchsia, scarlet, or peach sherbet?

Alexis: She is Blue's comrade and neighbor, as well as the sassy owner of a store called Herbal Enchantments. She is gifted in earth magic and if she isn't busy feeding her friends, she's telling them what to do. Does she have her hands on her hips right now, or is she waving her finger at Blue?

The Villain: Can he get any more evil? No. He is about as evil as they come . . .

AUTHOR BIO

Lilo Abernathy is a somewhat eccentric, deep-thinking, warm-hearted young woman of at least 43 years. She started out as a restaurant chain hostess and worked her way up to the exciting world of global mergers and acquisitions. She has enjoyed an on again/off again relationship with formal education and has been affectionately referred to as information hound. In the evenings, she fills her writing breaks by scanning the internet for answers to provocative questions, such as: "What causes diamonds to be formed in different colors?"

One thing that never changes is Lilo's ongoing love affair with books. A born bibliophile, by age ten she finished all the children's books in the house and started devouring the adult section. By age 15, she was working her way through grocery store book aisles and libraries. Just as Picasso had his blue period, Lilo had her own periods of readership--urban fantasy, paranormal romance, Gothic novels, etc. Now she's planning on creating a bookshelf for you to enjoy.

SOCIAL NETWORKS:

Facebook Page
Twitter
Goodreads
Pinterest

SITE AND BLOG:

Website
Blog

I keep raving to everyone how great my readers are, so if supernatural mystery happens to be your cup of tea, please show Lilo some love. Wouldn’t it be great if we could push her all the way to #1? I’ll give you an update as to how she did in a future blog.

Three – I have made a decision to affiliate myself with a publisher, but not the publisher in NYC I have mentioned in the past. Although he was a really nice man, and I thoroughly enjoyed speaking with him, there was something holding me back from signing my life over to a publisher - the whole “once burned” thing. Now I just have to get up the courage to tell him so. He truly is very sweet, and I hate to disappoint him, but I have to stiffen my spine. This is a business decision, nothing personal.

I do not have the same reservations with this publisher, because she does things a little differently. Oh who am I kidding? A whole lot differently. Once we hammer out, more like tap out, the details, I will reveal who this amazing publisher is, and the name of her company.

Let’s just say, after numerous emails and a nearly two hour long phone call last night, I’m really excited and honored to be included in her community. I will give you a tiny hint (and hope she doesn’t shoot me for it), but it’s the same publisher who is publishing the short story I wrote for the spooky anthology due out next Halloween.

And finally, four – This is the last – honestly this time – weekend I will be at CanterburyTales Forever in Peddler’s Village, Lahaska, PA for the season. Yes, it would be nice to sell more books for the holidays, but it’s just getting too dang cold out there. The high for Saturday is only supposed to be 38°, and standing outside from 10 until 4 is going to be miserable. So, if you were planning on giving a signed copy of one of my books as a gift, get to Peddler’s Village this weekend.

Yeah, like that’s the reason you would trek to Lahaska, PA. LOL. No, but what would be worth the trip is, this weekend begins their Festival of Lights – think Norman Rockwell or Thomas Kincaid Christmas. I realize it is BEFORE Thanksgiving, but I believe you seeing all the shoppes, decked out in their holiday regalia, will put you in the spirit of the holidays. Since it’s a festival, you are pretty much guaranteed there will be sales going on, and who doesn’t love a sale?

I’m not 100% sure, but I think this weekend also kicks off the gingerbread house competition. This ain’t your mamma’s gingerbread houses folks, some of the creations are true works of art. One year I remember seeing a gingerbread house shaped like the White House. It was spectacular.

Okay, time to bring this never ending blog post to an end. Sorry, it should have been split between Tuesday, Wednesday & today, but I have been busy the past few days, so I didn’t get time to post.

I hope you have a wonderful day, and happy writing!

Your Next Challenge:

I can’t feel my toes!

You have ten minutes (be honest). There is no right or wrong, just write. Spelling and punctuation don’t count, and NO ONE is allowed to criticize what someone else has written. Go.

November 15th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Good Morning! Sorry I haven’t written in a while, because honestly, there really hasn’t been much to talk about. Well I started today off with a bang, so that remedied the situation.

I got up, filled and flipped the coffee maker on so it would heat up, then took Colby outside to be emptied. So far so good, no different than any other morning. Since it was a little later than usual, I actual saw our newspaper delivery man, which again, although it doesn’t happen all the time, it was not that unusual.

Colby and I come back into the house, and I hear Mikey, Lys’ cat, making that funny, growly, clicking, noise he reserves for when he’s watching birds outside the window. I found that a little strange because he was sitting in the middle of my kitchen, not near a window. Now, please keep in mind, I have not had my fist cup of coffee yet, so I was still a little foggy. Mikey’s actions did not compute until, all of a sudden, I get drive-bombed by this little grey bird.

MOTHER OF GOD! Y’all know how terrified I am of birds. This little creature swoops from the kitchen into the family room, desperately trying to get out. He flutters around our little greenhouse window (which currently holds a TV, not any plants), then makes a bee-line toward the sliding glass doors, which he crashes into with a resounding thunk. He shakes it off, and goes back to the greenhouse window to perch on the TV.

At this point Mikey, a.k.a. Fat Cat, come flying from the kitchen and frog-hops over several surfaces, not stopping and barely touching anything as he goes, to get his not-so-svelte body up on to the TV. I am trying not to scream, Colby doesn’t know what to do with himself, and the bird is in a panic and flies off, Mikey in hot pursuit.

I tackle the cat and shove him down the basement, and throw open the sliding door so the bird will have an escape route. Colby runs out the door, still yapping and spazzing out, but I know he’s okay and not going anywhere. Me, I’m having heart palpitations, because I have no clue where the dang bird went. I try to listen for movement, but all I can hear is my own heartbeat, Colby whining, and the cat howling from behind the basement door.

I finally spot the bird. He’s fluttering around my closed kitchen window trying to get out. I take a deep breath and head into the kitchen in hopes I can shoo the bird toward the open door. Praise the Lord, it worked! He flew out, I dragged the dog back in and slammed the door. Not exactly the way I wanted to start my morning.

On Monday, I went back to the Verizon store, and picked up Lys’ phone. I was going to wait until she came home to switch her over, but her phone started wigging out, and I said forget it, we’ll just do it now, and I’ll mail it to her. I get a large box – much bigger than I had intended because Lys wanted me to mail her her little Christmas tree – and fill it up with various things Lys wanted since she wasn’t coming home for Thanksgiving. (Hat, gloves, ornaments for her tree, a Thanksgiving cupcake kit – I also threw in some stuffing, a can of cranberry sauce, and a few other tchotchkes which I won’t mention in case she reads this.)

I get the phone (which means they had to shut off her old phone, so she would be incommunicado until the new phone arrived). I also go and pick up her glasses and contacts which were ready at the eye doctor. I also picked up a few other things to throw into the box, sealed everything up, and went to the post office.

The post office tells me the package should arrive on Wednesday. Wonderful! I couldn’t have asked for better considering Tuesday was Veteran’s Day so there was no mail service.  Wednesday morning I go online to check the status of the package. It arrived in Forest Park, IL at 11:57 pm on Tuesday. Illinois? What the heck is it doing in Illinois? Whatever, the post office must have a distribution center out there or something, right? The screen still shows Wednesday as the delivery date.

All day Wednesday I keep checking the status, it doesn’t change. Finally at 7:38 Thursday morning the status updates to say it has left Forest Park facility. All day Thursday and all day Friday, I keep checking the status. There’s no change. At four o’clock I call the customer service number. After ten minutes in automated hell, I get a living, breathing person, Claire. She is quite baffled as to why the package went to Illinois and starts the internal tracking process for me.

This morning, after the bird incident, I went online to see if anything had changed. At 1:36 this morning, the package arrived in Warrendale, PA which is right outside of Pittsburg, and then left that facility again at 2:05 this morning. Provided the package goes directly to High Point, NC from Warrendale, PA, it would mean it would have traveled almost 1,700 miles to get there. And the USPS wonders why it is losing money?? Good grief!

In the meantime, Lys has been without a phone, so our only form of communication has been via Facebook chat. Thank goodness we still had that, or I would have not known that she had found a ride home for Thanksgiving. YEAH!! Friends of hers are headed home to Mass, and said they had room in their car for her to hitch a ride. I’m so excited! I’ll admit, I’ve been a bit down lately because it was going to be the first time all of my kids wouldn’t be home for the holiday. I realize the day is coming, but I wasn’t quite ready for it to come this soon. All is right, in my little world, once again.

Remember I told you about a young lady I met at a book signing a while back named Jessica; and she and her sister Angel were attending a craft show to sell their jewelry? Anyway, the craft show is today. It will run from 9 – 3 at Bensalem High School, 4319 Hulmeville Rd, Bensalem, Pennsylvania 19020. So if you are in the area, and like craft fairs, stop by and visit Jessica and her sister Angel’s table and say “Hi”.

Also, today is the Authors’ Day at the Hillsborough Public Library. The fair runs from 1 – 4 (please note, the times changed), and I will be speaking right at 1:00 pm.

Here is the schedule of Authors who will be reading or speaking at the event:

Christina Paul  1-1:15pm

Chris Redding  1:15-1:30pm

Mary SanGiovanni  1:30-1:45pm

K. Edwin Fritz  1:45-2:00pm

H.E. Goodhue 2:00pm-2:15pm

Jeff Markowitz  2:15-2:30pm

Charles H and Laine Sutton Johnson  2:30-3:00pm

Anabelle Bryant  3:00-3:15pm

Nicole Zoltack  3:15-3:30pm

J.C. Vogard  3:30-3:45pm

Sreyashi Ghosh  3:45-4:00pm

There will be at least a dozen other authors there as well who will not be speaking. If you are in the area, please stop by and say “Hi”, check out all of our books, have them signed. A books, signed by the author, makes a lovely, and slightly unusual, gift for the holidays. (Btw – the books I ordered, which weren’t supposed to arrive until Monday, showed up on Wednesday, so I will have copies of Taking Chances at today’s Author’s Day.)

Okay, I have rambled on long enough today. I may or may not have a post again for you tomorrow. I thought I was done with my book signings after today, but Wayne at Canterbury Tales Forever in Peddler’s Village asked me to come back Sunday and then again next weekend. I told him it all depended on the weather, and it looks like tomorrow’s weather is going to be good, so I have no excuse not to go.

I hope you have a wonderful day, and happy writing!

Your Next Challenge:

You are looking through old family photos and this one person appears in almost all of them, but you have no idea who he or she is…

You have ten minutes (be honest). There is no right or wrong, just write. Spelling and punctuation don’t count, and NO ONE is allowed to criticize what someone else has written. Go.

November 9th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Good Morning! It is going to be another gorgeous day again today, and a few degrees warmer than yesterday. It isn’t much, but I’ll take ever degree I can get. Come 4:00 yesterday, when the sun set behind the buildings, it got dang cold. You would think with two pairs of wool socks and boots on, I would have been fine, but nope. Standing on that slate walkway all day, the cold just seeped in through all the layers. The long johns and my jacket kept the rest of me fairly warm, and sitting on a blanket definitely helped, but I need to figure out something better feet-wise. The cold actually made my feet ache, and it took almost an hour, rubbing my feet on my heated mattress pad, to get the pain to stop. I’m old, I admit it.

It was another great day at Canterbury Tales Forever Book Shoppe in Peddler’s Village. I met a ton of wonderful people, and sold quite a few books. One woman, Murielle (I hope I spelled that correctly), was originally from Belgium, then lived in Canada for several years, and now resides in Pennsylvania. The two of us chatted for quite a while. She too is an author, but her books are only on e-book at the moment, so we discussed her getting her books out in hard copy.

Another woman, Diane, was there with her granddaughter Ella. We actually took a photo together, and if she sends the email with the picture to me before I post this blog, I will include it. I met Sheri, a musician, and Donna who is visiting Peddler’s Village with a bunch of her girlfriends. Donna and friends will be there again today, so I hope they will stop by to say “hi” again before they have to leave.

Actually, I hope a lot of people stop by to say “hi”, because I think I may be the only author there today. I’ve done signings alone before, but they are much more fun when I have other author’s with me. It makes the day go quicker when you have someone to chat with during the slow times.

I also met some lovely ladies from Mary Kay, and a gentleman, Anthony, who is a web designer. I got to love on a gorgeous Husky, a Lab, and a standard Poodle who was a major mush. It’s so funny, I come home from these book signings and Colby is none too pleased with me when he smells all the other dogs who have garnered my attention while I was away from him. He’s so jealous. LOL.

He also didn’t take too kindly to me refilling my doggie treat bucket this morning from his stash of Milk Bones. I bought this huge case of Milk Bones, and honestly, Colby doesn’t love them. So instead of letting them go to waste, I bring them to the book signings for all my four legged visitors. My stash was running low, so I refilled the container this morning. Mr. Jealous had his nose in the box while I was filling the container, so I gave him one. He took it, brought it into the living room and then came back for seconds, the piggy. I didn’t give him a second one because I didn’t think he would even eat the first one, but when he saw me put the filled container out in the garage, he rushed into the living room and started chomping on the Milk Bone I gave him. Crazy dog!

So many people asked about Faerie Tale Queen. One woman even told me to “get my butt in gear, and finish it”. LOL. I’ve said it before, the cover for Faerie Tale Queen is my favorite, and I guess others like it too, because everyone asks about it. Corporate Blues, the one where my friend Linda Rawlin’s daughter was the model, runs a close second.

I did get a few surprises yesterday, and at this point I should be getting used to it, but I’m not, and not sure I ever will. It still surprises me when people tell me they recognize my books, have them already downloaded on their Kindle (one woman showed me because SHE wanted to prove it), say they saw them in an e-mail from Amazon or as a suggested read.

While one woman was reading the “Note to my readers” in Corporate Blues, I was greeting other passersby, when one said, “I am very familiar with your work. When are the next books due out?” I assured her soon, and joke I can’t write them as quickly as y’all read them. Then the woman who was reading Corporate Blues hands the book back to me and asks if that happened often. I admitted it’s been happening more and more, and that it surprises me every time. The passerby didn’t know it, but I think her comment made a sale. The woman went in and purchased a copy of Corporate Blues for her daughter.

I had one uncomfortable surprise as well. A middle school teacher recognized one of my books as well. It seems a bunch of books were purchased for the advanced readers at her school, and A Second Chance – with the old cover – was one of the books purchased. I was mortified. A Second Chance is NOT appropriate for twelve and thirteen year olds. With the new cover, I doubt there is any chance in this happening again, but O-M-G! I PRAY someone screened the book before they allowed the kids to read it. Good grief! I’d be quite content to never have that type of surprise again.

The signing doesn’t start until eleven today, so I still have a bit of time. I am going to use that time to throw something together for dinner, because I know, after day two in the cold, I am not going to want to make anything when I get home.

So, on that note, I hope you have a fantastic day, and happy writing!

Your Next Challenge:

You find a bracelet, obviously made by a child, on the sidewalk. What is the story behind the bracelet, or what happens after you find it?

You have ten minutes (be honest). There is no right or wrong, just write. Spelling and punctuation don’t count, and NO ONE is allowed to criticize what someone else has written. Go.

November 8th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Good Morning! It is a gorgeous day. Beautiful bright sunshine, almost no clouds, no wind at all, but baby it’s cold outside. It is going to be another long day at Canterbury Tales. Last week it was the wind that made it brutal, so at least we won’t have to contend with that today.

These are my last two days doing book signings at Canterbury Tales Forever Bookstore in Peddler’s Village, Lahaska, PA until the spring. Unless, by some miracle, we have a mild weekend in December, January, February, or March, I won’t be back there until April or May. It’s just too dang cold to be standing outside all day. Then again, perhaps if I go, it will garner the pity purchase. LOL. Just kidding. I want people to buy my books because they want to read them, not because they feel bad for me.

I wish I could tell you who will be joining me at Canterbury Tales today, but I just don’t know. I can pretty much guarantee Samuel Knight with his Monty a Christmas Tale will be there, because ‘tis the season for his book; and I think Karen Scheuer with a Bug and a Wish may be there as well, but I really don’t know. Wayne is on vacation this weekend, and the girl covering the shop has not posted anything to their Facebook page.

So I ordered more copies of Taking Chances this morning. Sunday I noticed my inventory was getting really low, and darn it, I should have ordered them right when I got home, but I forgot. Now I’m kicking myself. I have that big author event at the Hillsborough Public Library next Saturday, and the books aren’t scheduled to get here until the following Monday. UGH. Historically speaking, the books usually get here way ahead of when they say they’ll get here, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed. Watch, this time, they will get here exactly when they say they will. It would be just my luck.

Well, we are still on Verizon. We went to the Sprint store first, and the guy pulled up our address and told us he wouldn’t feel comfortable selling us the service because reception at our house was only in the “fair” category. So then, we trekked up to the mall (yuck) and hit the T-Mobile store. They were all for switching us over, even though we showed up in the same “fair” zone with them. Hmmm…

We didn't even get the phones we
wanted because the 5C is being
phased out. We got the 5S instead

My mom wanted to go into Verizon – thankfully, they were also at the mall – just to see if it would be better for her just to get a plan on her own. With the amount she uses her cell phone, $30+ a month for her – which would have been her portion of the bill –was silly. They offered her a pre-paid $100 for the year deal, which makes much more sense, and we will be switching her over to that on Monday. They guy at the store crunched a bunch of numbers, and rearranged some things, and long story short, we are still on Verizon for the next two years, we have iPhones (Lys will be getting hers next week), and I saved about $25 a month from what I had before.

It’s not great, but it is the same price every other carrier was giving us. So basically, all those ads you are seeing on TV, are a load of hooey. No one is giving you unlimited anything with mega data to share for the low price. The price you see advertised is for just the data service. Then there is a phone charge, and a service charge, and in my case a $10 per line insurance charge, plus taxes, regulatory fees, and God only knows what else. Which all adds up to $70 per phone, per month. Whatever, it is what it is. They’ve got you by the nose, and they know it.

Enough, I am going to put it out of my mind because it is useless to get aggravated when I can’t change it. It’s time for me to go get ready for my book signing anyway, so I’ve got to boogie.

I hope you have a great day, and happy writing!

Your Next Challenge:

Tick…Tock, Tick…Tock…

You have ten minutes (be honest). There is no right or wrong, just write. Spelling and punctuation don’t count, and NO ONE is allowed to criticize what someone else has written. Go.

November 3rd Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Good Morning! Holy mother of pearl it was cold out there yesterday! I didn’t make it there by ten even though I tried.

Canterbury Tales Forever

I got about two miles away when I remembered I forgot my table. Normally Wayne provides tables for us, but there was supposed to be five authors yesterday plus an extra event in the tent. He wouldn’t have had enough tables, so I offered to lend him mine. I turned around and got the table, but, provided everyone drove the speed limit, I would have still gotten there with about two minutes to spare. That’s late in my book, but I would have lived with it.

If I didn't know better, I would swear

this is an actual picture of what I saw

yesterday morning.

Well mother nature threw me a curve ball. There was one downed tree in the road near my house, but when there was a break in oncoming traffic, I was able to go around it. A few more miles up the road, I wasn’t so lucky. The tree was covering the entire road. The detour added an extra fifteen minutes on to my commute.

I get to WaWa to pick up my lunch – this time was padded into my commute, but the detour ate it up – and the place is completely packed. Fifteen minutes later, I’m back on the road. I pull up at 10:15, and there is no parking, so I had to unload in the middle of the parking lot. I yell down to Karen for her to ask Wayne to come grab the table for me, and she said he won’t be needing it.

When Wayne got there yesterday, he tried setting up the tent and the chairs for the readings (that’s where my table was going), but the wind was so strong, the tent collapsed and broke. I’m not 100% sure, but it looked like a few of the chairs broke as well. Then I found out one of the authors cancelled as well. Needless to say, Wayne wasn’t a happy camper yesterday, and I can’t say I blamed him.

Anyway, I drop all my junk off and go hunting for a parking spot, which I found out in East Jabib, trek back, and begin the task of setting up my table. Now there was a challenge. After I taped my banner, top and bottom, to the table, I had to tape the table cloth itself to the table. Normally all my stuff would hold it in place, but the wind was so strong, it was lifting the table cloth and dumping my stuff over. I didn’t even bother using book stands, I just laid the books right on the table. If I had used the stands, they would have become projectiles. I’d swear so of those gusts were in the 50mph range.

Bradly with no "e"

There was one author there yesterday whom I have not worked with yet. His name is Bradly Williams - yup “Bradly with no e”, as he says. He had several books with him, fiction (Charity – What’s in a name?), non-fiction (Love Redefined), and even a tiny coffee table book of artwork and poetry.

Iván Tirado

The concept was really unique. Bradly has a friend, Iván Tirado, 

who is an artist, and the two of them wanted to put together a book featuring Ivan’s art work. So, instead of little blurbs describing the pieces of art like most coffee table books do, Bradly wrote poems inspired by each of the pieces. How cool is that?

Riley with her book
 "Sorcerers"

There was another author, Riley Morton, there as well, but she was not participating in the event. She has never done a book signing, so she wanted to come and observe. She spent a little time chatting with each of us, and we were all extremely impressed with her. You see, Riley is only fourteen and in middle school. How marvelous is that? I love the cover for her book, Sorcerers, and the story looks interesting. We are all looking forward to having Riley join “Authors’ Row”.

These are the guys who sang for us.
I found their picture on the internet.

We did get one nice surprise yesterday. These four men in black pants, black leather jackets, red shirts, and matching red and black ties were walking through Authors’ Row, and I commented, “You’re either in a wedding party or in a band.” They stopped and said they were a quartet - The Buck's County Country Gentlemen, to which I said, “Then you must audition for us.” (I meant perform.) Much to our surprise, they were happy to oblige. They sang one traditional quartet song, and then they followed up with an Irish prayer. It was wonderful. I was so busy listening, I forgot to pull out my camera to snap a picture. Argh!

Hart's Tavern is part of
The Cock 'n Bull restaurant in
Peddler's Village 

Around four, between the wind and the cold, we had had enough, so packed up. Karen, her friend Sharon, and I went to Hart’s Tavern for dinner. Sam bailed on us, but we’ll forgive him. He has a sick dog at home, and he wanted to get back to her. The three of us had a lovely dinner, which was great, but then I had to drive home, in the dark which wasn’t fun. At one point, I had to slam on my brakes because there was a hug buck, a doe, and a fox, all standing in the middle of the road. That was very strange. Were they holding a caucus?

No, I didn't take a picture, I found this

one on the internet. Apparently this

is not as unique an occurrence as I

thought. Who knew? 

I made it home a little after six, and promptly went to bed. I have never been so thankful for my heated mattress pad as I was last night.

Today, amidst grocery shopping and laundry, I have to get some serious writing done. With Saturday’s gala, and being out all day yesterday, I am seriously behind on my NaNoWriMo word count. Day three and I’m already playing catch up – not a good sign.

Oh well, I should get going. I hope you have a great day, and happy writing!

Your Next Challenge:

Baby it’s cold outside…

You have ten minutes (be honest). There is no right or wrong, just write. Spelling and punctuation don’t count, and NO ONE is allowed to criticize what someone else has written. Go.