Well, I’m back from a week at the beach with my family. I know I’m supposed to be well-rested and eager to get back to work. Truth to tell, it’s taken me all week to get over all the family fun.
We did have a great week. The weather could have been better, but we managed. We played corn-hole toss (which sounds really rude for some reason) and I beat my husband and son!!!!! We played a game called Smart-Ass which I highly recommend for an evening’s very silly entertainment. We had a crab feast with many Margaritas. My granddaughter, Sophie (5), rolled in the sand, and grandson, Storm (16), smiled bravely and didn’t let on that he was bored stiff. There was a lot of reading and sleeping, eating and laughing.
Of course the best part of all was that Tom and I had both of our children and their families with us for the entire week. It doesn’t happen often enough and the older I get, the more precious I find these times.
While I was there I got a nice surprise. I got the first draft of my book cover. We have some work to do to get it just right, but seeing it was a bit of a thrill. It’s dawning on me that I will have a book in print by the end of the year. Something I never thought would happen.
Speaking of which, I would like to do a bit of advertising here. My publisher, Intrigue Publishing, is hosting a wonderful conference in mid-September. Among the many aspiring writers attending (moi, for instance) will be best selling authors Jeffrey Deaver, John Gilstrap, Trice Hickman, and Christopher Golden.
This conference has a lot going on for authors and readers. If you can’t make it for the whole event, come for the day on Saturday, September 14th. Please check out the conference website for all the information you’ll need. http://creaturescrimesandcreativity.com. I hope to see you in September.
In the meantime in preparation for this conference I have to work on developing a half-minute book spiel and finding the nerve to deliver it to complete strangers. Promotion is so foreign to my nature that I find this the most daunting aspect of all. So I’m off now to talk into a mirror to try to sell myself on my own book. I’ll be so embarrassed if I turn myself down! I’ll let you know how it goes next week. Who knows, with any luck I’ll be able to say I knew me when.
Families, Crabs, Books, Eating and Laughing…sounds like a great time and I know that the 16 year old might have been bored, but he probably will tell all of his school friends about the game of Corn-Hole…and yes…I have to find out what that is…and the game SmartAss..sounds like something I need to play.
Hey Pen,
Sounds like you had a nice time. When my family gets together, one of us usually kills another one of us.
Crabs and Margaritas? What happened to the Natty Bo? Beer and crabs … always.
As far as Reading Aloud to Total Strangers…. see my blog by the same name. And if you have a dog, practice on them. I find there’s not a critical bone in their bodies. Probably because they buried it in the back yard.
DB