A big fat month of fun!

Wow, it's October already! I did not see that coming.

My October is going to be quite busy, with a capital BEE, It starts with the Duarte Festival of Authors, a fundraiser for the Friends of the Duarte Library, held in the lovely Westminster Gardens Memorial Park. I'll be there on Saturday, October 5th, from early to late. I believe the official hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. but it doesn't matter, I'll be arriving early and staying til the last dog is dead, as they say. (I'm not sure who "they" are, but they're a macabre bunch.)

My mystery buddies will be there, too. Terry Ambrose, Pam Carter Ripling (writing as Anne Carter), Jenny Hilborne, Teresa Burrell, and who knows who else. We call ourselves Murder, We Wrote, and we have a Facebook page, if you're interested. There will be books and authors and food and more. We're supposed to be on a panel together. I'll give you the details when I get them.

Then on the following weekend, I'm in a parade!

Placentia Heritage Day is always the second Saturday in October. There is always a pancake breakfast, a parade, then a day-long lovefest in Tri-City Park. As a trustee for the Placentia Library District, I get to ride in the parade. This will be my second year. I haven't decided whether to wear the tiara again, but I have started to get my waving arm in shape. I never knew how taxing it was to continually wave along the route!

After the parade, I will have a booth in the park where you can buy my books and I'll autograph them. I'll even just stand around and chat with you, because I love meeting people.

I'd love to come home and rest after that, but on Sunday, Oct. 13th, I'll be selling and signing at the Big Orange Book Festival (aka, BOB), held at Chapman University in Orange. I've never been to this event before, so we'll see how it all shakes out. Of course, you'll be getting a de-brief.

Because I will be so insanely busy, I've decided to ramp up the action by posting blogs every day, not just here, but on Snoopy's blog, too! We'll be doing some giveaways, and giving you some surprises.

Stop in every day and see what you could win!

The Next Big Thing (is somewhere else)

I'm a sucker for my friends, truly. When the delightful and engaging author Terry Ambrose offered me a seat on his Next Big Thing Blog Tour, my first thought was "Why of course I'll do that."

Then I thought about it. My next big thing is already here. The Hot Mess is out and about, available in ebook and paperback for your enjoyment. Not only that, but I already did a Next Big Thing blog about it back in November. You can read about it here.

So I declined.

Then, last week, Pam Ripling (aka Anne Carter) sent me an email. "Want to be tagged in my Next Big Thing Blog Tour?" Once again, I explained my predicament. I can always trust Pam to think outside the box.

"It's all optional," she said. "Just tweak the answers to do it on The Hot Mess."

So I was planning to do that, but when I read my last NBT post, I had already answered all the questions about The Hot Mess and I wouldn't change a thing, except to say that it was already released.

Snoopy dressed for Christmas.

Then I had an idea. I will point you to my horse's blog. I may not have a Next Big Thing, but he does. I'll let him answer the questions. So, go visit Snoopy's blog to learn about his Next Big Thing.

And do check out my friends' books.

Duarte, here I (we?) come

I have been working steadily toward my goal of finishing Snoopy's memoir by the first week of November, mostly by sitting my tushie down and writing, but also by scheduling my week so I know when I am available to write. One of the things I've discovered is that planning/wishing to write is useless when my day is already crammed with other activities. Better to let that day be what it is, and schedule the day that works.

Today, I scheduled a non-writing day, even though I am only busy in the late morning (and sort of early afternoon) taking a riding lesson. What else could be so important?

I have to get my books and stuff ready for the Duarte Author Festival this Saturday. I won't tell you this is a big money-maker for me. It's not. It's a lot of schlepping and schmoozing for a few book sales. Why do it?

1. It's in a beautiful venue, so I feel I have not schlepped in vain.

2. Schlepping aside, I like schmoozing, and people actually recognize me from the previous years. I know that I can get signups to be alerted to my next book release, and gather more fans.

3. This is the festival where I met Ray Bradbury. It will always have a place in my heart.

4. I usually get to spend the day with one of my good writing buddies, Pam Carter Ripling (writing as Anne Carter). I love her lighthouse mysteries, and she's such a peach. (Note: she will not be here this year and I'm dying just a little, but Tee Burrell will be sharing the table and she's equally good company.)

Pam's on the right (her funny/cute niece Alyssa is on the left, and our dear friend Jeff is in the middle)

5. This is a fundraiser for the Friends of the Duarte Library. How can I not support that?

Now that I've listed why I will be there, here are five good reasons why YOU should join me:

1. It's not that far away (Westminster Gardens, 1420 Santo Domingo Ave, Duarte). Only thirty minutes from my house in Orange County, for Pete's sake.

2. Once you get there, it looks like this.

Pretty, yes?

3. They have over 50 authors, entertainment, children's activities, and panels where authors talk about books.

4. Did I mention this is a library fundraiser?

5. You can schmooze with moi. I'll have my physical books for sale, plus a sign-up sheet for my soon-to-be-released third mystery, The Hot Mess. PLUS, if you visit my Facebook Author Page, there is a secret code for getting a big discount on any of my books, including the new one.

Now that I've given you all the reasons to come, and there's no reason not to (other than band practice or heart surgery), when can I expect you to show up?

I had a moment and I liked it



I can take credit card payments!



April 30th - May 1st: Where were you on the weekend in question?

I was at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, held on the USC campus for the first time ever. The bad news is, I didn't see any of the festival. The good news is, it's because I was in a booth, selling my books.

I've been to the festival once, two years ago, when Karen Syed of Echelon Press called and said, "I've got 20 copies of your book handy. Want to come and sell them?" (See that post here.)


Last year's festival came and went without much fanfare in my household, mostly because I didn't have a new book out yet, and partly because I was buried in obligations to two booster clubs at my son's school, plus that whole, pesky, He's Graduating business.

Imagine this with one more author!

When Pam Ripling emailed me this year and asked, "How about a bunch of us renting a booth at the festival," I answered in a heartbeat: "I'm in."


There were supposed to be six of us: Pam (aka Anne Carter), Jen Hilborne, Tee Burrell, Joel Fox, Jeff Sherratt, and me. At the very last minute, Jeff had to cancel due to illness (we all hope you're on the mend, Jeff), which left five. This was probably a good thing, although I love Jeff's company and of course don't want him to be sick, but five authors in a booth is a little tight. Jeff's got a lot of books out there, and a big presence.


We might have had to put an author in the tree next to the booth.




L-R: Alyssa Montgomery, Sydney Fox, Pam Ripling

 When you're selling your books, you are constantly talking to everyone who comes by the booth. "Hi, how are you today? Do you like mysteries? What kind of books do you read? Weather's a little warm isn't it? Let me tell you about my books…"


Yadda yadda yadda blah blah.


You also learn to profile people. You somehow instantly recognize That Person Who Likes Mysteries, as well as That Person Who Wants You to Shut Up. And, sooner or later, you learn to recognize people who are just "different."


In my youth I thought of these people as "crazy", "clueless", "avoid-at-all-costs" folks. Now that I've been around the block a few times (mostly because I can't follow directions), and thanks to the world of behavioral analysis, I see these people as just being different than me, in terms of how they process and respond to the world around them.


A man wandered toward our booth. I hadn't paid much attention to his stops along the way, but he was coming toward me, so I greeted him. He was a pudgy man, dressed too warmly for the day, and although he was not odiferous, he had that look about him that said his hygiene was casual, at best. He wore thick glasses over slightly-crossed eyes, and had bad teeth. And when I say "bad teeth", I'm talking spectacularly, intriguingly, bad. Not only were they brown, every other tooth appeared to be missing (at least in the front), and they were skewed in his mouth, as if they were half-a-tooth off from where they should be located.


He spoke quickly, in a kind of thick-tongued way, all about his obsession with movies of the 30's in general and Republic Pictures in particular. He attended their 75th anniversary celebration and got to meet some of their stars, including Peggy Stewart. Within the space of ten minutes, he told me all this and more, about the movies he liked and the stars he recognized in other movies that are now doing bit parts in TV shows. I also learned he has a girlfriend who he likes to talk to using Red Ryder quotes and when she "gets out of line" he threatens to marry her.


Yeah, I'd straighten up and fly right, too.


His eyes had a way of focusing upward as he spoke, so that he never made eye contact for more than a wisp of a second. After about ten minutes, he kind of ran out of steam and moved down the booth to the next person, until he'd exhausted himself and all of us, before moving on.


In the old days, I would have labeled him "odd", or possibly even "crazy." Now I saw a man within the autism spectrum, and understood. No, I didn't want to stand for ten minutes and listen to his turbo-talk, especially when there were people coming up to the booth wanting to know about my books. But he's a human being, and he's socializing the only way he knows how, and I'm a Christian who believes in karma. Either that, or I'm a doormat.


Karma blessed me the very next day. I was driving to Palapas in Fullerton to have a drink with my hubby, thinking about my experiences at the festival, and all of a sudden, it dawned on me:


This weekend, I met Benny Needles.


No, I don't picture him physically like this man, but this is the awkwardly social man who is obsessed with something. Benny has actually been able to rein in his desire to tell everyone everything about Dean Martin. Unless something happened to him, something that caused him to retreat into the only thing that matters: Dino-world.


And in my third Peri Minneopa mystery, that's just what's gonna happen.


Life is good. As Will Varner said, "I feel so good, I might just live fo-EVAH."