Newest News:
I belong to a Facebook group that does casual art. The admin posts a new prompt once a day and if you feel the prompt, you draw, paint, photograph to the prompt. The other day the prompt was campfire. Above is what I did. It’s pencil and watercolor paint on art paper.
The other day I was scrolling through Facebook posts and there was one from an author group I belong to talking about a newish website called BookShop.org. They said the site had their books on it so I clicked over to take a look. BookShop’s About page describe it as an alternative to Amazon and the site supports local bookstores. I went ahead and set up a page on there. You can now find my books, all except Gold Dreams, at bookshop.org/shop/conniesrandomthoughts. Check it out.
The weather here has been hot and dry and windy. My garden plants are taking a bit of a beating but still doing well. The tomato plants are blooming, so that’s a good thing, though I won’t have any tomatoes until well after the 4th of July. The basil is still surviving, and the potatoes are dying back quickly. I just need to harvest them promptly when they’re ready. The peas and beans that were overwhelmed by the potatoes are now visible and the peas, especially, seem quite happy. They’re blooming too. The roses are past their 1st glorious bloom and if I weren’t so lazy, I’d deadhead them and get a nice second blush. Sigh.
There is a major fire burning just 60 miles south of us, called the Bush Fire. https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/6773/ Nearby neighborhoods, directly east of the fire just this morning, have been issued an evacuate order. The air here is smoky and people with breathing problems have been advised to stay indoors. This was a human caused fire, a car caught fire on the highway that runs between Phoenix and Payson. So not deliberately set. Unfortunately, it has closed the highway since Friday afternoon and the traffic confusion that has resulted on Saturday and Sunday has been immense. All the valley campers up here for the weekend were forced to take very long reroutes to get back home. I17, to our west, had 50-mile backups as there was a fire near that travel artery as well. Arizona is beautiful, but escape routes, especially for rural areas like ours can be down to just one or two ways out. So everyone who heads out of your city and to the country for weekends or vacations, please, please, please follow no burn rules if they’re in place. A careless camper can devastate miles and miles of countryside, potentially destroying local towns, and send residents running for their lives. We have a saying up here, “If it’s not camping without a campfire, just think what it’s like with no forest.”
Stay safe. Stay well.
Giveaways:
The spring giveaway, Spring Flings and Book Things, is now open. You can get to it here, on my Giveaways page.
Where will I Be?
Phoenix Fan Fusion, September 25th – 27th. This event has been postponed until the end of September. Note that the event is a day shorter, starting on Friday rather than Thursday. For people who have special Thursday passes and other special tickets, check out the Fan Fusion website for details on how those will be handled.
Pine Library, 6124 W. Randall Place, Pine AZ, Friends of the Library meeting, has been officially rescheduled. The new date for my appearance is October 26th, still at 1pm. So if you happen to be in Pine, AZ on that date, come on by. I’ll have some books available for purchase and signing.
Newsletter Sign Up:
Click here to sign up for my newsletter. I’ve put sign-up gifts on the regular and the SciFi/Fantasy and the Cozy Mystery newsletter sign-ups. That’s right. If you sign up for my newsletter you get a free story from me. Be prepared for fun and contests! Click on the video link for a short video from me. Hear what I’m working on. Join my “A” Team to be the first to read my books and hear what new books are coming. Don’t forget to follow my blog, too. Different material goes in the blog as in the newsletter. You can share both, so spread the word!
Newest Releases:
Gold Dreams released May 13th, 2019. It is up on Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, (Direct link doesn’t work, copy the URL and paste it into your browser, or go directly to Kobo.com and search for Gold Dreams, Connie Cockrell), and Smashwords. The print version is available on Amazon. You can also see all my books on https://conniesrandomthoughts.com/my-books-and-other-published-work/. If you’ve read any of my books, please drop a short, honest, review on the site where you bought it or on Goodreads or BookBub. Your review is critical to help me promote the books to other readers. Thanks in advance.
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