Book Festivals | ConniesRandomThoughts

Connie at the Tempe Library Book Festival

I attended the Tempe Book Festival Saturday as an author and a panelist for a SciFi panel on world building. I had a great time talking to a lot of readers, adults and children. I also met some of last year’s Payson Book Festival authors and some of this year’s registered authors. Oh what a great time we’re going to have in July at the Payson Book Festival. These are wonderful authors and fun to talk to. I sold 7 books, which seemed to be above average for the authors I talked to. Some made no sales at all. But this was Tempe library’s first festival so with more experience I’m sure a larger reader turn out will happen.

I continue to work on my Camp NaNo novel, Mystery at the Book Festival. (Yes, I couldn’t help it!) Anyway, I’m just about 50% through the story, well at least to my goal of 50,000 words. I missed writing on it Saturday because of the festival. Sunday, I had just enough gumption to write this blog post. I’ll try and catch up starting tomorrow.

I was on the January Jones show Sharing Success Stories, at 3pm Eastern time last Monday. If you didn’t get to tune in, you can go to the recording. Just go to www.iheart.com Official Site. Type in January Jones Sharing Success Stories. You can hear the whole show!

Chevoque

In other blog news, my Author Interview with Chevoque will be posted on Wednesday. You are going to love her. Can’t wait? Here’s her website called, what else? Chevoque.

The Spring Into Reading giveaway is in full swing. I have links to it on my facebook, twitter, and website pages. I offer a free ebook or for second prize, a $5 Amazon card. There are other prizes as well. Over a hundred prizes plus a grand prize. It’s not hard to enter and there are multiple times to enter. You could easily win a prize. Enter today and every day.

My craft project of putting an owl charm on each new book mark has only progressed one step. I punched holes in the top of each book mark. I need to set aside time to get the charms attached to the ribbon. Ack! Time!

I’m still putting together my next newsletter. I thought I’d have it done last week. I did get my video done. It still needs to be edited. Again, more time! I’ll have to be super disciplined.

Where will I be? Here’s the scoop.

June 2nd and 3rd I’m at the Scottsdale MysteryCon, Death and Deception in the Desert. I’m giving a presentation there as well on writing a mystery. Tickets for both days are only $35. I do hope you can make it to that one. Here’s a flyer telling all about it. Register in advance on the site and mention that you heard about the event from me. I’ll put your name in for a drawing of a special prize on Friday night and/or Saturday. The prize? A bracelet, hand made by me, with Kindred Spirits as the theme. I might even make two and have a giveaway both Friday and Saturday. What do you think?

July 23rd is the Payson Book Festival. I’ll be at my table all day, ready to talk to YOU! I hope you can make it as we will have over 70 authors attending as well as music, food, author presentations and workshops. It will be stupendous! www.paysonbookfestival.org and click on the Meet the Authors tab.

Want more details about these events? Click here for more information.

Click here to sign up for my newsletter. If you are a Brown Rain series fan, I’ve created a list just for you! If you join my regular newsletter, that’s all right too as I’ve put sign-up prizes on both. That’s right. If you sign up for my newsletter you get a free story from me. My next newsletter is being drafted so sign up today. The YouTube video I just made about Kindred Spirits will be in the newsletter. Just a note. I’m going to be sending out newsletters more frequently. Be prepared for fun and contests!

Kindred Spirits released on March 14th! I’m pretty excited about it. You can buy it and my other books at Apple, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Smashwords, Gumroads or Chatebooks today! You can also see all of my books on www.ConniesRandomThoughts.com. If you’ve read any of my books, please drop a review on the site where you bought it or on Goodreads. It’s a big help to me in the book rankings each vendor uses to promote the books on their sites. Thanks in advance.

Payson Book Festival 2015

I was about to say I’ve only ever been to one convention but then re-read the rest of the prompt. I can include National Novel Writing Month (NaNo). Not mentioned might also be Book Festivals. Well now, I think I have something to talk about.

InD’Tale Conference 2015

Let me talk about my only convention. That was the In’DTale convention in September 2015. I went with a Romance author friend and I had a blast. First of all, there’s all the excitement of talking to other authors. They get it when you say you’re worried you can’t figure out the ending. They also have all kinds of great tips and tricks for writing, for marketing and promotion, and for, well, everything. There’s a lot of learning going on as well. There were workshops scheduled all day. I went to one titled How to put more Sex in your Book. It was a romance convention after all. Then there were the after-hours parties where we could get to know each other better. I’m still emailing and facebooking many of the women I met at that event. Definitely worth the money.

Then there is National Novel Writing Month. (NaNo) I did my first NaNo in November of 2011 and while I didn’t get into the forums on that site too much, I did look at the forum for Arizona Elsewhere. This is the spot for us Arizona authors that don’t live in one of the big cities. Here I met a lot of cool people and was invited to join their usual home, the Forward Motion writer’s group. I’m so glad I did. There was and still is a lot for the new author to learn and this group really helped me along the new author path. I haven’t missed a November NaNo or the Camp NaNo’s that have been held since. These are ready made groups ready to commiserate with your writer’s block, your search for just the right word or your lack of motivation for the day.

Finally, let’s talk about Book Festivals. There was nothing in my area for book festivals. There were art festivals, art walks, art shops and art auctions but nothing for writers and I knew there was a writer community here, I just didn’t know where they were. So I decided to start a book festival. Talk about high energy. We held our first one last year in Payson, AZ and it was a huge success. People came in the morning and stayed all day they were having such a good time! We’ll be holding it again this year, July 23rd, at the Gila Community College. This was a fantastic opportunity for the authors to meet readers and create interest not only in their own books but in reading in general. I am so glad I dragged others into my mad plan.

One of these days I’m going to go to a SciFi convention. The Phoenix ComiCon is just down the highway after all! I can hardly wait.

Kindred Spirits released March 14th! I’m so excited about it. You can buy it and my other books at: Apple, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Smashwords, Gumroads or Chatebooks today! You can also see all of my books on https://conniesrandomthoughts.com/my-books-and-other-published-work/. If you’ve read any of my books, please drop a review on the site where you bought it. It’s a big help to me in the book rankings each vendor uses to promote the books on their sites. Thanks in advance.

The Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour is sponsored by the website Forward Motion (http://www.fmwriters.com). The tour is you, the reader, traveling the world from author’s blog to author’s blog. There are all sorts of writers at all stages in their writing career, so there’s always something new and different to enjoy. Check out the rest of the tour starting at http://margaretmcgaffeyfisk.com/favorite-conventions-2016-merry-go-round-blog-tour/.

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