Tag Archives: blakes

Wild Weather, Cool Nights, and an Odd Podcast

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Many of you might not have heard about the disaster that happened last week-end at Blake’s Lavender Fest. It wasn’t quite a tornado that hit the place, but a storm moved in suddenly, with so little warning, that all the vendors’ tent were blown away or knocked down, and many of the vendors had most or all of their inventory destroyed! No one was hurt, fortunately. Our hearts go out to them, and we hope their businesses recover soon.

I was lucky, I guess. I normally don’t miss Blake’s events, as they are generally the absolute best events for vendors in the “north of Detroit, almost in the thumb” part of Michigan. But I had committed to a different event, near the Blue Water bridge, and that one got cancelled due to polluted air from the Canadian fires. Becka and I were sitting at home when the reports started coming in on FaceBook and TikTok.

I guess it’ll be a quiet summer for me overall, with just this week-end’s market and a handful of week-end events coming up in August. The one additional thing that happened … I was interviewed for the “Tell Me A Story” podcast, and the link is below. The July theme is “Mysteries,” but I was the only author on this episode. I have no affiliation whatsoever with the other interviewees. My interview begins at the 41:30 mark. Enjoy!

https://www.patreon.com/TellMeAStorywithFFAP/posts/episode-59-with-163656962

I have an indoor booth at this Friday night’s market, at the Packard Proving Grounds just a mile or two from my house. Here’s the flier. If you’re free Friday, come out and see me and get books signed!

March Madness, April Showers

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Crying Call has been out for a couple months now, and as the weather begins to warm up, that means we’re heading toward market season. Now begins the difficult time management of working on my next novel (Drawing Dead) while getting out there and marketing my finished works. I’ve already managed to have several good outings.

My best sales day ever happened about a month ago at Blake’s Boozy Book Fest. I have to hand it to Blake’s — their six-hour ticketed event was hands down the most fun and best organized book event I’ve ever been to. I’m not sure when their next book event will be, but I hope I’m invited to that one too. For the record, I sold ten copies of my crossword puzzle book, and sixty total books from the Thomas Vale series.

Meanwhile, Blake’s also has a monthly book club, and they selected Crying Call as their current read. I’ll be going there Wednesday night to meet the club, answer questions, and probably sign some books for them. I’ve never done a solo author signing before, and I’m looking forward to it. Actually, I have two solo signings this month, because I’ll be doing a signing at Calliope Bookshelf in Washington, MI on April 18th. More on that in the next post.

Next Saturday, the 11th, I’ll be at the Washtenaw County Fairgrounds, a little southwest of Ann Arbor, for “Books in the Barn,” which I understand is sort of like a Boozy Book Fair without the open bar.

Probably the coolest thing that happened was when I went back to the Third Coast Book Fest in Grand Haven, MI. Last year was their debut year, and I was there for it — it’s where I made my first ever sales at a public event. Three hundred sixty-four days later, Becka was able to come with me this time. She took the picture below.

It’s a picture of me standing with Debra, the first person who ever bought a book from me at a book event. She came up to the table this year, told me how much she enjoyed Blood Game, and promptly bought Crying Call. Guess I owe it to her to finish Drawing Dead on time, so she can finish the trilogy next year!