Tag Archives: grand haven

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!

I’m All Out of Sorts…

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…but maybe that’s for the best. They say an artist is at his best when he’s a little off balance. If that’s true, I might be at the top of my game right now. Teetering on the brink of madness, despair, and ecstasy. Makes sense, really. All progress requires change. No one ever changes because they’re comfortable.

It’s been a tough winter in my household when it comes to illnesses. We’ve spent a lot of time from Thanksgiving to now in what feels like “survival mode.” Just get well, and get through it. It’s hard to get a lot of creative stuff done in survival mode, but I’m chugging away. I wouldn’t know what to do with myself if I didn’t have work to roll up my sleeves for.

My second book (Crying Call) has been out for almost three weeks now. Sales have been good, but not nearly like it was for the first book (Blood Game). That’s mostly just because I’ve put little effort into publicizing its launch. I’ve learned a lot in my first year as a published author, and one of the most important things I’ve learned is to just get my writing out, and not to worry too much about who notices. The readers who want my stories will come, and it’s a waste of effort trying to entice the rest.

What I’ve been doing instead is planning book festivals and signing events, writing when I can, and just spending time with my family . All of these things are important, and worthy of my time. A valuable lesson … the only real wealth is your health and your time. You only get so much time. Spend it wisely.

Speaking of book fests, I’ve got two good ones coming up in March. I’ll be at Blake’s Boozy Book Fest on March 15th (more on that in my next blog entry), but the really big one is the Third Coast Book Festival on March 21st in Grand Haven, MI. It’ll be the one-year anniversary of my first ever book event. What a long, strange trip it’s been, eh? Check out the website in the flier below — more info will showing up on it soon.

I continue to hammer away at the third book, Drawing Dead, the finale of the opening trilogy. A lot of emotion here, and a lot of unresolved tension gets resolved. It’s hard for me to navigate, honestly. Emotional in places, and rather self-revelatory in certain ways. On top of that, I have the unenviable task of trying to top its predecessor, Crying Call, which may end up being the finest thing I ever write. I’m presently about halfway through writing Drawing Dead, and hope to complete it in time to publish it next February. Wish me luck.

Back from the Third Coast Book Fest

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Trivia Question: Which of the 48 continental states has the most coastline?

Answer: Michigan! Because it has two long peninsulas set in the middle of the Great Lakes.

So “Third Coast Book Festival” is an appropriate name, it seems, as they held it on the left coast of Michigan last Saturday. One hundred authors, give or take, swarmed into the downtown of Grand Haven, and various businesses let us set up sales tables. I estimate about 150-200 book lovers walked about the town, coming in from the cold to talk to us and occasionally buy a few signed copies of our books.

I had a pretty good time, and I’d say the event was fairly well run considering it was their first time doing it. And they invited the authors to a “VIP charity ball” in the evening, where we got to connect with other authors and talk to some readers. I suspect they’ll have the bugs worked out by next year, and rumor has it there’ll be some bigtime authors invited. Mark it on your calendars: March 21, 2026. I’ll be there!

That said, I was absolutely exhausted when I got home, late Saturday night. It takes a lot out of autistic people to be that extroverted and social for that long. I don’t think I could have done it again the next day. I’m going to have to build up my tolerance and incorporate some self-care as I continue to do bigger and bigger festivals as my career develops.

I sold a bunch of copies of Blood Game, and for the first time ever, I also sold some copies of Crying Call, a.k.a. Book 2 of the Thomas Vale series. It can be ordered on my website now, but I’m not really hyping it yet. I just figured — if I’m going to go to the bother of lugging boxes of books across the state, I might as well bring both titles.

Yeah, yeah, I know, it’s confusing. The official release date for Crying Call will be my 53rd birthday, 2/3/26. And that’s when any preorders at Amazon, Barnes&Noble, et cetera will be delivered. If I can manage to get my books on shelves at B&N or other places, that’s the day they’ll appear. My plan is to release a new book every first Tuesday of February for as long as I can keep up.

But as the owner of the copyrights, I can sell my books any time I want. So despite the fact that I haven’t even done a Crying Call “official cover reveal” yet (mid-April, probably), I’ve sold several copies and sent a few more out in ARC packages. My hope is that by the time the official release day comes, I’ll have lots and lots of reviews online. So I’m beginning the process earlier this time, having learned from last time that three months early isn’t enough.

And that’s all for now. This week I get back to just writing, working on the first draft of Drawing Dead (Book 3). I’m looking forward to being interviewed by the hosts of “Poker In the Ears” next week, and I’ll post a link to the show when it drops.