UNCHARTED at the Warner Fall Foliage Festival

Well, it’s been nearly a week since I attended my very first book signing! I would have reported back sooner, but to be honest, I’ve hardly had a chance to catch a breath since we landed in New Hampshire and it has taken a few days for the fog to clear from my head.

I have to say, the whole event was far less nerve-wracking and a whole lot more fun than I had anticipated. I arrived at 11:00 in the morning and hung around for 5 hours. The weather was even so cooperative as to stay warm and hold off on rain or wind until we packed up just after 4:00. Unfortunately, I have only one picture to show for the occasion—it seems that both Todd and I ended up talking with people nearly nonstop since we arrived and forgot all about pictures until family showed up! And so, I present to you my daughter, her husband and our grandbabies! No time (or presence of mind) to pose for that picture, but I do like how someone holding the book showed up on the right hand side of the photo and I love the intent look on my granddaughter’s face as I interact with a new reader!

A bonus to doing a book signing—one I had not anticipated—is receiving feedback from a reader—an older gentleman—who took the time to look me up online and drop me an e-mail. He said that he ‘had finished the book and loved it! He said he doesn’t read romance novels very often but he asked his wife to read it also so they can discuss it!’ It doesn’t get much better than that for me!

Uncharted, Now Available in E-Book Format!

Yay! Now you can read Uncharted: Story for a Shipwright on your Kindle reader. Download it from Amazon.com

As a side point, if you have not yet purchased an eReader of some sort and are considering it, and if you still like to support your local independent book store, many of them sell eBooks through their Websites.

If you choose to purchase a Kindle, you can only download books through Amazon, which does not benefit the independent book store. I love my Kindle, but that long-term implication never occurred to me; I would have purchased a Nook, iPad or one of the other fine eReaders available. Uncharted will soon be available for those devices also. 

And of course, you can still read it in a lovely matte covered paperback--feels so good in hand! 

Rhemalda Publishing

Amazon.com

Barnes & Noble.com

'Big Day' Build-up

Way back in a previous life—in my twenties—I used to manage a bridal shop. Reflecting on that time, it seems to me that looking forward to a publication date is a lot like looking forward to one’s wedding day.

Once you are engaged—that is, you've signed a publishing contract—there’s all sorts of preparations that begin. Sure, you've been dreaming about and planning it for years, but now it's real and life begins to revolve around the ‘Big Day’. The closer the ‘Day’ gets, the more stressful it becomes. ‘What if the cake doesn’t arrive on time?’ What if the edits take longer than expected? What if the flowers aren’t right? ‘What if there’s a glitch with uploading to the distributor?’ And you don’t even want to think about ‘What if the bride has put on weight! What if the gown, so painstakingly altered, no longer fits! (If you’re curious about How A Published Novel Is Like a Wedding Gown, head on over to Sia McKye’s blog where I wrote a guest post for today.)

Now that my release date has come and gone, I’m in that honeymoon phase. Although I’m enjoying it, I’m looking forward to getting back to real life and working on my next novel. More on that, soon... 

   

Uncharted: Story for a Shipwright, Officially Released!

Well, October 1st has finally arrived! That means Uncharted: Story for a Shipwright is officially released! All of this also coincides with our relocation to New Hampshire, so it’s been a very busy time and accounts for much of my online inactivity. In fact, my whole routine is undergoing significant changes and finding time to write and blog shall be an interesting challenge.

With so many things happening all at once, I have less time to obsess over my upcoming book launch and signing, which is a good thing. It will be held at MainStreet BookEnds this Saturday—the 6th—during the big Fall Foliage Festival in Warner, New Hampshire. I’ll be there at 11:00 in the morning and sticking around for the afternoon. It’s bound to be a good time, especially with my Todd joining me. I hope the weather is good and I get to meet some of you!

Meanwhile, I'm waiting for the e-book to become available. I'll post and let you know when that happens.