This past weekend went by much too fast. I attended the Fall in Love New England Readers Conference and had a wonderful time. It was my first time as an attending author and I wasn't disappointed. I met first time readers; reacquainted with authors and readers I hadn't seen a couple of years and met new authors. There were times I was fan-girting, for sure!
Friday, Day 1 of the conference, the authors filled goodie bags for the readers and enjoyed a nice lunch of sandwiches with lots of dessert items. The afternoon was filled with fun games and workshops--one of which I co-hosted with Stephanie Queen. It was "What's in a Name?" and was all about Creating a Name for your Characters. We were supposed to talk about naming settings, but time got away from us. Part of the workshop was to hand out a brief description of my hero and heroine that I needed names for, for an upcoming book. Well, I got some wonderful names back and had to choose one male and one female name. It was difficult, but finally came down to Molly McPherson and Brandon Hart. The other names submitted will be ideas for future books.
Then on Friday night, we had a lovely dinner of chicken, roasted potatoes and a mix of zucchini, summer squash and onions. It was delicious!!! Authors and readers were invited to dress up in a Halloween costume so I had made a woodland fairy costume to coincide with a scene from my book, Dancing in the Grass. There were so many wonderful costumes. At the end of the dinner, authors gave away baskets to some lucky readers. I brought a basket filled with items that had to do with my story. I hope the reader who won it will like what I put in the basket. After this, I was tired so I went to my room, put on the TV and put together what I would need for my table I was sponsoring at lunch on Saturday.
Saturday was another fun day filled with exciting and fun workshops and games. I sponsored a table at lunch and thought I'd only get 2 people, but I had six readers. We discussed so many things and my anxiety I had had before lunch, drifted away and I enjoyed myself as I got to know some new readers. I played a few games of Password with several other authors and readers as well as attending an arts and crafts where we made roses from papers torn from old books. I attended a workshop hosted by four other authors and won a prize--Peggy Jaeger's recent Christmas story; "Mr. Fix It's Christmas"! I was going to buy the book because it sounds so good but then I won it!
Then came the book-signing. I was a nervous wreck. I couldn't get my table banner to stick to the tablecloth so I had to rig it up using some tulle I had had the foresight to buy earlier at Dollar Tree which kind of fit into my theme of dancing. I noticed so many other authors using some great props for their tables and mine looked so bland. But, it's a learning experience and now I know what to do for my next author event. I did sell a total of 11 books--a few Tarot Journals, a few Reader Journals and several copies of Dancing in the Grass. I was pleased with the results after being told I'd be lucky if I sold one book where I was an unknown author.
I came home tired but happy and can't wait for the next event. Now it's on to finishing up Book 2 which is to be released December 5th and time is flying away from me.
Wishing all of my readers a wonderful Fall season!
Lori
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