Well, I'm very last minute with this, but really, what better use do you have for your time? At 7 PM on May 21, I'll be at Third Place Books at their Lake Forest Park location in Bothell to interview Joe Abercrombie about his latest book, THE DEVILS. There are still a few tickets available if you go to their website and click on the event. I expect to have a wonderful time and I hope to see you there!
In March to celebrate my birthday and again in April for Fool's Day, I offered to send a hardback to people willing to donate at least $20 to Doctors Without Borders. The deadline was April 15, and many people responded. So many, and so generously that we raised over $5000 for Doctors Without Borders Some donors were very generous indeed. So I have a LOT of books to ship out.
I have a couple of people lined up to give me a hand, and I've prepped the local post office so my ducks are in a row, but this will still take time as I need to dedicate each book personally. So if you have not received your book yet, please be patient. I am shipping them as I do them, via Book Rate, as noted before. To those who included a shipping label, my weary typing fingers thank you!
I did not feel well enough to attend Norwescon, so I missed seeing friends and readers. I simply don't have the energy levels I used to have for the fun stuff. Somehow it all gets used up on the 'gotta get it done' stuff!
I am still very much anticipating Worldcon in Seattle.
Things on my tiny farm still keep me very busy. We have a bee hive now, and I am learning how to take care of it, one mistake at a time. I seem to have won the battle with the ants. And I'm keeping a list of all the things I should have done before the bees arrived.
I carefully seeded about 40 pots of vegetables yesterday to get some starts for my garden. Pumpkins, beans, sunflowers, squash. This morning, I discovered that mice had raided every pot and dug up all my seeds except one bean. So they are re-seeded now and covered against mice and I shall hope for the best. Potatoes are in the ground and growing. I've put in a bigger garden this year as I believe prices can only go up. Luckily we have chickens both for eggs and meat, so that end of things is covered.
And yes, I am writing. Just slowly with painful 'space bar' thumbs.
Patience. That's my watch word these days.
A couple of things coming up!
On May 21, I will be interviewing Joe Abercrombie about his new book The Devils. It's extraordinary and I very much look forward to seeing Joe again. We will be at Third Place Books at their Lake Forest Park location. It's at 7 PM. Better get your tickets now!
And on May28th, I'll join Terry Brooks to celebrate the opening of a new B&N books in Lakewood, Washington. We'll be starting at 9 AM! The new location is 10330 59th Avenue SW, Lakewood, Washington. We expect to have a very good time! I'll post more about that as we get a bit closer!
On April 11, I attended the WLA Book Bash at the Tacoma Convention Center. I have high hopes that this will be an annual event.
The WLA is the Washington Library Association. This event gathered librarians from all over Washington state for various seminars, but I will speak to the part that included writers.
The WLA invited a number of writers to attend. We were given the opportunity to give very short readings (3-5 minutes) and be available to speak to librarians and sign books. A selection ofour books was made available by Grit City Book Store of Tacoma. Perhaps the most enjoyable part for the writers is that we were all making new friends and renewing old friendships as we chatted and browsed each others books. I made several new writer friends, and renewed some acquaintances.
Upcoming events that I will attend include Norwescon over Easter weekend. I hope to be there for the Friday and Saturday, just wandering about and attending panels as a reader. I am not scheduled to be on any panels. I'm looking forward, again, to connecting with writer friends. Kat and I are looking forward to connecting with Shanna Germain and Cat Valente and many other attending writers.
And finally, Steamy in Seattle is coming up in May. This is a fund raising event for Clarion West, the well known writers' workshop. You can still get tickets for this lovely tea party. This year its in the Nordic Museum! It happens on May 10, and if you buy in at the VIP level, you get to keep your teacup! With Ann Aguirre and Elizabeth Stephens, and Jasmina Silvera moderating. Tea and Romance in a wonderful setting for a Fantastic event. Visit their website for all the details.