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Ohio Author Festival; a Great Opportunity to Meet Fellow Authors and Try Out my Author Table Set-up!
Last weekend I was privileged to be invited to participate in an Ohio Author’s Festival at my local library branch. Here I am, pictured with my author table and my stuffed Ginger Snap kitty! I honestly did not realize the photo was mimicking the cover painting! I’ll bet my good friend, who took the picture, did that on purpose! Most of the other authors at the event came from a couple hours away, and were much better known than I am.
Of course, being better-known-than-I-am is not hard to do; my first book doesn’t come out until December 1! So I was quite happy to be included in this illustrious group, even though I had no actual, physical books to sell that day.
The event also gave me a chance to set up my table display, which I will use for future author signing events, for the first time.
This was a good thing, as I found out my banner is way too big to hang from a standard table! I guess I should have asked other authors how big their banners are before ordering mine! I’ll look at this as a humorous learning opportunity.
I think my stuffed orange kitty was a big hit, though, and people seemed to like the cat stickers I was giving away.
I’m not as certain about my original painting of Ginger Snap. You can see it in the bottom left corner of the attached photo. It’s a bit cartoonish, but I like it. I am giving it as a gift to one of the people who attended the event and signed their name and email in my pretty, little notebook. I need to pull a winner’s name and mail it off! I’ll do that later this weekend.
Two of the authors attending spoke to the group, and both were amazing. One woman was a fellow Amish romance author; although she had us all in stitches explaining how she writes Amish murder mysteries, and apologizing for “killing off Amish folks right and left”.
The other spoke about how some of her books have been banned, and why. She really got me thinking about this disturbing topic.
There was a wide range of genres represented at the event, and I looked over all the work of my fellow authors, and made some notes about books I wish to purchase.
Several of my friends attended the event and come over to wish me well after hearing the speakers. That made me feel great!
Next time, I’ll be prepared with a banner that fits my table, and I’ll actually have books available for purchase!
This little shake-down was good for me, and fun. I hope to see you at a future event! Maybe you’ll win an original, Anne Blackburne, painting! I plan to do them for all the kitties in my books.
My next event will be at the Christmas Open House at Kerns Christian book store in Akron, from 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. on Saturday, December 2. That’s the day after my book releases! It’s really getting close! Drop in and say hi if you are from the Akron/Canton area. I’d love to meet you!
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Publishers Weekly Review of Ruth’s Ginger Snap Surprise!
I’m a happy author today, as yesterday something unexpected happened; something I didn’t even know was a thing until I received an email telling me it was!
One of the amazing folks at Barbour Publishing emailed me yesterday to tell me my debut novel, “Ruth’s Ginger Snap Surprise“, which comes out December 1 from Barbour (have I told you this before – maybe 10 times??) had received a very good review from Publishers Weekly.
I was thrilled to learn I’d received a good review, but I didn’t understand the significance of this particular review. Of course, I’ve heard of Publishers Weekly. But I wasn’t certain how important their good review of my novel was.
So I Googled them!
Here is the result: “A Publishers Weekly review is the most highly regarded review in the publishing industry. It is a capsule book review of about 200 words. PW reviews are primarily geared toward helping booksellers and librarians decide which books to purchase.”
Hold the phone: I received a very good review from the most highly regarded source in the publishing industry? May I just say, wowsers!
I’ll copy the link to the review at the end of this blog post. It made me feel very good, saying things like,
“Blackburne debuts with a stirring second-chance Amish romance featuring a 33-year-old widow who struggles to start over with the help of a mischievous pet kitten—and possibly a new beau.”
And . . .
“Blackburne delicately weaves Ruth’s and Jonas’s tenuous hopes for happiness with their conflicted feelings about moving on from their first marriages, lending the narrative depth and resonance. Readers will look forward to the next outing from this promising new voice.”
Oh boy, oh boy!
It’s as if I hadn’t realized yesterday was Christmas, and woke up to a lovely gift I didn’t expect.
Whomever the anonymous review at Publishers Weekly is, God bless you! You’ve made me very, very happy!
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New Amish Romance, “Ruth’s Gingersnap Surprise”, Releases December 1 from Barbour Publishing!
Ruth’s Ginger Snap Surprise, book two in the new Heart of the Amish series from Barbour Publishing, Releases Digitally Nov. 15; and in Print December 1! Countdown to Book Release Day Has Begun!
As a brand new author looking forward to the release of my debut novel, “Ruth’s Ginger Snap Surprise”, everything is new to me! I keep hearing other authors, my agent, my editors and the wonderful folks I’ve met on various reading sites talk about terms that are unfamiliar to me.
Getting a book published involves a steep learning curve.
One of the things I recently learned about was the author’s street team.
Don’t know what that is? Neither did I until recently! An author’s street team is a group of lovely people willing to take the risk of reading a book by an author – in this case, a totally unknown author, me! – and then going online to various sites and reviewing the book.
It’s one thing if you’re reviewing the latest from your favorite author; but in this case, for all these folks know, it could be terrible! (I promise, it’s NOT!)
Exciting developments! The wonderful Connie Spradling Lynch from the Keeping Up With The Amish group on Facebook, has helped me put together my very first “street team”.
To these brave, selfless souls, I say THANK YOU! Because getting reviews (hopefully positive) out into the world as a book releases is essential to the success of that book.
It motivates Amazon and other such sites to keep that book in front of the public eye. It may influence readers who have never, ever heard of an author to take a risk on their book.
The Street Team doesn’t pay for the book; and when they review it, they say so clearly – that they’ve been given a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
That being said, if you are someone who, despite never having read anything I’ve ever written before, decides to purchase my book, and you love it? Please go leave a nice review at Amazon.com, and maybe a few other places.
If you hate it – say nothing! (Hee hee!)
Hopefully the fact that my agent and editors liked my book means most of you will, too. But you never know! Right?
Do you think I may have a case of first-time-author jitters? I really think I do!
Only nine more weeks until my book releases online, and 11 until it releases in print!
Oh boy oh boy! The Countdown has BEGUN!
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Introducing my Fellow “Heart of the Amish” author, Mindy Steele.
The Heart of the Amish is a new series coming out soon from Barbour Publishing. The initial six books will be written by three authors, although one of them is still a mystery to me! Hint hint: I’m one of the remaining two!
My book, “Ruth’s Ginger Snap Surprise“, will be published second in the series, releasing on December 1, 2023. I’m also fifth, with my second book, tentatively titled “Mary’s Calico Hope”, releasing in the late summer of 2024. I just signed the contract with Barbour for that one!
The first author whose book will be released in this series is Mindy Steele, who is already the author of a number of sweet Amish romances. You can find her on Amazon.com.
Mindy’s first book in this series, titled “The Flower Quilter”, promises to be a fun read! It’s about a young woman who is just sick of quilting – and finds herself heading off to – you guessed it! – do more quilting! It will release in September, so be sure to look for it. It promises to be the first book in what I believe will become a popular new Amish series.
Happy reading!
Amish Stories