2015 Highlights

I see I haven't posted since March, 2014, so I'll encapsulate 2015 in this blog.

I arrived in Prescott, Arizona, on January 1 for a two month vacation and to decide whether a move to Prescott was in my future. The next thing I knew I had signed a lease for an apartment at Alta Vista – one with a perfect floor plan for me and a nice view of the mountains to the east. So, I contacted a realtor in Traverse City. He said he would send me a listing agreement but he wanted to show the house that day because the sun was shining. I called for some reason late that day and he said he couldn’t talk to me. He was sitting at my dining room table writing up an agreement of sale.

I returned to Traverse City January 29 for a marathon session of cleaning out, downsizing, and arranging for the movers. Thanks to many of my nieces and nephews everything went smoothly except the weather. It snowed most of the time and made cleaning the condo a messy process. On February 14, in the middle of a white-out blizzard, I got to the airport (putting my rental in a snow bank there) and eventually, after a lot of maneuvering, the airplane took off and I barely made my delayed flight in Chicago. Everything went smoothly from then on and I made the move into my apartment on February 26.

I flew back to Michigan for great-nephew Ryan Cooper’s wedding in June and was able to connect with friends and family. I did another of my road trips later in June and July: every segment was a two day drive. I drove to Dallas, where my sister-in-law Saroj was visiting her son Monneth. Saroj and I took a side jaunt to Austin to see our nephew Neil and Jackie and meet their new daughter Madison. I then drove to Peoria, Illinois, for Narinder’s cousin Raj and Kris Bedi’s wedding anniversary, where I met up again with Saroj along with my brother-in-law Ravi and wife Madhu. After that, I drove to Houston, to my sister Bonnie’s. After a few days there, she joined me for the trip back to Prescott and stayed with me for a week before her daughter Darlene and family took her back to Houston.

I joined the Desert Sleuths chapter of Sisters in Crime and attended a conference in Phoenix. I also joined two groups called Suspicious Characters and the Professional Writers of Prescott. I took one other little side trip, to Silver City, NM, for a book festival. Sold a few books, but mostly enjoyed learning a little more about the extended environment into which I have moved. I’ve done enough presentations in Prescott to have people hounding me for the next book (some of you may be guilty of that, also. I hope you have found the sixth book in the series, “When Will the Secrets End?” either at Horizon or through Amazon). I connected with two other mystery writers here to form a group called “Triple Threat”. We did a very enjoyable presentation at Alta Vista and have plans to do others at the Prescott Library and a local book store.

I was able to breathe fairly normally at a mile high by the time the new choir season started in September, so joined two choirs at my new church, Prescott United Methodist, where the atmosphere and the community activity are remarkably similar Central UMC in TC. I also inherited leadership of a small Bible Study group at Alta Vista, which I am finding to be a rewarding challenge. Oh, my, my calendar is beginning to look as full as it was in Traverse City!

The Tucson Book Festival

Speed limits are 80 MPH across Texas and New Mexico on I-10, with gale force winds. No driveways or mailboxes, though! Many warnings about dust storms, but fortunately I didn't run into any.

After a day of getting myself acclimated and finding my way around, I spent the weekend at the Tucson Book Festival. I'd heard great things about the festival: how many thousands of people attended, how many book buyers there were, how many books people sold. My results were somewhat underwhelming. After selling only two books in my alloted two hours at the Tucson Sisters in Crime booth, I noticed there was a slot still empty the next day and asked if I could have it. Yes! Three more books sold. And one more at my signing in the festival author's pavilion alloted to self-published authors.

Because self published authors aren't allowed to participate on panels, where you get noticed, or in the signings for panelists.

Oh, well. My book events are becoming an excuse for me to do the traveling I like to do, which is hard to do alone. In addition, I meet so many great people in this same business of writing and then trying to sell books.

Besides, since I had several stops this trip, and saw so much of family, it was worth it even without the festival. Plus, I have to justify my membership in WorldMark the Club timeshares by using their wonderful resorts. Which I'll be doing for the next three days at Rancho Vistoso in Tucson before heading out to Prescott to visit with my sister before going back to Michigan. Unfortunately, I think winter will still be there to greet me when I arrive. Wish I didn't have to get back to file my taxes and take care of other business.

Highway to Houston

My latest trip takes me to Houston at the end of February, 2014. I've never been so glad to get out of the frozen Northwestern Michigan winter.

The first highlight of the trip was when I took my boots off at the end of the first day of driving. No boots for at least a month! What a relief. The second highlight was no snow on the ground AT ALL and SUNNY skies the whole rest of the trip.

The third highlight was driving through Missouri. I always love driving through Missouri. They don't threaten me with penalties for moving violations in Missouri. It gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling to know that I should obey the laws because MoDOT CARES.

The next remarkable moment was driving through or around Little Rock, Arkansas. I thought I had been transported back to Chicago! The only place with heavier traffic was Houston itself.

Then came the eye opener when I entered Texas. I have never driven in Texas before. Did you know that their highways, with speeds now allowed up to 75 miles an hour, do not necessarily have on and off ramps? They have mailboxes and driveways with access to the highway! And, in at least one place, the four lanes turned into two lanes WITH THE SPEED LIMIT STILL 75 MILES AN HOUR AND WITH THE ROAD STILL LINED BY MAILBOXES AND DRIVEWAYS. That 75 mile an hour limit will sudden a drop to 55 when entering a town. I'm glad I had my GPS to check when cars started whizzing past me and I looked down to realize it was back up to 70 or 75.

I must say I didn't run into a rude driver the whole trip. A few that were in more of a hurry than they should be, most of whom stopped tailgating me when they realized there was no way I could move over for them yet. But almost everyone obeyed the speed limit in contruction zones and, yes, construction is already taking place in Missouri and Arkansas.

After four days in Houston with my step-sister, I'm off to San Antonio for the next leg of my trip.

A Moment of Bliss

I could not move. Sitting on the bench, I stared over the smooth surface of the lake so recently bombarded with boats and boards and acrobatics and the cacophony of accompanying music.  Now it was filled with silence, soft air, warm sunshine. I was transported to another realm.   

Come they called. We have more to do. More to see. We must hurry on to the next destination.

I could not move. Mind and body were at one with the lake and the breeze and the fluttering leaves of the nearby trees. Holiness filled this place, only five minutes ago a tourist attraction. It filled the space with peace, quiet, fulfillment.

Hurry up, they called. What are you doing? How are we going to get it all done?

How could I move? I closed my eyes, breathed in the sweet scents of forest and lake. Listened to a silence that was mine alone. Savored the moment, willing it to last, even as it slipped away.

I moved.

More Book Festival

I mentioned in my last blog that I was going to take part in the Women's Expo in Dayton, Ohio. An energetic group of women who will put on the Dayton Book Expo in May of 2014 arranged for a booth to introduce authors and to promote the May Expo. I enjoyed meeting another group of authors, and it was fun to announce to passersby that all the authors of the books being sold were there to sign the books and talk about them! I probably won't get to the May event, because it falls between a trip to Arizona for the Tucson Book Festival and another trip to Seattle to promote my books there.

This was a two day show. Since Dayton is almost seven hours from my home, that meant three nights in a motel in addition to the booth cost. No way was I going to break even financially, but I knew that going in. What did happen is that I sold 15 books -- not gangbusters but something in a new market for me. More important, I ran out of bookmarks and other cards I had taken to publicize my books. I have never encountered at any event so many people who got excited when they learned I was published on Kindle! Now, I've only seen a possible three Kindle sales as a result so far, but those bookmarks are sturdy -- they'll be around for a while.

So, so far my experiment with book festivals is a qualified success. I do as well with arts and crafts fairs, but the festivals reach out to a different market, which I hope will eventually grow my fan base.

Book Festivals

Can book festivals work for me?

Since I don't have wide distribution, I decided this is the year for trying to sell books at book festivals. Last weekend I participated in the Kerrytown Book Festival in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Five Sisters-in-Crime members (four of us with books) had a booth at the festival. I didn't sell a single book. I belive the other three participants sold between one and three books each. Slightly underwhelming.

The other side of book festivals, though, is getting the author's name out there. Peg Herring, another Michigan author that participated, made little scrolls with a book cover from each of us on one side and a little bit of bio and contact information on the other. They were a big hit -- all 200 she had printed were gone by the end of the day and everyone was excited to get one little scroll instead of four more bookmarks!

Will it pay off? Only time will tell.

Michigan is a large state with scattered writers and SinC members. A hidden benefit of this book featival was the opportunity for four Michigan Mystery Writers (our title at the festival) who all belong to SinC but don't know each other had a chance to spend a day getting acquainted.

My next attempt to sell books at a festival will be at the Woman's Fair in Dayton, Ohio on the 21st and 22nd of September. I have joined a Book Expo booth at the fair, where twelve authors will be showcasing their work. It's a lot farther from home and a lot more expensive to attend, so I hope to come home with fewer books than I take with me this time!

Is There Hope After All?

After several months (years?) of increasing pessimism about our ability to stop the destruction of our beautiful planet, in the last few weeks I have attended three presentations that give me renewed hope.

The first was, of all things, a tour of our trash collection facility. American Waste is a local company in Northern Lower Michigan which has emerged as a leading edge trash and garbage treatment center. The scope of what we can put in the recycle bin has become so much more than I had ever dared before, and the recovery rate of that into new resource is 99%! In addition, 33% of what we put in our trash is also recycled. From what is left, some is compost, and the compost (not food grade) is used to put a cap on the landfill of what remains. Since Michigan spends about $100,000 to landfill $400,000 worth of recoverable resource (which is better than most other states), the success our local company is garnering international interest. By the way, I now generate about half a (recyclable) plastic grocery bag a week of trash. It doesn’t seem to make sense to use a garbage bin for it, so I stick it in my neighbor’s. Okay, I live in a condo community, so it’s not cheating. See www.americanwaste.org for more information.

Then our local Cherryland Electric Cooperative teamed with Traverse City Light and Power in a program for members of both to rent solar panels. The panels will provide electricity to the utilities, and the members who rent a panel for $470 will receive credits on their electric bills for twenty years. The demand for rental of panels in our area has been overwhelming, and the utilities expect to erect many more of them. See www.cherrylandelectric.com for more information.

Finally, a tour of a local gem of which I was previously unaware: Archangel Ancient Tree Archives in tiny Copemish, Michigan. With most, if not all, of our planet’s species of trees being gradually decimated by disease to which they are not resistant, this formerly tree farming group has set out to change things. They seek, collect, develop methods to propagate, and archive the genetics of ancient champion trees that have not succumbed to the diseases that plague our forests. These genetically strong trees may eventually reforest the earth, with all the benefits that provides the human population. See www.ancienttreearchive.org for more information.

These events have been so heartening, I'd love to hear if you know of others that are of potential huge benefit to our planet.