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I’ll be at Books & Boos on Saturday, and I’m only reading the scary parts.

Reading, books and boos, beware the hawk

The Books and Boos ghost.

If you live in Connecticut and love to be frightened, you should probably take a drive up to Books & Boos in Colchester, a brand new bookstore, located in an old yellow house at a crossroads. The house is old enough to look as if it could be haunted, which would be appropriate, because the bookstore’s logo is a ghost and its stock-in-trade is horror.

I’m going to be there, reading the scariest parts of my book at 12 p.m. this Saturday.

Not that I write horror, but lucky for me and other local authors, Books & Boos supports and showcases the work of authors from across New England. A display in the front of the store is packed with local authors.  When I was there I saw a book about building outhouses, a children’s book, graphic novels and Bad Apple, a book by fellow VBP author Kristi Petersen Schoonover.

Also, something that tickled my geek streak? When I toured Books and Boos with co-owner Stacey Longo last month, I walked past a glass case containing pillows shaped like blood spatters and old-school Scully and Mulder X-Files action figures.

Beware the Hawk and I are in bloody good company. Come visit in Colchester. The fun starts at 12 p.m. I’ll make it as scary as possible.beware the hawk banner

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January appearance in Colchester, Conn. and other bookish news.

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Hello folks. Just a brief post to make a couple of announcements:

First off, I will be appearing in January at Books and Boos, a brand spanking new bookstore in Colchester, Conn. I will be talking more about the appearance as it approaches, but here are the basics – I will be reading on Saturday, Jan. 19 from 12 to 2 p.m. They will also be carrying Beware the Hawk, in case you happen to be in the area when I’m not there.

I will be the second VBP author to be reading there; on Saturday, Dec. 8, Kristi Petersen Schoonover will be there to read from her book, Bad Apple.

In other news, I’ve finished the very first draft of the sequel to Beware the Hawk! This is only the first step in a chain of drafts. I still have a lot of work to do before I can even hand it to my editor, and I can’t guarantee that she will accept it, but if she does, you can bet that the story will go through a lot of changes before it makes it out into the world.

So the big news here is that the draft exists, which is huge for me, because one of my writing fears is that I will fail to imagine a full plot. Now that the plot is in place, I’m free to go back into the story and refine what I have.

That’s it. I hope you’ve all been enjoying the long holiday weekend.

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Reading, discussion and signing at the Fairfield Bookstore tonight!

I would be remiss if I didn’t remind you all that tonight, Oct. 10, at 7 p.m., I will be at the Fairfield University Bookstore (that’s the former Borders) in downtown Fairfield to talk about, read from and sign copies of my book, Beware the Hawk.

I hope you come to see me.

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Upcoming events, both actual and virtual.

Hello, hello! Just a quick post to make some announcements.

Come see me in Fairfield next Wednesday!

A week from today (Wedensday, Oct. 10 at 7 p.m.) , I will be at the Fairfield University bookstore downtown Fairfield to discuss and read from Beware the Hawk. If you’re in the area, come see me! I will be signing books and everything. And if you want a saw in what I will talk about about that evening, you can have one! Vote below.

[polldaddy poll=6532091].

Interview with the editors of Spry Literary Journal.

Are you a writer? Do you write short? Boy, do I have a post for you! Later this week I will be posting an interview with the founders of Spry, a brand spanking new journal dedicated to the short form. I talked to them on Monday (Because we’re all hip and happening ladies, we did the interview via G-Chat) and I’m putting my post together this week. Check back to read an engaging interview and for the inside track on Spry.

Some changes ’round here

If you look at my blog on Tuesday nights, you might see some strange things happening in my sidebar, or even on the main page. (Like a link to my friend Alena’s blog under a category called “Link-a-Licious” in my sidebar.) That’s because I teach a blogging class on Tuesday nights and I use my blog as an example and sometimes, as a guinea pig. So that’s what’s up there. I haven’t lost my mind. Not yet.

UPDATE: Fellow bloggers, I have removed my Blogroll page. All my links are now in the sidebar. Some of my links are now gone – I removed a group of blogs that haven’t been updated in a very long time. But no worries, I will be changing up the links frequently.

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Publicity for me and a fellow MFA alum.

Check out the flier created for me and fellow Fairfield University MFA alumni poet (whew, that’s a mouthful) Colin D. Halloran.  The kind people at our MFA alma mater, Fairfield U, put it together for us. Thank you, guys! I will be there on Oct. 10 and Colin will be there on Oct. 19.

Colin’s collection, Shortly Thereafter, which centers on veternan’s issues (Colin himself is a veteran of the war in Afghanistan) will be released on October 12; he will be at the Fairfield University bookstore a mere week after the release, for a reading and signing.

I’ll be there nine days earlier, and as you know if you read this blog regularly, I’m looking for reader input about my talk that night.

 

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Help me decide what to talk about at my Oct. 10 appearance in Fairfield.

Have I mentioned that I’m going to be reading from and talking about Beware the Hawk at the Fairfield University Bookstore yet?

I will be there on Wednesday, Oct. 10, and instead of doing my regular reading from Beware the Hawk, I thought I’d try something that was suggested to me by author Matt Dicks. I thought I’d discuss the process of writing and publishing the book, then read a little, then answer questions. I think this might work better for me than just reading from the book for a very practical reason:

My book is a 40-page novella, and so there are really only two 20 minute readings I can pull from it without a) having to explain too much or b) delivering any spoilers. Also, I’d hate for anyone who’s been kind enough to come out to see me twice have to sit through the same excerpts. That would be mean.

Because of this, I’m thinking that I’ll probably talk about how Beware the Hawk sat unfinished in a drawer for nine years before it saw the light of day.

Or I can talk about how I got the idea for the novella and how that idea evolved over a decade.

Or I can talk about novellas in general.

Or I can talk about e-books.

I’m turning to you to help me decide, my friends. The reason? Well, the name contest  was wildly successful, although I cannot reveal the winner until the next book comes out. So I’m going to post a poll here and on my Facebook page, and hopefully you’ll help me decide. Scroll down for the poll!

[polldaddy poll=6532091]

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