I had the best time ever on Friday evening when I read excerpts from Wishing Caswell Dead at the 2018 Colorado Book Award finalist event for general fiction, literary fiction, and poetry categories. BookBar in Denver was the location. What a great place! A bar and a bookstore, all in one awesome package. I always thought Heaven should be like a giant library with all the books in the world…but now I’m thinking a huge BookBar would be fine too. The author pictured to the left is Jayme Mansfield, reading from her historical novel, Rush.
Many thanks to Colorado Humanities and their Colorado Book Awards team. Their efforts to celebrate the books and their authors, with the help of BookBar, are much appreciated.
The event actually pulled me out of my slump and reset my attitude to #amwriting. Of course, knowing I had a submission due for my critique group this week helped. I’m working on a second Sangamon Village novel and having lots of fun with new research and a new assortment of characters, including some really bad dudes.
Northern Colorado Writers Conference
Friday morning (May 4th) I’m attending a two-hour master class on self-publishing at the NCW Conference in Fort Collins, CO. On Saturday, I’m attending all day to reconnect with friends I haven’t seen in a while and soak up a little more knowledge about writing. There’s always something new to learn.
The Garden
I finally got outside yesterday and planted the spinach and lettuce seeds in one of my garden boxes. At least those veggies are tough enough to survive the surprise snows and freezes we often get in Northern Colorado, even in May.
Next I’ll tackle the stripped flower bed by planting gladiolus bulbs. At the hardware store, I picked up a cute little hole digger to make it easier.
What I’m Reading
R. Gary Raham’s sci fi novel A Once-Dead Genius in the Kennel of Master Morticue Ambergrand: From Deathbed to Pethood and Beyond in Earth’s Far Distant Future is funny, brilliant, and complex enough to slow down my read even though I want to read faster to see what happens next. I’m abut 3/4 through the book which is downloaded from Net Galley, so I expect to finish it very soon.
That’s all I have for today. Hope you have a wonderful week with just enough rain and sunshine to make your flowers grow.
What are you reading and/or writing? Will you be attending any conferences or conventions this spring? Do you have a garden?
Congrats on the revitalizing Book Bar reading, Pat! At 8300 feet, I had to give up standard gardening. Now I go wild with big pots on the deck. The deer don’t seem to like walking upstairs to eat them. 🙂 And congratulations again on WISHING CASWELL DEAD making it to the finals of the prestigious Colorado Book Awards!! I so much enjoyed that story!
Question: Can you recommend a humorous mystery that you’ve enjoyed? Our book club members are in the mood for something light.
Glad the reading went so well! The master class sounds like it will be incredibly informative.
Recently finished reading BLUFF by Michael Kardos and absolutely loved it!
I love your recommendations, Madeline. My “Want to Read” list just keeps getting longer and longer.
Oh, it sounds as though you had a great time at the reading, Pat! That’s fabulous. And I”m glad you got the chance to get out into the garden. There’s just something about planting, isn’t there? Hope you have/had a wonderful time at the conference.
Thanks, Margot! I’m hoping to learn a little bit about a lot of things….including self-publishing.
Wonderful! Goodness, a bar and book store combined? That is the perfect combination. I’ve always joked that drunk people will buy anything.
LOL — that’s probably true, Diane. There may have been some slick business planning that went into the bookstore/bar combination.
That’s awesome the reading gave you a little jolt!
Hi Alex! A little natural adrenaline did the trick. I think I was suffering from spring fever.