Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all of you! We finished the season at the Piqua Historical Area for the second year with 'A Dickens of a Murder Mystery on the Farm'. Yours truly was arrested three times for murdering old Ebenezer Scrooge (who had gone back to his miserly ways). We had a great time and performed the play three times to a sold out audience. If I can figure out how to, I'll post a bit of video from it some time in the future.

As this year ends and another new one begins, I wish you all peace and contentment, and may the Light shine in your lives throughout the coming months.

Marla

Author and Book Center Opening

AUTHOR AND BOOK CENTER OPENING

This is a site dedicated to promoting authors and their books. Many of them are independently published as I am. Please check it out when you have time. Here's the welcome from the main page:

Today (December 1) is our opening day! Welcome to our brand new Website created especially for book lovers! Please look around.Here you’ll find up-to-date book reviews, upcoming author and book lover events, and the personal pages of numerous talented published authors!We also have an active chat room where you can mingle with the authors and discuss your favorite books with book lovers like yourself.New authors and book lovers are joining everyday and we’re all excited to be a part of this great new site! We look forward to meeting you and sharing some great books!

Check it out at: http://bookeventcenter.ning.com/

Book signing successful

Even though Judith proved shy (she decided lattes were not for her) and Marla attended instead, the books signing was successful. I had a great day and sold a fair amount of books. The best part of the sales were the ones to total strangers. I love my friends for buying, but when someone you have never met and have no contact with comes up to you and requests a certain book, you know that all those hours on Facebook and your writers' sites have meant something. Someone knows your books are out there, and knows your name.

What better perk could an independently published writer have on a chilly day in downtown Troy OH?

My group, Gallimaufry, is planning a Valentine's signing as well. I'll let everyone know about it here first.

Marla

Book Signing Saturday

Judith Kingsley, 18th century woman and fiance of William Foxwell of South Carolina, will be making an appearance at Around About Books this Saturday, November 29th, 2008. Though a bit confused by all of the horseless carriages and fireless torches, she intends to 'carry on' in the English tradition and speak to those in attendance regarding her fiance's daughter Miriam and her forbidden love, COPPERHEAD. Judith will most likely also be sipping lattes and handing out fliers advertising the event. Please come and join us if you are in the area.

PS I really just wanted to play around in the costume now that I have panniers to wear under it! As Miriam put it in COPPERHEAD, 'the wrath of God' should be called 'down upon the man who had decided that a ‘proper’ woman must wear soft leather shoes and skirts three feet wide.'

We're signing books! Come and join in.

The writers of Gallimaufry (including me) will be at Around About Books in Troy, Ohio on November 29th between 2:00 and 4:00. This is our first individual group book signing and we are excited.

Come visit historic downtown Troy and meet the writers including Beth Henderson, author of 25 titles with over 600,000 copies sold worldwide, Marla Fair, author of Goodnight Robinson and COPPERHEAD, Rebekah McCoy, author of Rockstar, and Nioma Stephan, author of Low Bridge. It's the busiest day of the Christmas shopping season, so come on out and join the madness! There will be books galore at great prices and, best of all, there's a coffee shop next door!

If you're curious, check out our sites and you'll see, the trip is worth it!

Marla Fair http://www.marlafair.com/

Beth Henderson http://www.romanceandmystery.com/

Rebekah McCoy http://www.rebekahmccoy.com/

The location: http://www.aroundaboutbooks.com/

The town: http://www.troyohio.gov/

Mea culpa

I have been absent from my blog for weeks. As the title says 'mea culpa'. My mother has been ill and between that and work shutting down, I haven't had time to blog. (Though I probably needed to!) Anyhow, I will post soon.

And for your enjoyment -

Another of my young men. (No, I don't own the second guy. Don't I wish? LOL I was just amazed by the resemblance of the man in the ferrotype to Viggo Mortenson.)

Walking backwards in time

Wow, it's been more than two weeks since I posted. A lot has happened in the world of this interpreter. My granddaughter started kindergarten, and at work we have passed through Heritage Festival to the closing months of our season.

Heritage Festival this year brought 89,000 people to the Piqua Historical Area over three days. The last day was one of the few in Ohio this year that topped 99 degrees. During that time we admitted nearly 2000 of those attendees into the Johnston farmhouse. It is a grueling weekend, but the hope is that a few of those thousands will return to enjoy the site for its own merits and bring others along. (The festival is a Piqua event we just host.) Due to the intensity of those three days it is often hard for us to get out into the 'field' where the vendors and exhibits are. There are many sutlers of varying types carrying anything and everything from modern-day goods to quality reproduction items. This year I discovered a new vendor that I wanted to give a 'plug'. In the photo at the head of this post I am wearing an 18th century gown - quite a walk backwards into the past for this lady who normally wears an 1830 high gown. I had two motives for buying this lovely item. One, I have a friend who tends to take me 'into' the 18th century with invitations to events and, two, I am working on a one woman presentation which will be used in conjunction with promoting my book COPPERHEAD.

But more about that later.

The clothier I purchased this very lovely gown from is called Briar Rose LLC. Jane Bonus is the president. I worked with Jane on choosing a gown and in the end picked this lovely brown/purple pattern with a lightly striped tan/yellow petticoat. It is truly beautiful, well made, and the price was more than reasonable. For anyone like me who needs an 18th century gown and is hunting one at a great price, I highly recommend Briar Rose. You can call them at 765-453-6357 or email hollyrenee95@hotmail.com