Marilyn's Musings

I'm with small publishers and have never had anyone pay to send me on a book tour. In fact, unless I'm invited, I seldom do bookstore events--though I do have a few special ones I like to visit when I have a new book out. Until recently, it's been years since we've had a bookstore anywhere close to us. A used bookstore just opened in Porterville and were nice enough to host me for my book launch for A n Axe to Grind. I wrote about it in a previous blog. I love going to libraries and giving talks. Will be going to the Hanford Library in May, but before that, on April 23rd, I'm participating in a local author event at the Visalia branch of the Tulare County Library, 7 p.m. for anyone who is interested. Another event I do a lot of is book fairs and craft shows. We put up our EZ-up tent for the Jackass Mail Run in Springville.(See photo of me doing my part in this effort. We did the same for the Celebration of the Whales in Oxnard. May 8th will find me at the Jane Aus...

Epicon is coming. Hooray! Hooray! I go to a lot of writing conferences and mystery conventions. In fact, I just returned from Love is Murder which is held annually in Chicago. Yes, it was cold! They had a huge snow storm which began right when we arrived. Ours was the last plane to get in that evening. After boarding the hotel shuttle, we sat back and marveled at the snow and how brave people were to drive in it. We had a great time, met lots of new people and saw old friends from other conferences. And that more or less explains why I go to cons. It certainly isn’t to make money. I didn’t sell one book in Chicago–not that I didn’t try, but the competition was far too great with some of the biggest names in the mystery field in attendance and on many panels. Epicon is a totally different kind of conference geared for those of us whose books are available as e-books as well as in print. And again, there are many people I’m anxious to see again who I’ve made connections with over the yea...