Friday, November 19, 2010

Feast or Famine?

     You go for a long time with no demands being made on your time and what happens? Three things on the same day that you really should take part in!
     With a new book out (I DID mention it, didn't I?) I have to find a way to sell it and what better way than book signings and conferences? So...the quarterly Ozark Writers League is this Friday night and Saturday in Hollister (near Branson if you don't know the Ozarks) and since I'm a charter member it is where I'll head early early tomorrow morning. I can't go tonight for various reasons  . . . also it is awards night and I don't have anything entered. Ergo: nothing won! But tomorrow's program sounds intriguing and my editor from High Hill Press will be there and I've not seen her for a month. Also my dearest friend(s) and mentors, Jory and Charlotte Sherman, will be up from Texas and I can't wait to get my hugs and kisses. Jory was kind enough to do one of the blurbs on the jacket of From Trash to Treasure: the Evolution of an Ozarks Junkyard. Bless the two of them. I could never have turned into the writer I am were it not for their love and encouragement. If you've never read his work, for God's sake, get something quick quick quick. It's pure gold. I love the things he does on the Ozarks. The poet shines through in everything he writes.
    For heaven's sake. I can get ten miles off the subject while I'm looking at the map!
     Let's try this again.
     I belong to a small group of local writers who made arrangements with a place in Mt. Vernon called the Keen Bean (coffee shop, lovely place and smells like heaven) to have our books on individual shelves. We call ourselves Home Grown Books.So what happens? The others decide to have a book signing tomorrow . . .just when I have to be gone to Hollister for OWLs. Natch.
     On top of everything else (and this is a very pleasant thing indeed) another happening is taking place in Buffalo tomorrow  that (again) I can't go to.
     A number of years ago, five other authors and myself founded a small group called Ozark Writers, Inc. (OWI). This was a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization formed to promote writers from the Ozarks (and stories about the Ozarks). We did workshops, talks, book-signings and various projects and culminated in publishing two anthologies, Mysteries of the Ozarks, Vol(s)I and II. Because of various responsibilities and lifestyle changes, we put the group on hiatus for some time. Now I'm happy to announce that it is being brought back into existence (without my being on the board this time around but with my full support).
     Anyway, naturally a workshop is planned for tomorrow at Buffalo MO. And I can't go. Dern. But maybe there will be a good turnout even without me.
     Please go to Facebook and look up Ozark Writers, Inc. We would be pleased for the attention and if you have any questions you can check with me or some of the ones you will become acquainted with there.
     My better half just came in and demanded some attention so I'll leave you all for now. Have a great weekend and if I don't get back before Sunday or thereabouts I'll be thinking of all my new friends . . . I double-dog garrenteeee it!
     Told you . . . either I have nothing to do or I have too much! Hooo . . .

1 comment:

  1. I hear ya! Isn't that the way it goes!? Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

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