Stinkin’ little stickers. I hate them. I will never get back the time I have spent in my life peeling off stinkin’ little stickers. Why do they have to be so sticky? I cannot tell you how long I spent peeling them off these bottle caps. I just bought my kids some new water bottles. These are made of glass because every now and then I panic about plastics and phthalates and who knows what-all and BPA and what’s replaced BPA because you KNOW they’re just going to condemn that too down the road after my kids have been sucking it down for a few years and the idea of those things dissolving in my kids’ water totally freaks me out. So I went and got some glass ones. Because glass is inert. Now, this is not the first time I have written about my kids’ water bottles. (I know—you would think it wasn’t even interesting to write about them the one time! Exactly.) In that other post, I complained about the heaviness of glass water bottles and also about their tendency to get broken by kids. That is all still true. But having reached one of my plastic bottle freak-out periods, I decided to remedy those issues by finding smaller glass water bottles. See? Brilliant! Still equally breakable—I haven’t worked out that detail. But I had a good talk with the kids about not breaking them and I am CERTAIN it’s going to go just smashingly! Okay, bad choice of words. I swear I only noticed that I wrote that when I went back to do edits on this. I have a feeling it might be prophetic. Am I psychic? Perhaps. Also, I got the bottles at TJ Maxx and the price was irresistible. I literally could not resist them. And I literally did not.
None of this has anything to do with the topic of this blog post. I was just thinking about how to start it off while I was peeling off those stinkin’ little stickers. What I am going to tell you about today is a book club appearance and Macy’s Shop For A Cause.
Marketing a novel is HARD. Meaning, I have no freakin’ idea what I am doing. One thing I am bad at is marketing my book. Really, I seriously have no idea what I’m doing. I have faith that I will figure it out in time and when my second book is published next year it will all be a breeze, but right now I am bad at it. Seriously. However, one thing I am good at is talking to people. I wish I could leverage that somehow, so if you have any ideas, please send them my way. Thank you. Anyhow, a couple of weeks ago I attended my first in-person book group author appearance. I had so much fun—they were a wonderful bunch! They also had a great time. And guess what? We didn’t take one photo. Not a single one. Which is the perfect thing to forget when you are a blogger. I cannot tell you how often I forget to take photos. My kids are going to possess only a sketchy photographic history of their childhood. Like people born in the 1940s and ‘50s. But mine were born in the 2000s ... so, you know, sorry, kids. Cherish your memories.
This past weekend I was invited to participate in my local Macy’s Shop For A Cause. It’s an annual event to raise funds for a variety of charities. I think the idea was that I am a local "celebrity" and would help draw in customers. Not sure how that worked out, but I had fun! I met some really nice people, sold a few books and had a lovely time. I was grateful to be a part of it. I also made sure to procure photographic evidence:
See?
I only remembered to take this photo because I forgot to get one at the book group. But, you know, whatever works. This week I also received my first request for a book group appearance via my website form and I am thrilled! I promise to take pictures. Probably.
Okay, so If I ever figure out this marketing stuff, I will post about it. In the meantime, I will sort of flounder around and see what sticks and tell you about it. It’s one great adventure and luckily I don’t embarrass easily ...
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