Good morning!
It's nearly Halloween. Have you chosen your costume(s)? Feel free to share in the comments section!
For this month's Fan Mail Friday, I'm sharing an older review of one of my books. "Shorts" is a collection of short fiction (short stories and poetry) that I published back in 2013. It's a diverse mix of stories and genres. Appropriately, the review mentions one of my Halloween themed stories.
Have a sugar filled weekend!
~ H. S. Contino
Good morning,
Here on the Oregon coast we've transitioned into the time of year where it's necessary to wear layers. It tends to be chilly in the mornings, warm up to t-shirt weather during the afternoons, then get overcast and chilly again overnight. The result is a bunch of people constantly adding and removing layers of clothing as needed. (LOL)
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| Nature's Fall Color Show... |
It's also the time of year that I start planning my holiday shopping. I've always been an introvert and large crowds give me anxiety, so I like to shop early. It's also always a relief to have the shopping done ahead of time.
Since I'm sure I'm not the only one that takes this approach to gift shopping, I like to start running early sales and other promotional offers in my online Etsy shop, Reprieve's Corner. Beginning October 1st, I've marked everything in my shop 30% off. This includes everything-- my hand painted signs, hand made jewelry, hand sewn plush toys, autographed copies of my books, and even my new clay art!
I've also been lining up fall and winter in-person markets. As everyone knows, we're still in the middle of a pandemic, so it won't be a normal holiday shopping season. Some events have already been cancelled. Others are still being planned with plenty of restrictions in place to try to keep everyone healthy.
I'll be posting more in the next few weeks as I line up in-person markets. If you're local (southern Oregon coast) and here about an upcoming market, please feel free to send me a message. I'm always open to suggestions!
Meanwhile, I hope everyone is enjoying watching the leaves change colors and having an excuse to sip more warm beverages while snuggling in our warmest sweaters!
Happy reading!
~ H. S. Contino
Good morning!
Earlier this month I wrote about the upcoming Florence Festival of Books. The event is usually annual, but it was cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic. I was excited to return this year. (Fun fact: the 1st annual Florence Festival of Books was in 2011-- which was the year my first book was published. As a result, I can proudly say that I've attended every year!).
This year got off to a bit of a rough start. It was stormy on the Oregon coast Friday night. I'm such a light sleeper that the strong winds and heavy rains woke me up several times. Fortunately, by Saturday morning the storm was letting up. It rained off and on during my drive to Florence, but it cleared up about an hour after the festival opened.
I knew when I signed up that this year's festival would be different. In fact, for the week leading up to the event, I half expected to receive a message saying it had been cancelled. We've been experiencing a surge in coronavirus cases on the Oregon coast over the past few months (mostly due to the Delta variant). But, they decided to go ahead with the event while implementing several safety efforts.
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| If you look closely, you might recognize the author in the lower left photograph. |
In addition to requiring everyone (both vendors and visitors) to wear masks inside the Florence Events Center, they limited the number of booths. If I remember right, they said there was 1/3 less booth this year than in past years. This allowed them to space out the tables which made it easier for participants to practice social distancing. They also had hand sanitizer stations set up throughout the building.
Despite advertising the event through all of the regular channels, this year's book festival didn't draw as many visitors as it usually does. Given the circumstances, this wasn't surprising; but, if I'm being brutally honest, it was still disappointing.
I'm incredibly grateful to the people that did attend the event. I enjoyed chatting with the visitors to my booth. Since I wrote two books on local history, I tend to catch the attention of fellow history enthusiasts. This inevitably leads to interesting conversations! I also enjoyed catching up with several of my fellow west coast authors.
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| Baby book's 1st book festival... |
I'm looking forward to next year's Florence Festival of Books. Fingers crossed that the world has returned to "normal" by then!
Happy reading!
~ H. S. Contino
