Update – Dark Green promo, website, sequel, and stuff

I have been diligently promoting Dark Green on social media and I’ve paid for Dark Green promo as well, but is it doing any good? Hard to tell. People say they’re buying books but when I check the sales numbers I think what people mean is that they’re planning to buy books. And we know how plans go. Still, I gotta do it because that’s what self-publishing gets you. Bigger royalties, but more work.

Chrome in the Dome 2023

Part of the promo is that on June 2 & 3 I’ll be pushing Dark Green plus some of my other books at the first annual Artists & Authors Expo at the Round Valley Dome in Eagar AZ.  The structure is, I guess, officially called the Round Valley Ensphere. It was the only domed high school football stadium in the United States when it was built in the 1990s. One of the selling points when it was originally proposed to the voters was that it could be used for all kinds of community events. And it has been! Aside from other school sports, all sorts of events take place in the dome, from quilt shows to car shows, free flight model aviation competitions to preparedness fairs, not to mention using the dome for wildfire evacuee housing.

Anyway, I’ve got my theme: green. Obviously! I’ve got the books and some promotional postcards, a nice poster of the book cover (and an easel to display it on), a green tablecloth, and a green marker pen for autographs.  I won’t wear a green shirt. It’s not St. Patrick’s day, after all. I’ve also got a collapsible cart to haul my stuff around. It’s grey.

I still have to figure out prices for the various books and their formats, and then remember to go to the bank and get change. But wait! What I don’t have is any way to take credit cards and I only just now realized that. Do people who go to book events really need to use plastic to pay for books? Of course they must — that’s what I do!  What about sales tax, what about… Oops, looks like I gotta figure all this out, and fast!

[pause for a moment of mild panic]

So okay, moving on. I’ve gotten some more behind-the-screen website updating accomplished that supposedly will help search engines find my website and will also make the site run faster. I don’t know how successful the latter really is, given how sluggish everything WordPress seems to be. Out of my control, though, so like I said, moving on.

I’ve begun the pre-draft work on the sequel to Dark Green, including checking in with my fantastic Reedsy editor, Joel Bahr. I’m kind of letting this stage of writing prep happen as it happens, since there’s so much going on in the next six weeks, including helping to put on the annual Round Valley Quilt & Fiber Arts Show at the end of June. And finishing up my own entries to that show! Not to mention reconfiguring my horse pens to accommodate a mare that’s coming home (Sonny’s been at my horseshoer/trainer’s place since last October so she could be closer to the vet — a whole ‘nother story I’ll get to some other time). I’ve got a guy coming one of these days to deal with installing some more plumbing, and I am trying to find people who can finish plastering my straw bale house. I need to finish getting my garden going, a and deal with all the rest of the stuff that has to get done because I don’t live in a condo, I live in an off-grid homestead…

[pause for a few moments of calming deep breathing]

Okay, I gotta go. I’ve got things to do and overwhelm just takes up too much time.