Last Thursday the annual Butternut Harvest Festival was held in our small Upstate New York village. We were asked if we’d like to set up a table to sell our books. We haven’t done this for several years, so we jumped at the chance. The festival features a variety of vendors and events including live music, free ice cream from our local ice cream shop, and a mobile zoo that brought small animals including a turtle, hedgehog and armadillo.

 

Booths included jewelry, handmade soaps, bread and pastries, mittens made from recycled wool sweaters, maple syrup products, garden vegetables and, of course, my husband’s and my books.

I thought our table looked great. We purchased a collapsible bookcase and displayed flyers and a few books on it.

Right after we set up, a thunderstorm rolled in and, although we were in  a pavilion, the wind blew water in and dampened our books, but we quickly covered up and dried everything off after the rain had passed. We swapped stories with those stopping by to talk about our books. We found that most buyers were only interested in books set in Upstate New York. Although I have far more books set in rural Florida, I only sold one book from my Eve Appel series at the festival. I have two more books in that series coming out, one in November and one next year. I then plan to write several series set in Upstate New York. I hope that will broaden my reading base. The manuscript Glenn is working on for the next Bobby Navarro books is set in Cape Cod, but he’s rethinking it and may move it to Upstate New York to pick up readers from around here when we go to local festivals.

We wrapped up the day around 6 pm just minutes before another storm arrived. It’s been a rainy mid August here.

 

Coming in November, Book 7 in the Eve Appel mysteries A sneak preview of Eve’s new adventure:

Tired of sitting surveillance on insurance fraud, apprentice PI
Eve Apple Egret gets her first big case, one where the outcome
is important and personal. Eve’s best friend Madeleine has few
relatives, so her Uncle Shamus is special, but someone is
determined to kill him and has tried several times. Eve is certain
she can identify who is after him, but this time she may have taken
on more than even our self-confident Eve can handle. Coping with
a growing toddler and a teenager, devoting time to the consignment
shop and finding someone who can go undercover in a sexual
harassment case all vie for Eve’s attention. Eve knows she cannot
fail Madeleine. This is more than her favorite uncle’s life. His
death would mean devastating loss for Madeleine and call into
question Eve’s commitment as a friend and her ability as a PI.

Eve’s come a long way from that day she stumbled onto a body in her consignment shop’s dressing room. Remember this?