ALL-IN author booth photos



A few photos from last Saturday’s author appearance at the ALL-IN Block Party. It was a 200th birthday party for Indiana, and my new humor book is about Indiana, so showing up was pretty much a given.


Me and my favorite co-writer. I'm the one on the left.



That's Joy LeCount on the right, explaining why my writing can sometimes be uneven. Joy, more than anyone, was responsible for pulling the whole ALL-IN Block Party off, and come to think of it she also pulled me in.




Stop looking for me, I was manning the camera. Those are the fifteen authors in the background, and the Noble County libraries booth in the foreground. People have been crediting me, but it was the library people who did most of the work in getting the authors together.


A view from my seat inside the author's area. It was a hot day, but when a writer is sitting outside with a stack of books, hot beats rain.



Most people don't know this, but bison were big readers. This bison actually had a book tattoo to show his support. But if you look very carefully, you'll notice one of the books is titled "Gilligan's Island". Huh?

Brother Update



Jeff tells me he has all his chest tubes out, and so is tube free and is now running and jumping and dashing around … well, he’s tube free. And he sure is happy about it!

He does have some rest and recovery to work on though. If you know Jeff, you understand why that’s work—I expect Cathy’s biggest need the next couple of weeks is going to be a supply of duct tape to keep him secured to a chair.

After-Action Report



Well, Saturday was the official debut of our eighth—count ‘em, eight—published work in just five years. That doesn’t by itself explain my exhaustion, but it helps. The good news is that it didn’t blow rain in on fifteen writers sitting under a canopy, and we also didn’t set any high temperature records, and a good time seemed to be had by all.

Still, we didn’t sell all that many copies of Hoosier Hysterical. Part of that might be that everyone’s attention was split, with so many things going on at once for the ALL-IN Block Party. We did get some sales—about sixteen, if my counting is correct, spread out over all the books.

The surprise for me is that we sold two copies of the anthology My Funny Valentine, which I have a humor piece in. Kind of a seasonal thing—and since I only have one humor piece in that anthology, I don’t even count it as one of mine. If you include it and my short story in the anthology Strange Portals, you could argue I actually have ten books out. I wouldn’t, but you could.

Anyway, between spending the day outside without hydrating and an ill-timed lawn mowing experience the next day I got a bit too much heat—which also helps explain the exhaustion—but I’m glad I was able to experience Noble County’s own celebration of Indiana’s birthday. I still haven’t had a chance to download the photos yet, but they’re coming.

Emily shows who really does the work at our book signings, while I hide behind the camera.

50 Authors from 50 States: Sally Franklin Christie Welcomes You to Montana

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Join us tomorrow—be ALL-IN



The Welcome Center for the Noble County ALL-IN Block Part opens at 9 a.m. tomorrow (Saturday), and the opening ceremony is from 9:30-10 a.m. After that all the Community Partner Booths open, including the 15 (or maybe 16!) authors at the Noble County libraries location, on the southwest corner of the courthouse square in Albion. The entertainment goes on until 3 p.m.

Emily and I tend to be night owls, so be there early to help us stay awake! In addition to our newest book, Hoosier Hysterical, we’ll have copies of all seven of our print books available. Only my e-book story collection, Storm Chaser Shorts, is not available in print.

Hoosier Hysterical is priced at only $10, even with all the photos … and don’t be surprised if we have some deals going for those who want multiple books.