Lots of Progress and Going off the Grid

Whew! It was a busy week....but I can look in the rearview mirror and see lots accomplished and much underway with regard to publishing The Christmas Village. I'll share what I've been doing, in case it is helpful to others:

I had a design consultation with Createspace, and they are now working on setting up the beginning of the book through the first chapter so that I can review my font choices and the layout. They are also working on the first rough drawing for the illustrated cover. I should have a first look at both of these by early next week.

I WILL have a book signing at my hometown bookstore, The Andover Book Store. (See earlier blog: An Old-fashioned Bookstore.) It will be in November or early December to take best advantage of the book's Christmas backdrop and the holiday shopping season. They will carry the book and also include it in their email newsletter blast.

I decided to purchase a Blog Tour from the WOW-Women on Writing folks. They will find the right blogs to target those most likely to be interested in the book, and will organize the whole thing.

I would still like to have my own, less formal, blog tour, with you, my bloggi and bloggini friends.  The wonderful Michelle, who has two blogs - The Christmas Spirit and The True Book Addict, is going to kick off my tour with an interview in late September. Some of you have kindly offered to host something to help me out, and I would still like to chat with you about that. We can keep it simple - a guest post or even just a mention about the book is appreciated. If anyone would like to read the book in order to do a review, let me know and we'll talk about getting you a copy.

I've contacted a few indie bookstores about carrying the book, and will continue to work that aspect. I am not planning to go all over the place for signings this year, but some in New England - especially in Vermont, where my story takes place, would be doable.

And - this is really fun - my nephew John, who attends Columbia and just spent a semester in Prague studying film making, is going to make a video trailer for the book that we can put on youtube! How cool is that???

Lots of other things on my list, but those are the biggies.

So now I'm tired and I need a break! My dear friend, Irene, arrives tomorrow, and we are going up to Ojo Caliente (hot springs north of Santa Fe) for a Girlfriend's Getaway that includes lodging, a facial, a private pool and some free yoga. I'm leaving the laptop at home and plan to just veg out for a few days. I'll be soaking my bones in the hot mineral pools and being a lazy bum.

Hope all of you are well and I'll chat with you soon! While I'm gone, stop over to my husband's RVPainter blog and leave a comment - he gets lonely when I'm away! You can find him at http://rvpainter.blogspot.com/.

Plus he's funny, in a cranky sort of way. :-)

XOXO
Melissa