We are in full-on back to school mode! I love new school supplies even though those-for-whom-I-am-buying-said-supplies are not nearly as excited as I am. Remember choosing Trapper Keepers and Lisa Frank folders? Finding pencils imprinted with your name? (My name never appeared on pencils. Or anything else. I'm not bitter.) Metal lunchboxes with matching thermoses?
These days it seems we mainly buy tissues, hand sanitizer, and Clorox wipes. And notebooks in required sizes never to be found in stores. Glue sticks by the bushel. Number two pencils in school bus yellow. And binders too wide for backpacks. One hundred fifty dollars later...
No wonder they're not excited to shop for supplies. They don't even care about new clothes. In my day, our family had a new clothing budget that was spent the week before school started. I would carefully plan my outfits for the week. Even if it meant wearing a sweater and corduroys in September.
I returned from my trip to Illinois on Monday excited from seeing old friends and family and meeting new readers at the Clover Public Library talk and Frau Blucker book signing. I also returned bearing a fierce head cold! And was met with a week's worth of heavy rain.
With the cold, rain, and back-to-school ennui in my home, I'm not sure if I'm ready for the start of school either...
But here's something to get excited about: we have a winner from last week's Summer Reading Bonanza (subscriber-only) drawing! (See below)
And Portrait of a Dead Guy is still on sale while it's in Book Cave's Mystery and Thrillers promotion (thru August 14).
Plus, if you belong to Kindle Unlimited, you can read 15 Minutes and 16 Millimeters for free through September.
Speaking of 16 Millimeters, if you read Maizie Albright's second mystery and enjoyed it, would you vote for her? 16 Millimeters was nominated for a Silver Falchion Reader's Choice Award! (Look for her in the cozy mysteries group.)
Thanks so much!
Hope all is well in your neck of the woods! And thank you to all who came out to Woodhull and Bishop Hill! We had such a great turnout at both events! Look for the pictures below. :)
Happy Reading,
Larissa
PS: Stay tuned for more on Maizie Albright's third in the series, NC-17, coming this fall!
Congratulations to Sandy Giden!
She won the Summer Book Bonanza: 10 Kindle books from my writing friends!
Thanks to Clover Public Library and Robin of Frau Blucker's for an awesome welcome. And thanks to all the readers -- old and new -- who came out to hear me speak & came to the shop to meet me! I'll be back in that area of Illinois next June. I was invited to speak at Kewanee Library and to return to Frau Blucker's! See y'all next year!