by Christine | LA Times Festival of Books, Life, Observations, Writing
I Did It!
I only went to the wrong parking garage twice. Sigh. BUT. Traffic behaved (though there were a couple of folks out there who learned how to drive by playing Mario Kart 8). I got there, parked, found my way to the Los Angeles Romance Authors booth (924), and settled in to start the volunteer process.
Let me tell you – we had SO many people! We were out of free goody bags way before lunch! I don’t know how Alexis Morgan-Roark and all the other wonderful volunteers did it. A great big beautiful booth, not too far from the LA Times Main Stage – we were perfectly positioned for excellent foot traffic, and we got it.
Yes, there were a LOT of people. But the Festival was spread out across the campus, so it wasn’t like we were all crammed into a performance venue. Below is our booth…The Duke, Just Ken, and Fabio got a LOT of attention. Just Ken is the object of an Opportunity Drawing…a fundraiser for our chapter. We’re hoping someone will take him home today!
There was music, there were outdoor talks that were free, there were panels and indoor talks that you needed to have previously purchased tickets for. There were food trucks galore, and they all had huge lines, but I chatted with Kelle Z. Riley and we got to know each other a bit, which was nice.
I took Sandy R. home (a chapter mate I’ve known since 2002), but unfortunately we received the wrong directions to get to the Shrine Parking Garage – We were sent to Exposition Blvd and should have been sent to Jefferson St, which we were actually closer to! Which means we walked the length of the Festival. Twice. But I got 8,200 steps in, so that counts for something, along with aching feet.
The drive home was jammed with traffic – where was everyone going??? Always a mystery…but I got Sandy home safely, and made it to my house where Tom had my bath ready. A hot bath, a lovely nap, and some wonderful Mario Kart 8 racing (Tom won, thanks to the algorhythims. Bloody blue bomb…). A tasty dinner, and a wonderful night’s sleep, and all is right with my world.
My fears dissipated with the morning clouds yesterday – and I vowed then and there that I’d be signing books next year, at the Festival of Books, with my LARA Chapter mates. Which means I have plenty of work to do now. It took me twenty years, but I did it.
Is there something that scares you, but that you know you want / need to do? Grab your courage with both hands and give it a go. You’ll never know until you step into your power and do the thing.
Sending everyone love and hugs. Always.
–Christine
by Christine | Observations, Publishing, Writing
March is almost over, and I’m finally turning my attention to my website again. I know, it’s been rough and I haven’t been here. I apologize. Life, you know? At any rate…so much has been happening. I did a lot of travel after my book about Scott came out in September last year; San Diego, Massachussets, London…it all wore me out, and after we got home from London, both Tom and I got very sick. So December was mostly a rest month, and the first quarter of this year has been about me reclaiming myself.
Which basically means putting relationships in the past, after acknowledging the good and the ill I received (and gave) to them. That was a very long season of help and harm during some of my worst moments over several years; now it’s done and done, and I’ve moved on. I’m eating healthier (and feeling ill when I don’t eat healthy); I’m loving Pilates, and walking the dog, and gardening again.
And I’m back to writing. I’m behind in the book of a new series, which I’m SO excited about but can’t really talk about just yet. So there’s that. I’m also figuring out the details of getting a newsletter up and running again; as soon as I do, I’ll let the world know.
I don’t know if I’ll get back to blogging about affordable wines…it seems very few are under $10 anymore, which was my top price when I first started blogging about wine. We shall see.
In the meantime, thanks for being here. I promise I’ll be showing up more. Sending you love and lots of hugs.
Cheers,
Christine
by Christine | Life, My Garden, Observations, Publishing
Forget-me-nots
July 4, 2023
So many emotions for this day…I cannot celebrate a country where over half the citizens have had their rights severely restricted by the bunch of so-called Christians sitting on the Supreme Court. So there’s that.
When I got up this morning, it was misty outside and the temperature in the mid-50s F. Feeling the cool sting my cheeks was lovely, as it had been in the upper 80s – low 90s here this past week. I’ve made breakfast, and now Tom is out in the garden with our youngest helping him. Whimsy the dog is barking at anything that walks past the house (or the houses behind us). He still fairly reeks of skunk, though my nose now is trying to tell me he actually rolled in garlic. Um…yeah, no.
But the garden continues to be my happy place. It’s a lot of work, but exercise with a definitive purpose is always a good thing. We’ve pulled down my sunflower bed, and shall plant that haphazardly with wildflower seed, along with some Strawberry Palestine Clover. Doing our part to help the bees.
Now available!
So on the fiction front, Wolf’s Heart is now available. It’s a novella that is adjacent to the Caine Brothers world that was originally published in an anthology. I’ve finally gotten it back up online. Slowly, I am reclaiming my writing life.
Non-fiction News
My summer schedule is heating up and will be full steam right through December 1st (so far). This month is the Romance Writers of America National Conference in Anaheim. I kind of figured I should go since it’s technically in my back yard, and I’m presenting as well. I grabbed a hotel room for Tom and I for a couple of days.
In August, a gal who produces her own shows and also works for HBO is coming out from New York City to discuss – something film-ish – with me, and that’s really all I can say about that.
September is the launch of my new book, Scott Cunningham – The Path Taken, and there will be activity around that for sure. September also takes me to TempleFest in Massachussets. I will finally get to meet so many people in person, and I’m excited for that!
October sees me flying to London, England with my husband for the U.K. Tarot Conference put on by Kim Arnold. Then on Monday October 9, from 2:30 – 5pm, I’ll be doing a booksigning at the Atlantis Bookshop, in the Gerald Gardner room. GAH! SO exciting!
November, I’ll be at the Trees of Avalon Gathering once more, giving two talks that I’m super stoked about. Later that month, I MIGHT have a booksigning in the Seattle area; we shall see.
Scattered throughout will be podcasts and so forth. A busy time, and I’m doing my best to be ready for it.
Wine Blog?
I’m considering reviving my wine blog, since that was fun. Not sure I’ll keep it at wines under $10, as those seem to be impossible to find unless on sale, but I’ll figure it out.
Well, that wraps up this update. Hope you are doing well! In the meantime, much love to you.
by Christine | Observations
New Book! Scott Cunningham The Path Taken – Honoring the Life and Legacy of a Wiccan Trailblazer arrives in bookstores September, 2023. Pre-order your copy now!
Publishes in September 2023 from Weiser Books
Here is a bit from the Preface of this book. Enjoy!
If I had known my older brother Scott would be so beloved, so polarizing, so prolific, and would die so young, I, in my youth, would have taken notes. Kept all our correspondence. Taken more photos. Or perhaps had a cassette deck tape recorder going whenever we talked.
But I didn’t. So here we are.
Memories are, at best, crystal-clear images frozen in time. Sound, scent, sight, taste, touch, all right there, so vivid. At their worst, memories are foggy, amorphous, intangible things that no one can verify. A pity that all I have is my memories. . . but both my parents are gone, so it’s up to me now. Throughout this book I have added snippets of conversations. Most of them took place in one form or another. They are not word-by-word conversations. What they are is what memory has given me, whether through family repetition (stories told again and again), or what might have been said in a private setting that rings true.
The longer I work on this labor of love, the more snippets come to me. Bits of conversation. Colors. The heat of the day, or the cool of an air-conditioned hotel room, the scent of a city. I’m trusting these snippets and sharing them with you.
I am not an historian. I don’t have dates of his major life events written down. I don’t have salacious details of his deeply personal life (and even if I did, I wouldn’t share them). I have not memorized every one of Scott’s books. Hell, I didn’t even read most of them until after he died.
That’s a confession, by the way.
What I am is the younger sister who alternately adored him and ignored him; and he did the same with me.
This is where I need to tell you that, in reading those books he wrote, I saw a side of him I never saw in person, heard a voice I had never heard from him before. It both pleases me and saddens me. Pleases, because now all I need to do is pick up his books and he is there with me. Saddens, because I never got to see that part of him in real life.
So it goes.
It has struck me now that once I let this book out into the world, my memories won’t be my own anymore. They will be seen by you. Known by you. Filtered through your experience. My words, yes, but your internal translation.
A part of me is hesitant, now that I near the end of this journey.
I have to laugh. . . when I wrote that, I swear I heard Scott sigh and tell me to get on with it, already. So here I go. . . getting on with it.
From my heart to yours.
PREORDER NOW! <– Click that link!
by Christine | Observations, Writing
A year or so later…
Hello! It’s been a minute, yeah? Depression and a global pandemic stopped this girl from writing romance. Instead, I was working on my passion project – a book about my brother Scott. More on that in another post, but if you want the skinny head over to my other website where I share all the details (and more!).
I’m back to writing. My first anthology in a long time doesn’t have a romance in it from me – instead it’s a dark paranormal story called The Witches’ Revenge.
Preorder now!
The Soul Retrieval anthology is available for preorder – check it out! It’s available wherever you get your digital reading material. 11 authors exploring all your darkest paranormal dreams and showing you theirs. Join them on their journeys to the other side of reality.
Here’s a little bit of the story…a “sneak peak” if you will…
Present Day – The Storyteller
The college kids settled around the last bonfire on the beach before the new school year started, waiting for her to begin. The sun wasn’t quite down yet, and the sand still held the heat of the day. The waves added music to the evening.
Amarie smiled. They were all so young. Hopefully they’d learn something tonight that could save them in the future.
“Does everyone have snacks and beverages? Has everyone made a restroom stop? Because once this story starts, no one will want to leave before it ends.”
Brand grinned and lifted his beer. “We’re all good, Amarie.”
“You all know who I am,” she began.
“The Ageless Witch of the Beach!” someone yelled, laughing, and others hushed them.
“Ah, yes. The Witch of the Beach. I’m also your unofficial counselor. Your tarot card reader. Your truthteller.” Amarie settled more definitely on her pillows, crossed her legs, and set her hands on her knees. “I’m the one you come to when you know your friends are unable to help you, you don’t dare call the police, and you can’t bear to talk to your parents.”
At those words, a chill shivered through the crowd. Brand fed another log on the fire, and anticipation rose.
“Tonight, I am going to tell you the story of the Man of Three Faces.” She looked around. “You might have heard of him by another name, but we shall call him Trey, for he was the third of his name, and was very proud of being third but at the same time, chafed at what he perceived as neglect by his wealthy parents. So much so that he moved away right out of high school, refusing all help, and eventually lost touch with them. When our story starts, he no longer knew where they lived or what their phone numbers might be. All he was certain of was the amount deposited in his account each month from his trust fund.”
A girl’s voice piped up. “Isn’t he the one who…”
“Hush, Penny.”
Amarie smiled. “Many of you know only part of the story. Some of you know absolutely nothing of the story. I am one of the few who know the whole story, and I’m about to spill all the secrets this summer night. I’m going to have to condense it some, as it spans years. Are you ready?”
At the murmured assent, she took a breath.
“Once upon a time, there was a woman. There was Trey. And there was a chain of events that put these two together. There was another man, as well, who comes into play in our story, but this story is not a romance.
“The woman was called Grace Thompson. She worked from home in data processing, data analysis, and transcription for authors. She had very little interaction with the public, but she was well paid and enjoyed her work.
“Which was perfectly fine, you see, because she did not trust people. She did not trust her own intuition either, so she was working on honing that part of herself. In fact, she was training herself in works of magic and divination, spell casting and tarot reading, for the sole purpose of feeling more comfortable within herself and while dealing with other people. She wasn’t a joiner, but she did join a small coven in order to learn from a person, rather than books.”
“Then one day,” Amarie continued, her voice deepening, “she received an email containing an audio file to transcribe that both disturbed and called to her, in a quite specific way. This is what happened.”
Thank you for reading! I hope you pick up the anthology and finish out the story. Find out what happens to Grace and Trey.
by Christine | Observations, Writing
October, November, December…and then 2018 is a memory.
This is the time of year where I try to wind up all my projects, and leave myself at least a portion of December to breathe, grow, rest. To refill my mental, emotional, spiritual wells, so that I can enter into the following year with a sense of grace, balance, and a plan.
That the plan always gets derailed, or goes sideways at some point, doesn’t matter as much as actually making the plan.
Right now, October is about both endings and beginnings. I’m wrapping up a novel – this one will be out in December, in the Rite to Reign box set (only $0.99!). Pre-order it here.
Then, from October 17 – 21, I’ll be in the Tampa, Florida area for Autumn Meet. I’ll be giving three talks – one on Meditation with Tarot, one on my brother, Scott Cunningham, and one on Writing the Paranormal Romance. It should be fun, and I’m so looking forward to unplugging for five days! If you’re in the Tampa area, check it out – I’d love to meet you.
After I get back from Tampa, I’ll dive into first round edits. November will bring second round edits, and also it’s National Novel Writing Month. I *think* I’m going to participate this year. We’ll see…I have lots of thoughts brewing about my direction for 2019 that didn’t look like this a week ago! Oh…and I’m hosting Thanksgiving for the family this year, which means massive housecleaning starts yesterday.
And December brings the holidays, and a vacation. This year, the hubby and I are planning a stay-cation, and we’re going to play tourist in Los Angeles. Quality time with my man…a lovely way to wrap up the year.
One of my goals for the rest of this year is to blog more. I’ve been putting my thoughts on FB, but I think it’s time to move back to the blog.
The year is winding down, the season is changing. Pumpkin spice fills the air (not my favorite, but that’s fine) and in Los Angeles, we’re hoping for a wet winter. The days are getting shorter and that’s just the cycle of this planet we’re on. In due time, the light will return; but for now? Take a rest. Wind down your projects. Find time to rest, recharge, relax.
Sending you love and hugs, always.
)O(
