July is my busiest month of the year! Usually this is due to all the events and dates I participate in as a Highland bagpiper while staying on top of everything else. This year it seems like it has been a whole different juggle…
I just got back from the Seattle Highland Games. These games have been going on for nearly 75 years and is the second largest event of its kind on the US west coast, held annually on the last weekend of July. This year’s event was a long, hot weekend — and another great event! For me it proved to be a good book sales weekend.
As I left Whidbey Island I delivered additional copies of Make Your Own Darn Good Cookies to Kingfisher Bookstore in Coupeville and at Goose Community Grocery in Bayview. While in Enumclaw (where the Highland Games were) I sold a number of copies including some to veterans whom I give a military discount. Something I’m particularly excited about is that I made contact with a friend of mine from my last round of college — Richard has a gift basket business and he is looking to feature my book. More on that ASAP! My book business went so well that I think I need to re-order for my supply. If you’re interested in a book or e-book for yourself, please order on Amazon.com. Also, my e-book is 25% off through July 2019 on Smashwords.com.
Usually my summer schedule begins to mellow after July. For 2019 that doesn’t seem to be the case. Coming up in August I will be …
Juggling time between helping Meg with Kingfisher Bookstore during the Coupeville Arts and Crafts Festival and participating in a meet-the-author event at Goose Grocery the same weekend, and…
From July 1st through July 31st you will be able to purchase my e-book for 25% Off Of The Usual Price through Smashwords*. It’s a great time for summer treats in the northern hemisphere and winter treats in the southern hemisphere. So as we take another spin around the solar system on this island we call Earth, LET’S GET BAKING!
*As I understand this includes the Smashwords affiliates.
You will of course remember my friend, Tom Trimbath — the gent who helped coach me through getting my first recipe book published on Amazon. Tom is a great guy and we have continued to talk about various creative ideas to produce together. One of these is a collaborative writing project, another is to present a series of self-publishing workshops, and we’ve talked about starting a podcast!
A podcast — that’s neat! What’s the plan, Don?
Whidbey Island – We are here!
Our plan so far is to keep things fairly open — we want to talk about all-things-writing as it relates to Whidbey Island. Self-publishing, marketing, writing groups on Whidbey, local authors, visiting authors, you name it. I have portable recording gear, so one of our ideas too is to produce our podcast recordings at different locations on Whidbey including local business who would be interested in hosting us and in turn receive a plug on our show.
COOL! When can I tune-in?
My book available on Amazon, Smashwords, and …. EVERYWHERE!
Last month Tom and I set a goal — to record 1-2 podcast episodes by the end of June. As summer has switched on, this has been a bit of a juggle — and if you look at the calendar … yeah … time is drawing near. We are currently working to schedule our first recording tomorrow morning OR during next week. With launching our show we also have the recordings from the how-to self-publish workshops we have presented — so we should have a decent collection to start with out of the gate.
Summer is coming, and one of the things that comes with summer is vacation in all its forms. Whether you call it vacation, holiday, break, or retreat, it’s a great time to dust off your daily routine and exercise your sense of tourism. Take off to that place you always wanted to go to, attend that annual festival you never miss, visit those friends and relations you’ve been meaning to spend some time with, or escape to that quiet out-of-the-way place you’ve heard about. Take a book, and get a souvenir — or better yet, buy a book as a souvenir!
Pulling over and blocking the road just to take pictures of cows …. that we don’t appreciate quite so much. Seriously folks … it’s just a cow.
Here on Whidbey Island we know tourism — at a certain point in spring it turns on like a fire hose! Suddenly we go from being a rural island to having people EVERYWHERE! We appreciate that you want to come to this somewhat out-of-the-way rock of ours — we are off the beaten-path, so it’s flattering that you thought to come here and visit little-ol’-us. With any luck, about now you might be asking yourself, “Well, if I visited Whidbey Island, what would I do — where would I go, what would I see???”
The historic Deception Pass Bridge located at the north end of Whidbey Island
Of course, I’m biased — I’m going to tell you that if you are visiting Whidbey Island to go drop by one of the shops carrying my book. Frankly though, that’s not just a plug for my book — I’m suggesting these shops because they’re in great locations that I believe you will enjoy, and these shops are are operated by delightful people.
If you take the ferry from Mukilteo to get on the island at the south end in Clinton, just go a little ways up Highway 525 and you’ll see Goose Grocery on the right in Bayview.
Kingfisher Bookstore
A curvy-road-ways after Highway 525 turns into Highway 20, you’ll come to an intersection with a foot-bridge crosswalk, a gas station, and our hospital. Turn north to visit historic Coupeville and find The Kingfisher Bookstore located overlooking Penn Cove on Front Street. They have a local-authors table that includes my book. Ask for Meg or Brad and tell them I sent you.
(Read my recent blog post about Kingfisher Bookstore.)
I AM PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE …
Yes, it’s formerly a firehouse
Last and certainly not least … As of Today I am once-again doing business with The 3 Sisters Farm Market, located at 779 N Holbrook Rd, Coupeville, WA 98239 — that’s on the north side of Penn Cove on the south side of Highway 20 — red building, you can’t miss it. Visit the 3 Sisters Market — their farm is the biggest producer of food here on the island and everything in their market is local-Local-LOCAL! Pick up a copy of my book, show it to the clerk at the register, and tell them that “Don The Author sent me!” You’ll probably also want to tell them that they have a great shop … why … Because They Do, hands down.
Let’s face it — most days are just …. well …. days. Some good stuff happens, some bad stuff happens … rinse, wash, repeat … not a big deal. Occasionally there are days when it seems like nothing can go right — UGG! — chin up, do your best to keep moving forward. And then, every once in a while, there are days where Everything Just Seems To Go RIGHT! For me, last Monday was one of those days …
Here’s how it went… with a little back-story
Lance English …. Pirate! (he’s actually a nice guy)
The Seattle Monorail with the Space Needle in the background
The drive down the island and into Seattle was nice. Once at the Seattle Center, instead of taking the Monorail as I had originally planned, I opted to walk to the parade staging grounds at the other end of the city located near Pioneer Square. The slightly-cool and slightly-warm sunny pre-Spring day begged for a walk, and it was lovely! To be frank, as far as I’m concerned the parade was a poorly planned bust — however it was great to spend time with my fellow S.A.M.S. members and the two ladies who lead us in carrying our banner. After the parade I was surprise-treated to lunch …
Wow, Cool, Thank You!
Catching up with my Canadian friends at ECCC involved crossing a number of fingers. The convention annually attracts around 95,000 fans* of geek-culture — some of my people — many of whom are wearing impressive costumes that they have personally crafted. This includes my two friends, so they blended in amid all the heroes, villains, elves, Jedi, and … well, everyone. Also, the three of us were working with limited electronic communications that day. Fortunately, everything worked out! I connected with my friends in the terraced park next to the Washington State Convention Center. By further luck and happenstance I ran into Chad — an absolute gent, a heckuva photographer, and the man who has taken among my favourite pictures of my Celtic-rock band, Nae Regrets. As evening neared Christina, Martin, and myself hiked a few blocks away from the convention where we enjoyed dinner together before saying our fond goodbyes. As opportunity presents, I look forward to visiting them in Toronto.
(* 2018 ECCC attendance according to Wikipedia)
But onto Monday …
The previous week I got my book, Make Your Own Darn Good Cookies, placed in its very first bookstore — The Kingfisher Bookstore in Coupeville, Washington. That felt great — the beginning of the next state of being a published author! Also, the owner of Kingfisher — Meg — is an absolute JOY of a person.
Coupeville Public Library
After a relaxing start to my Monday — delicious in part because we tell ourselves that’s not what a weekday morning is supposed to be like, especially a Monday. Just before noon I popped over to the Coupeville Public Library. I wanted to check the status of scheduling the presentation I’ve done with Tom Trimbath on how to self-publish books and e-books. Monday
This is when all the neat stuff began!
I was directed to speak with Debbie, whom I had already understood handled most of the presentation scheduling. After introducing myself and explaining Tom’s and my workshop she said that she remembered reading my previous submission and wanted to get us in soon. Somehow it came up that I m currently working on another book, and she asked what that was about. I explained that it is a collection of Highland bagpipe sheet music featuring military and patriotic tunes and their history. Debbie immediately asked if I would be willing to present this book. What she didn’t know was that I had already been thinking about it but hadn’t quite broken the ice on How. She suggested that this presentation would fit in well at the Oak Harbor library, being close to the Navy base, and that she’d like to host me at the Coupeville library around the 4th of July this year. I am absolutely flattered to be asked — so now, all the more, I’m pushing to complete this book! Monday
As I went to leave the library — the first time — I saw one of the fellows who works at the library. I hadn’t really seen him before, but I have heard about him — moreover, I’ve heard about what his wife and he are doing… Monday
This is one of the many great pictures on the Seattle Times article, I felt this one was the best…
Behind the library help desk sat one Mr. Gabriel Chrisman. I had heard about his wife, Sarah, who writes books about the Victorian era. The amazing thing is that they live their lives — not completely — much in keeping with 1880/1890s period. I stopped to pass on to Gabriel that I was aware of his wife’s writing and that I admire what they’re doing (sadly some people don’t understand while other’s have been regrettably worse). Our conversation turned to asking Gabriel if he might help further research a bagpipe tune I need information on for my military & patriotic music & history book. Gabriel was intrigued by my query and asked me to send him my notes. He was also interested in the book I’m working on and apparently can get behind hosting my presentation. While I left at this time, we spoke into the afternoon — but that happened later … Monday
Meg at Kingfisher Bookstore in Coupeville
When I left the library — this time around 1230 — I saw a notice about an event I had forgotten about. Meg, the owner of The Kingfisher Bookstore was presenting a book-related topic starting an hour later. I raced home — I needed lunch and more-presentable clothes — and I raced back! Making it through the door just before her presentation started, I was able to let Meg know I was there to support her topic — and she met me with her immutable smile just as I had found it the week before. Monday
Meg’s presentation was fun and enlightening — and part way through took a walk a few blocks over to her bookshop. The weather was warm and bright; we got to see more of her shop and the historic building it’s in. I spoke with Gabriel more and also stuck around after the presentation. Meg and I spoke about a number of upcoming things. There’s an arts and crafts festival in Coupeville during the summer and we discussed how she might bring people into her shop. She said she would like to host book readings and possibly small music performances and would like to feature me (see “Tom” below). I told her that Tom Trimbath and I have talked a bit about starting to do podcasts about all-things having to do with writing, authors, bookshops (etc) on Whidbey Island. Meg said she’d like to start a small book publishing company on Whidbey and I said that I’d like to be a part of that. Monday
By the time I left Meg’s shop I was pretty much dancing and pinching myself just like Tom here…
Monday was MAGNIFICENT — and there’s more to come! And since then…
Over this past weekend I got in touch with my friend, Rick. He loves history and is involved with curation of local early settlers with the Doc Maynard Society. When he found out about the bagpipe sheet music and tune-history book I’m working on he said he would be interested in that and that people from his historic society would be, too. Do I hear another presentation date in the works?
Loads of good things in the works! Some of which has to do with presentations I’ll possibly be doing. So that in mind, if you’d like me to present or my bagpipe sheet music and history book once it’s ready, maybe you’d do well to get on my calendar now — contact me.
Let’s face it — most days are just …. well …. days. Some good stuff happens, some bad stuff happens … rinse, wash, repeat … not a big deal. Occasionally there are days when it seems like nothing can go right — UGG! — chin up, do your best to keep moving forward. And then, every once in a while, there are days where Everything Just Seems To Go RIGHT! For me, last Monday was one of those days …
