Busy as a Bee!

Springtime...what can I say? So much is going on in my world these days and I'm afraid I've neglected everyone who watches for my blogs.

We are counting down the last few days to our bookstore grand opening event. This Saturday, April 25th, is Independent Bookstore Day and we will be celebrating for three whole days! Thursday is the day people can bring a used book and exchange it for one of the select used books on our shelves. Friday is dress like your favorite author or book character and get 10% off your total purchase that day. Then the grand finale grand opening event starts at 10:00 am on Saturday morning with over 25 authors invading the Bookworm Orchard and spilling into the hallway and community room. There will be book readings and presentations at Los Amores throughout the day and Music by Clyde from noon to 2:00. You don't want to miss this!! Raffle baskets will be available, and you can purchase tickets at the bookstore with all proceeds going to First Light Children's Advocacy. We are going to have book bingo, so be sure and pick up your card from one of us or our amazing volunteers. Visit all the authors and drop your completed card off at the shop for our door prize drawing. We have some pretty nice prizes from our fellow local women-owned businesses. Finally, stick around for the launch of our Stories from the Orchard anthology and pick up your copy, available in both hard and paper back. The proceeds go back into the bookstore so that we can grow and add even more indie authors to our selection of amazing, brilliant authors! The event is free to attend, and the first 25 visitors get an exclusive canvas swag bag filled with all kinds of goodies! We are located at 428 South Washington Street in the Lower Level of the Boston Hill Center, Marion, Indians. One block south of the courthouse!

It's also been time to get the garden going. Last weekend, I plotted out what I wanted to do and cleaned out the northern six-foot space of my garden for a pollinator sanctuary. I had to put off planting the seeds because we got a frost last night. But the weather is supposed to warm up on Tuesday, then I can get out there and sow the seeds for all the pollinator friendly flowers and add the birdfeeders and birdhouses. In front of the pollinator garden, I have tires which I've partially filled with old chicken manure and will fill the rest of the way with dirt. In those, I will be planting my herbs for healthy remedy tea ingredients. The potatoes will go in the bins as will the carrots and the beets. All the remaining things will have to wait until after mid-May and the danger of a hard frost is well past. I learned my lesson the hard way one year.

Yesterday, we thinned out our goat herd because we had too many bucks in the pasture. We are now down to one whether, Lucy the black sheep, and our current bottle-fed house goat named Trixie. She is just shy of 8 weeks, and we will be looking for a young buckling to pair her with in hopes of getting some new babies next year that are actually people friendly. Right now, she is busy getting into things in my office and constantly trying to take off her diaper. We need to get her some new onesies to help with that problem this week.

In just a little over three weeks, I will be heading down to New Orleans to meet up with my wonderful author friends Ginger Ring and Tina Susedik for our annual retreat which we planned last fall

We have reservations to stay at the Hotel de la Monnaie on Esplanade Avenue near the French Market. I arrive late the first night, so we don't have anything planned for the second day, but then we jump right in for a jazz riverboat cruise during the day and a nighttime tour of a plantation and cemetery at night. On the last day we are there, we have an all-day swamp and plantation tour. I'm looking forward to eating my favorite sandwich...a muffaletta...then finding some gator bites and some boudin...not to mention a helping of bread pudding, beignets and bananas Foster. I'm also hearing that the Vampire Cafe has a secret speak easy hidden in the city for which you have to get the secret word to gain entrance. With a little luck and some diligence, I'm hoping I can wrap up my fifth book of my New Orleans vigilante vampire series before we leave and maybe even leave a copy tucked away in the hotel for the next visitor to the suite. After I'm home from there for a few weeks. my other amazing author friend Lynda Cox and I will be packing up the SUV and heading for Deadwood, South Dakota for Wild Deadwood Reads. In its 10th year, we are visiting there during the PBR event and have tickets to the rodeo. We will be packing up the cooler with plenty of drinks and snacks and grabbing a night's sleep in Omaha on the way out. If you haven't checked out my amazing author friends' work, Ginger Ring writes gangster romance, Tina Susedik writes historical and contemporary romance, and Lynda Cox writes historical western romance. Go grab one of their books, or better yet, come to either the Bookworm Orchard in Marion, Indiana or Wild Deadwood Reads and get a copy of one or more of their books!

Okay, I need to get back to work now that I've cooled off from the sex scene I wrote between Angelique Moreau and Dusty Knox in Reprisal.,..have an awesome week folks and wish me luck as I continue on my keto diet and swimming routine to drop enough weight to look presentable in the summer clothes I have!