You’re either rolling your eyes or smiling at my alliteration, right?
’Tis the season of getting out and being a bit more social again. Or so I hope. 2020 translated to lots of canceled conferences, workshops, signings, and all things in-person for authors. 2021 started off the same, but as we transitioned into autumn and with shifts in state restrictions, I’ve noticed more opportunities popping up. I’ve been enjoying my October of not just the fall foliage (ahhhh) but other New England fall traditions: fests! Festivals are good excuse to get out and enjoy the fall colors, crisp air, pleasant temperatures, and blue skies. Our region is known for craft-vendor-bookish-fall-apple-BBQ-beer-cider-food truck events!
Apples from my own harvest. This is about 1/3 of my yield!
First up, I visited Brookfield Orchards for their 1st Annual Authors Fair. The scents of kettle-cooked popcorn and baked apple cider donuts wafted through the air upon the tunes of local music. Yes, I tried a donut and the popcorn.
Then, I hung out in “Authors Alley” at a local fundraising crafters fair. It was good to see some friends in-person I’d only seen on zoom for the past eighteen months. I chatted with a fellow author and gardener about our bounty of produce this fall. My raspberry grand total, if anyone’s been following me on Instagram or Twitter and Facebook was…18 pounds of berries!
Next up, I traveled to Boxborough, MA for the Fall in Love New England Romance Readers event. It was my first time, and won’t be my last. I connected with new readers, bonded over games of BINGO and Password, laughed it up at the Halloween party, and also got to finally meet authors I’ve been communicating with all through the ether of cyberspace for years now. I connected with dozens of new-to-me authors, too. Oh, and I dressed up! I never dress up. Ever. I ordered an amazing handmade (black watch tartan) Scottish lass costume from Etsy. I love it. I could wash dishes wearing it.
This past weekend, I partook in the West Boylston Parks & Recreation-sponsored Fall Fest and it was a blast: thousands of attendees, live music, pumpkin and scarecrow contests, balloon entertainer, hundreds of trick-or-treaters, delicious food trucks, and lots of lots of chatting with readers, selling books, and meeting aspiring authors. I also got to dress up again. This time, I donned long johns under my dress and wished I had brought gloves! (note to self for next time). Also a corset all day…yeah, maybe I will be revisiting that thought of doing dishes wearing it.
In November, I head into the Yuletide and holiday events. So far one fair is booked, but we’ll see what else November and December hold… in the meantime, I’m gearing up to wear my Scottish lass costume one more time as I hand out candy to trick-or-treaters on Halloween.
As the days get shorter, darker, wetter, and colder, soon it will be the season of hunkering down with a warm cup of comfort java and the manuscript that’s been calling my name, yet I find every excuse to not work on (hey, a gardener has deadlines, too!). Rest assured, it’s happening. I must always listen to the call of my characters!