Poised and elegant weren’t available that weekend.

Somewhere in that dreamy middle ground between “what should I have for lunch?” and “oh look, only thirty-three years left to go until I can retire” lies my book release.  Book release!  Ah, what better stage to showcase my awkwardness and ability to trip over a completely flat, clear floor, but at party to celebrate my book!

So, here we are in November.  November.  I’ve been working so hard at Day Job that my brain is mush.  An example of this was observed this week when I was chatting with my friend, Susie, at work about her lap top at home.  She was talking about password protection and locks for her personal files and said, “I mean, you never know who’s looking in the window.  Grass man.  Yeti.  Sasquatch.”

I giggled.  “Yeah, you never know when Randy might want to get on your computer.”

She looked at me.  “Huh?”

“Grass man.  Your husband, right?  Is that because he works on the farm?”

“I’m talking about Big Foot.”

Oooooooooh.

Yeah.  It was that kind of week.  If I was a Sim, I’d be wandering around with a red diamond over my head, stomping my foot and refusing to put clothes on.

In lieu of elegance, I’ll be bringing charm and a vintage 60s dress to my official book release party: August 23rd, 2015 in Gettysburg.  Be there!  It’s going to be awesome.

Well, it’s going to be awesome once I figure out what one actually does at a book release party.  I have visions of me sitting at a table, surrounded by stacks of books and a fresh pack of Sharpies; the only people with me being The Hubs and my mother.  No public.  No party.  Just me and the fam.

So, I did what anyone living in 2014 would do: I checked Pinterest.  A lot of what I found were related to book release parties as in, “The new Harry Potter book just came out and I’ve spent 47 hours dressed as a house elf!” or cupcakes with Hunger Games related frosting and sugar sculptures.  This is not what I’m going for, although, blue and gray Civil War festive cupcakes has a certain deliciousness factor to it.  Bayonet bars?  Hardtack hard punch?

Yes.

I took a break from debating the really difficult questions (should I make cookies for the party?  Would the public eat cookies from a cute, yet clumsy, author in go-go boots?) and rocked it at Harpers Ferry with my guys of the Baltimore Light Artillery.  You know, I want my guys at the book release party.  Awesome Mark and Awesome Jeff?  Hell yeah!  If you won’t buy a book from me, maybe from them?  Equally charming, but also roguish, rakish, and full of southern charm?

Yes.  My guys will be there.  Shock on, gentlemen.  😉

The release party: booked.  Cover art: finished.  Now I just need to schedule book signings.  Guest blogs.  Reviews.  Debate ordering bookmarks, bags, t-shirts, mugs, pens, socks, umbrellas, whatever.  Figure out what all I’m supposed to do at a release party, other than be charming and try not to spill food on myself.  Do I do these kind of things at the party?  Not the spilling things part (I do that with horrific frequency), but the “swag” part.  Do I have to do a reading (answer: no)?  Do we just hang out?  Do we eat?  Can we drink?

More to come on that.

On the writing front, I’m still plodding along through my historical novel, with two contemporaries waiting in the batter’s box.  Yeah, it’s obviously late and I’m falling back to baseball terms from my childhood obsession with the Cleveland Indians (what’s up 1997?).  Historically, November is the month I write the least, thanks to my inability to focus on National Novel Writing Month and my usual attention span of a flea.  No doubt I’ll bring a notebook with me to the release party, just in case things get dull and I need something to do.  Not that I plan to still be writing this same novel.  But you know.  Just in case.