This past weekend I had a delightful time with western YA author, Carmen Peone and Janet Chester Bly a mystery writer who was promoting her husband's westerns- Stephen Bly. We were the Western Author book signing at ...and BOOKS, too! in Clarkston, WA. It was the weekend of the Lewiston Rodeo and the owner of ...and BOOKS, too!, Judi Wutzke, had the brilliant idea to have a western based book signing.In between customers, we talked about one another's books and had a mini writer's conference discussing everything from promoting to how we came up with our ideas. Janet and her husband have a combined total or 120 books and have been writing since the "70's" and Carmen has only been been published over a year and has her third book coming out next spring. You'll learn more about them in the coming weeks as they have both accepted my invitation to blog here.
Carmen also had photos for sale of the areas and animals in her books. She is a talented photographer as well as a writer.The bookstore wasn't our only stop. We were also invited to the Hells Gate Park for a dinner sponsored by the "Sisters on the Fly" a group of fun loving women who travel in packs with vintage travel trailers. At the dinner we all gave our spiel about our books and sold copies. After the meal, we were entertained by a husband and wife duo(Beargrass) who knew just about every western and bluegrass song a person could name. They were talented and witty. Visiting with them during dinner I learned the wife, Alane, had worked both in Central Oregon and in Eastern Oregon near where we will eventually move. And Shayne was from a tiny town in Idaho.
The best part of the weekend was meeting two more writers who I bonded with not only as writers but as researchers and lovers of the Old West.
