I love fall. The colors are beautiful, the bite in the air, pumpkins, Halloween, and football. If I didn’t live in an apartment, I would have a fire pit and spend weekend nights roasting marshmallows and drinking hot apple cider or hot chocolate. It’s the perfect weather for curling up with a book. Wait, what am I saying. Any time is a good time to curl up with a book.
Fall also means Bouchercon. This year it’s in being held in Long Beach, CA. I don’t know how the programs did it, but there are an insane number of panels. That had to be a nightmare to organize, but what amazing program they created. It is great to see so many authors represented. Heck, even I am on a panel! I am moderating a panel called Murder Most Ghostly and Paranormal and the panelists are Laura Benedict, Stephen Blackmoore, Sue Ann Jaffarian, and Margaret Lucke. I promise it will be fun. And if I can get my act together, prizes! J
For me at work, fall also means stress. I have sales conference for the Spring Summer 2015 catalog. At sales conference I present all the titles to the company. I give information about the book, the author, comparable titles, etc. I never know what questions might be thrown at me, so it’s slightly stressful, but it’s also fun. I generally speak from the cuff – my years as a bookseller and hand-selling books has paid off tremendously. October also brings launch meetings. I will launch 11 books in October. It takes me 2-3 hours to prepare for a launch meeting (and three days for the sales conference). But the largest chunk of my time – I have to read those 11 manuscripts before the launch meeting. Yep, it’s going to be a rough month!
But when it all winds down – there is Halloween. Halloween is a big deal here at Llewellyn/Midnight Ink. Each department dresses up in a theme and decorates their cubes/area. We bring in a whole bunch of food that goes with our theme. There are prizes for best department, best costume, and best food. It’s a bunch of great, silly fun. I won a few years ago for my Stay Puft Marshmallow Man costume – yep, we were Ghostbusters. One year IT created the inside of a Star Trek ship in their row. It was amazing. It’s also very hush-hush. We try to spy on other departments to learn what everyone else is doing. I may or may not have left misleading, fake emails on the printer before…
And of course, fall means football. My Green Bay Packers have not started out too well this year. But as a native cheesehead, I will always have hope in Aaron Rodgers and the green and gold. We play the Bears this weekend. Since I grew up down by Madison, the Bears were reviled. I am sure it will tense and a nail biter. I am so looking forward to it! Hope you all are loving your fall as well.
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