Well, I have been in colder places in my time, and places were it got colder longer, but most of them involved show, and shoveling massive amounts of it … or that year in Greenland, thirty miles north of the Arctic circle, which didn’t have all that much show, but was dark as the bottom of a coal mine for all the days of the winter months. I can handle temps in the teens and twenties very well, thank you, but I think I had better get out that Eddie Bauer parka, the insulated gloves, woolen hat and the warm scarf to wear when walking the dogs tomorrow.

So, the month-long holiday hurdles have been negotiated successfully, the turkey leftovers finally disposed of, the Christmas lights and ornaments all taken down – and here I am ready to face the New Year. As far as book events go, the biggie is the San Antonio Book Festival in early April. Watercress Press is going to have a booth in the exhibitor’s hall, and as one of their authors, I’ll be there. It’s only the second time the SA Public Library foundation has done this kind of thing so there is something to be said for getting in on a lower floor. And Watercress has been around for thirty years in San Antonio; one would think that a bit of respect for seniority would be due.

I’m rather looking forward to it, since I have been trying to gin up interest in my own books in San Antonio. I love the Hill Country, and I’ll go anywhere within reason to do a book event, but with the cost of a tank of gas, and considering the needs of the dogs, it would be fantastic to do a book talk within a fifteen or twenty minute ride of the house. Weirdly, the books seem more popular practically anywhere other than the place they were written – and in the case of The Quivera Trail, the location where they were set. For a while, The Adelsverein Trilogy was on sale in the bookshop at the Texas Institute of Cultures, but that was about as good as it got. Readers have also suggested  the Texas Book Festival – I’d be eligible to exhibit there as an indy author, but last time I looked into it, the costs for a booth there was way out of what I could pay – and again, there is that long drive involved.

But I am going to club together with my daughter’s Tiny Artistic Bidness, Paper Blossom Productions for a couple of market events; the spring market in Helotes for certain, and another in Bulverde possibly. I’ll post more on all of this as soon as we know for certain.