What I Did on My Summer Vactaion

Remember when we were told to write this as a composition for school? When I was a kid, I always had something exciting to write about where we went and what we did on our vacation. These days it seems almost everything I do is connected to writing and promotion, there were a few exceptions.. Here's a list of what I did from June to now.

Drove to Sedona AZ for a writing friend's 90th birthday party. While there, did a talk at the Well Red Coyote bookstore.

I attended a book luncheon, great food and each table was decorated for a particular book and the hostess of each table spoke about the book. (One year one of my books was featured--this year I sold a book to one of my tablemates.)

I went to two Bunco parties put on by the ladies from church. If you've never been to a Bunco party you haven't lived. (It's one of the silliest games I've ever played but it's a good break from sitting in front of the computer. The proceeds go to the youth activities at church.)

My cousin and her husband came to visit for a day.

Hubby and I drove over to Morro Bay where we stayed in our favorite hotel. I spoke about writing mysteries at the Los Osos Public Library.  The next night, the Central Coast Sisters in Crime hosted us at a lovely dinner party.

In July, I gave my presentation about "How to Write a Mystery" to the San Joaquin Sisters in Crime group.

We also drove over to Las Vegas and visited my sister and while there went on to the Orleans Hotel for the Public Safety Writers Conference. I'm the program chair for this conference, so I'm always busy. I love this conference, the most interesting people attend from all different public safety fields as well as mystery writers who want to learn from the experts. (Everyone comes for writing and promoting tips.)

In August we headed back to the coast but this time we stayed at the Santa Maria Inn. We went to dinner with a writer friend and her husband. The next day I had a booth at the Nipomo Librrary Book and Craft Fair.

Drove up to the mountains and had lunch with a group of writers and gave them my  how to write a mystery presentation in a more informal setting--and sold a few books.

This whole time I was doing Facebook and Twitter promo for No Bells, the latest in my Rocky Bluff P.D. series and planning my blog tour for my next Deputy Tempe Crabtree series, Raging Water.

The tour began September 2nd at http://pat-writersforum.blogspot.com/ with the post "I See Mystery Everywhere."

For the whole tour schedule visit my blog Marilyn's Musings

Believe me, finding people to host, figuring out what to write, writing it and juggling the calendar is a lot of work.

I also read books and wrote reviews for them.

And of course there was the usual stuff, cooking, laundry, grocery shopping, doctor visits, visiting friends in the hospital, teaching Sunday School (I have 3rd through 7th grade--the 7th grader doesn't want to move on, etc)

And how did you spend your summer vacation?

Marilyn