Friends Old and New

 Today, I was selling books at the Onekama Days event.

As so often happens, this guy came up to me, but at least he didn't say, "remember me?" when I have no chance at figuring it out! This is Dale, whom I probably last saw in 1974ish when he was a scrawny teenager. He became an archaeologist, got his PhD, did both field work and teaching. and is now retired. Crazy!

John Wemlinger, author, (and his wife Diane) are quickly becoming friends. After the all-day event, John was giving an author talk (also associated with the Onekama Days - they took my card, and I might be asked another year). It was pretty well attended, and he explained the real-life events that were the genesis of his most recent book. Excellent writer- any books by him are recommended.

There's another author talk tomorrow that I'd like to go to, but I really can't drive up there just for that. Hopefully, I'll be able to catch her another time.

Long day. Weather was perfect, but I didn't sell many books. I did pick up my prizes for completing the Onekama 30-day challenge. and ended up walking a little over a mile just doing that and getting to where the car had to be parked, etc.

I need to get a cold drink and chill out for the rest of the day.

Miles hiked in 2026: 291.9

See Arcadia Authors

Arcadia- Authors and Animals

The final day of Arcadia Daze was shorter and calmer, with a little more time to do things besides interact with potential buyers.

John Wemlinger is an author I met at an event a couple of years ago. He told me I should try to get into Arcadia Daze, and that was good advice. I did well. I finally felt I had a comfortable enough margin that I could buy one of his books I wanted- The Cut- an historical fiction concerning the momentous and contentious cutting of a channel from Portage Lake in Onekama through to Lake Michigan. It dropped the water level of Portage Lake by 20 feet. I've just started reading it, but I can heartily recommend it.

He bought my sampler book, Accidentally Yours. I don't know if he's started it yet or would recommend it, but I'll tell you it's an eclectic collection of all the kinds of things I write. You may not like all the entries, but you'll probably like some of them.

John's wife Diane helps him with "marketing" (and moving all the crap around that one needs at these events). They make a great team. We had a good block of time before people really started coming through to talk about editing and publishing and all that sort of authorly stuff.

Since the vendors did not have to stay as long today, I popped over to Arcadia Marsh for a walk. The middle section of the marsh boardwalk is closed from April 15 to July 15 when birds are nesting, and I'd never managed to get there except during that time. But today, I got to walk all the way through.

I got some nice plant pictures but none of anything very unusual, so I'm going to show you animals because animal pictures are harder. Critters are more mobile than plants!

Who doesn't love turtles? Painted Turtles, and I chose this picture because their reflections are also in focus.

There were several Cedar Waxwings flitting around a space of open water.

Female Wood Duck swimming around.

And although this is just a female mallard- probably our most common duck, she's doing some nice contortions to get her preening accomplished, and notice the spread tail feathers.

I'm always tickled to get a good picture of a dragonfly. I've shown you this one before, but not very often. This is a male Widow Skimmer.

A nice Muskrat working its way around the same place of open water as the Cedar Waxwings. There was a lot of watercress here, and although cattails are their primary food, they will eat the cress too, so maybe that's what it was doing.

I thought that was probably going to be it for the wildlife. Another couple saw a green heron, but it was gone when I got to that spot. I walked the boardwalk trail twice to get in some miles, and almost at the end of the second time, I spotted a family of Trumpeter Swans. OK, it's getting so I see these fairly often, but I still love finding them.

An excellent day and weekend. The weather was neither too hot, too cold, nor too windy for an outdoor event. Developed a good relationship with a fellow author, made some money, and had a great hike. Can hardly improve on any of that!

Miles walked in 2026: 248.5
Miles walked for Onekama Challenge: 60.3

Streets in Arcadia 0.7 miles. Arcadia Marsh boardwalk twice 4.6, for a total of 5.3 miles.

See Arcadia Daze

An Evening with Dale and Kathy

Om and I went to Newaygo tonight to hear Dale and Kathy Painter talk about their book- a memoir of a hiking life.

I've heard Dale speak before about one of his hikes (link below), but tonight's talk was more about the book. However, questions from the audience we more about the hiking.

It was great to have a little time to chat on a more personal level.

Just in case I haven't pushed it enough in other places, here is the book



I worked at shoveling out the mailbox, and puttered at things.

See Pacific Crest Trail Hiker

And I'm Home!

Last night, we stayed with Ken and Mary near Chicago, where I visited a year ago January (link at end).

Ken is a fellow author, and Diane bought one of his fantasy books, Eclipse of the Triple Moons, for her granddaughter.

Mary has some nice garden plants.

We concentrated on driving, but had to make a couple of pit stops, of course. This is at the Welcome Center at Berrien Springs, MI. Some very nice gardens there.

We arrived at my house a little after 3 pm. Marie and Diane took on the "big sort," taking everything out of the car and figuring out who it belonged to, tallying up the money and who spent what. I went for groceries, because the fridge was bare here!

We had rhubarb chicken, rice, and corn on the cob for dinner, with Moose Tracks (of course) ice cream for dessert. Not a great picture with the sun in our eyes, but at least we will remember.

We visited a litte bit after that.

Sigh. Diane and Marie have to leave at 7:30 in the morning. They have a really long driving day tomorrow to get back to Diane's house. It would be great to have one more day together that wasn't a total rat race, but we all have lives that require re-entry.

It was a wonderful trip.

See Ice Age Trail See Stop Two - Ken

Last Vendor Event of 2024

 The vendor event at Mason County Central was huge. I wasn't sure the attendance would be very good but it was all right. Some people had good sales, some had almost none. Mine were middle of the road.

I did get to try something new. I get really jaded about the "stuff" that is being sold. After a while, it all looks alike to me. But one cookie maker was selling cinnamon roll cookies. Had to try that. Sorry, I took a nibble before I remembered a picture. It was really good. A brown sugar dough rolled up with cinnamon like a bun. Glaze on top. Yummy.

The MCC athletes are Spartans. Their mascot visited. The event was put on by the Band Boosters. I give them A+ for having students around to be helpful to the vendors. It was their first event. I'm sure they learned from today to not put so many vendors in the hallway. It was too packed. Hopefully, enough people had good enough sales that they can get vendors to come again. I did well enough I would do it again since it's so close to home. The "problem" is that there are a lot of December events, and I'll never do more than two in one year. I waited too long to get into a couple that I wanted to this year, so I tried this one.

There were only three authors selling books. I was one, of course.

Chris Cornell was there with her crafts and her memoir, Moments in Time.

I just met Jessica Smith at the Fruitport event last month. She was there selling an anthology of short stories called As the Snow Drifts.

Other friends who were vending are Shirley and Bill Mitchell. She knits various scarves and accessories (we are in bell choir together). Bill has cards made from his pen and ink drawings.

I believe there were over 50 vendors. Some people thought that was too many- that the event was overwhelming. Not sure about that. I've been at huge events and done well. If they solve the crowded hallway problem I think everything will be fine.

I'm tired. I was trying to figure out why, but I just remembered that I woke up at 4:30 this morning. I think I've tracked down the reason, eh?

Bell choir tomorrow.

See Fruitport Library

Grandparents Raising Grandchildren

  The Scottville Senior Center has a regular event (I think monthly) for Grandparents Raising Grandchildren. This month they invited several local authors to come and give short presentations about books/writing/being creative.

Left to right are "moi," Brad Reed and Rachel Gaudetter, and Debbie Nellis. I have the Dubois Files mystery series for young readers, Brad and Rachel have a picture book featuring their photography called They Call Me Eagle Eyes, and Debbie has four picture books featuring a turtle named Max who tells people about things on Mackinac Istand. It was a nice selection.

The Center was disappointed because they had a number of people sign up who didn't show up. That also means they have a lot of food left over from the dinner to deal with. So it was a smallish group, but they were enthusiastic. Here Bill Kerans, the director of the center, is taking a picture of Brad and Rachel presenting their book.

This is Debbie and her husband, with her books.

The Senior Center gave each child a notebook, markers, and a pencil to help inspire them to be creative. Also, each family/kid got to choose one book from each author.

Afterwards, Debbie and I talked a while about the self-publishing business.

Other than that, I managed to walk about 1.5 miles before the dinner, and worked on various projects.

See Senior Center Program

Around the Venue

The Lakeshore Art Fair is held in and around Hackley Park in Muskegon each year. This is the central statue in the park, 80 feet tall, of "Victory." The park is to honor Civil War veterans.

These artistic sprinklers were being sold right across the street from us. Little kids had fun playing in the spray. I didn't price them, but they must have cost plenty since I think they rented three booth spaces to have room to set up the sprinkler.

There weren't any unusual plants in the gardens around Hackley Park, but they were nicely kept. Stella D'Oro lilies and Impatiens.

And the hanging planters had hot petunia colors. But they are nice and full.

On the other side of me was author friend, Michael Carrier, who writes thriller mysteries set in the Upper Peninsula.

And so that Kay-Kay could have a rest, Jean brought Laya today. Laya is an old hand at events and can be walked on a leash! I certainly never knew that chickens could be so calm.

The storm line held off until about 3:30. We all took down non-essential parts of our displays and held out until the last minute. None of us was willing to let books get wet! We all helped each other at the end. The only things of mine that got wet were the bare table and the canopy. I can dry those out this week. Many of us hadn't expected we'd even get as many good hours out of today as we did. The wind was gusty, and even with weights, we spent some anxious moments holding down our canopies, but all ended well.

I haven't added up the sales yet, but I did all right. Definitely some profit even with transportation and allowing myself that one junk food treat yesterday. Did I make enough for two days work and a day of prep? Hard to say. It takes forever to build up a reputation as an indie author. I did better than many. And I had some return customers. It's hard not to compare myself to author neighbor Michael, who is well-known, and who sells one or more books about every 30 seconds. But others had a poor sales weekend, and I feel bad for them. It's really hard when you don't even cover your booth space.

I do love the way our Michigan Author community tries to support each other.

See Bring Your Chicken to Work Day