Tag: Books

QuickJAB, The Latest Twist

Legendary Author/Legendary Readers

JAB

Pepper Festival Sept 2023

My latest festival was the two-day Pepper Musical Festival: I wore my taco socks and used my chili pepper apron to spice up my table.  I expected to see a pepper eating contest or some  reason for the event to be the Pepper Festival, but as far as I know, it was the Pepper Festival just because.

You might have noticed that we finally realized that putting up the side panels on our tent helped block the sun. We also remembered to charge the fan the night before. For some unexplainable reason, I forgot all my tablecloths except for one small, white one. Walmart to the rescue! We found the cheap (yay!), green vinyl tablecloth that is now my favorite.  I love a bargain!

The vendor sites were spacious because of the large field where the event was hosted; we didn’t feel crowded at all and had a perfect location for our booth. The stage for the bands and the bleachers were in front of our site with an open, spacious, grassy area between us.

The two-day event was a challenge because the festival lasted until ten o’clock both nights, but Friday night was a blast. The headliner band played Hispanic music, and the area in front of us was filled with families. In addition to our  all time favorite music from the southwest, we had live entertainment as the children chased each other and rolled in the grass, and the toddlers bounced to the music.  We enjoyed an impromptu wrestling match between preteen boys that could have rivaled any high school wrestling team for style and technique.

Saturday was exhausting. We had to take our books back to the campground Friday night then haul them back to the event on Saturday morning because books and morning dew don’t mix; however, our campground was less than ten minutes away, which was a wonderful bonus.

A young, local police officer entertained himself most of Saturday by stopping by my booth and teasing me about some imaginary flaw in one of my books. He brought  a group of other police officers and firefighters to my booth to show them my fan then expounded on the imaginary flaw. I told him he was fired as my public relations manager, and his buddies roared with laughter.

The Saturday night crowd was mostly teenagers who were there to see and be seen. They were entertaining enough to watch, but they couldn’t come close to  the bouncing toddlers. The headliner music was not their type of music or ours either. Adults sat on the bleachers and politely applauded; it must have been their type of music.

The most amazing sight of all on Saturday night was the number of food trucks that magically appeared; everyone we saw was eating something!

We quietly packed our things and left at nine o’clock.  In theory, we won’t be invited back as vendors because we left before ten, but we’re okay with that. Our campground was great, and we had a terrific time; we’ll go back next year to camp at the great campground,  shout out to you, Tifton KOA Journey,  and enjoy the Friday night music and entertainment.

Will we consider another two-day event? It depends…

Remember the pesky police officer? The police chief stopped by my booth later and told me I was a legend.  Legendary Author: should I add that to my biography?

You know who reads the works of a Legendary Author, don’t you?

Legendary Readers: readers who  form theories based on clues and stray, almost random, hints the author leaves along the way in the story. That’s you, isn’t it?

How’s this for a new tagline?

The Legendary Author Who Writes for Legendary Readers.

Buy Judith a cup of coffee!

Did you enjoy the story? Consider buying me a cup of coffee – it’s writer’s fuel and keeps me writing, photographing, and sharing stories with you. Thank you for your continued support and being a Legendary Reader!

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QuickJAB, The Latest Twist

When the Wind Blows…

JAB

When the wind blows Jun 2023 smaller

Everybody knows that trees shouldn’t be planted too close to a house. When a particularly vicious storm roared through our area this summer, the wind took down a gigantic oak tree that was in the woods behind our house.

The good news is that the gigantic oak tree fell away from the house. Even though the tree was in the woods, the root ball was so large  that it took our chain link fence with it!  An interesting fact is that people who lived in the county south of us didn’t know anything about our severe storm, so I’m positive you didn’t either.

We lived in New Mexico for a number of years where everybody knows about dust storms and tumbleweeds, but I didn’t know about the severe dust storms that plagued Arizona until part of our family moved there a few years ago.

Our oak tree and the dust storms in Arizona reminded me that there are things that only “the locals” know, especially when it comes to weather. I know about hurricanes because we lived in Florida and tornados because we lived in Texas. I also know about blizzards because we lived in Minnesota, but I’m hoping I don’t ever have a blizzard in any of the books I write because I’d get too cold. I have a very active imagination, but you knew that!

My latest novel takes place in Arizona, and my main character is from Georgia, so I knew she wouldn’t know about a ‘haboob,’ which is a word frequently used for the miles long, towering  Arizona dust storms with sand and debris. Thank goodness one of the locals told her, or it would have been my shortest novel ever!

What is it that “everybody knows” where you live that a newcomer wouldn’t know? I’m always looking for a weather story I can use in a book!

Interested in reading a book that takes place in Arizona?

Bloodshed in the Badlands Cover April 24 2023

Wren’s new writing assignment, a haunted campground in Arizona, is perfect except for the killer who wants her dead.

Shop HERE in the Barrett Book Shop

or Buy the new book  HERE if you have a favorite retailer.

You keep reading; I’ll keep writing! 

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QuickJAB, The Latest Twist

Small Town, Big Heart for Reading

JAB

In May, we packed up books and dogs and took our camper trailer to Ellaville, Georgia, population 1,500 (not a typo), for an Arts and Crafts event sponsored by the town’s Chamber of Commerce who named their event Luau in the ‘Ville. Kind of snappy, don’t you think?

I wore my  flowered shirt, which is my version of appropriate luau attire (my grass skirt is at the dry cleaners), for the occasion, and if you carefully examine my tent, you’ll see my new “ceiling fan” is in place to keep us cool.

My new friends from the Wine Festival who told me about the Ellaville event were two booths away from me with their son who was selling his debut novel. We were too busy to chat very much, but I told them about the arts and crafts event that is close to me: Elevate Artisans; I hope to see them in October.

The most amazing sales wizard I’ve ever had the pleasure to witness was next to me in the purple tent. She sold  jewelry, T-shirts, drink cups, and stickers, and she knew how to work a crowd.  She maintained a constant, almost musical patter, and people were drawn to her booth.

  • Mother’s Day is coming up; do you think she’d like earrings or a T-shirt?
  • That’s our best-selling T-shirt, feel how soft it is. We have your size.
  • What’s your mom’s favorite color?
  • You need to get yourself a Mother’s Day present. You deserve it.
  • You’re ears aren’t pierced? These earrings make great charms.
  • You need a Georgia Bulldogs drink cup to go with that shirt.
  • You’re from Alabama? We still love you. Here’s an Auburn drink cup: you won’t see another one here.

Her charming delivery made her aggressive-sounding style a magnet as she magically became everyone’s favorite friend, including me.

It was another scorcher of a day in the afternoon in Georgia. Remember my fan? It was great until it wasn’t. We forgot to pack the charger, so we weren’t able to charge it fully the night before the Luau. It fizzled out around two, and I baked in the heat until five when the party was over.  I have a new addition to my packing list: the charger for the fan.

Because all of the ebooks for each one of my series are included on my online Barrett Book Shop, I was fully prepared for anyone who said they didn’t read paperbacks. I asked everyone who stopped (or kind of slowed down) by my booth, if they read paperbacks or ebooks. The readers of Ellaville and the surrounding towns surprised me when they almost 100% said, “Paperbacks.”

I was even more surprised when many of them bought one or two of my books or an entire series. While all of my First in Series books sold, the number one favorite was TAGGED BY DEATH. I sold out before the end of the day. In terms of sales, Ellaville  far surpassed any other event that I’ve ever attended. You’ll find me in Ellaville next spring trying to figure out how to get next to the sales wizard’s booth.

Pro tip: Readers are Everywhere.

You keep reading; I’ll keep writing!

QuickJAB, The Latest Twist

Road Trip

JAB

We decided our new camper needed more than one shakedown weekend: our latest excuse for a road trip!

FarmerMan found an all-day Arts and Crafts festival for me and an all-day agriculture class for him that were on the same day and within a 45-minute driving time of each other. I made our four-day reservation at the Americus KOA, which was an absolutely perfect campground for us, TJ, and Toby.

We arrived at the Wolf Creek Plantation Winery in Americus, Georgia, for their Spring Festival at seven thirty on Saturday morning to put up my canopy tent and set out the tables, then FarmerMan left for his class.

After I arranged my tablecloths, banner, books, and signs on the tables, I asked my new early-bird neighbor if she’d take a photo of me with my booth.  See the newly planted grapevines behind me? The winery has acres and acres of grapevines, and there was plenty of room for the 95 vendors who had signed up to hawk their wares.

I’ve loved our local fall and Christmas arts and crafts festivals that I attend every year, so one in the spring was a new adventure for me, and one without FarmerMan’s assistance was definitely a new and scarier adventure.

The morning was a bit chilly to sit and wait, but I was busy answering questions when the rest of the vendors arrived. The most common question: where is number fill-in-the-blank; I was in #36.  I had printed the map the winery sent us, so I was the resident expert at pointing. “It’s that way!”

By noon, the visitors parking lot was overflowing, and cars were parked on both sides of the road. I enjoyed talking to so many interesting people while I made new friends. Shout out to the sweet woman that stuck by my side while I fumbled then finally figured out how to accept her credit card payment for the signed book she bought from me. My first book sale of the day!

There was a bounce house for children that was very close to where I was, so I had extra entertainment. Have you ever heard of playing Marco-Polo in a bounce house? I hadn’t, but they did!

My book sales were great, and I was an old pro with taking credit cards by early afternoon. FarmerMan gave me his solar charger to use for my cell phone, and that definitely made a difference in being able to accept credit cards.  My phone would have run out of steam by one o’clock without it! It’s my solar charger now, but you knew that.

In the late afternoon, the weather turned hot. My booth faced the west, and the day turned into a scorcher; I overheated. My booth neighbor on my other side watched my booth while I hurried into the air-conditioned event center that was nearby. I washed my face with cool water then used damp paper towels on the back of my neck. Heat stroke averted!

When I returned, my neighbor told me about another vendor who had a ceiling fan in her tent. Her mother watched both our booths while we went to ask nosy questions. The ceiling fan made the vendor’s tent very comfortable. Guess what I bought after we returned home? You got it!

Remember it was hot? People who went past my booth had slushies. I had water to drink, but those slushies looked really refreshing. Two young women with slushies stopped by my booth to chat, and I asked them about their drinks. They urged me to get one at the event center because they said my cheeks were really red  from the heat; they kindly offered to watch my booth for me.

I bought a strawberry-mango slushy; it was a little pricey, but I was certain it would be as tasty as it was cooling. Are you already ahead of me on this? I took a huge slurp from my straw.

Pro Tip: If you buy a slushy from a winery, it may likely be a Wine Slushy.

I drank another bottle of water and quietly set my Wine Slushy aside to melt into a sadly watered down drink that I threw away before we left.

In spite of my minor slushy faux pas, it was a great success, and I’ll keep an eye on the Wolf Creek Plantation for their next event!

Ideas, QuickJAB, The Latest Twist

New Spring Projects

JAB

We had an old fire ring that we’d almost forgotten about because it had been overrun by several years worth of weeds and brush on the edge of our woods. After  FarmerMan cleared away the dead weeds and brush, he rescued the fire ring,  the few stones that hadn’t been repurposed for other projects, and the concrete benches that had surrounded the fire pit for the past ten years.

We walked around our property while we discussed the best site for our “new” fire pit. After we considered several spots, we decided on a location in the backyard that was relatively flat;  we also decided that our folding camping chairs would be more comfortable than the concrete benches and would make mowing around the fire pit easier. We relocated our concrete benches to be near near the chicken coop, so we would have somewhere to sit while we watched the chickens and their latest antics.

We had a beautiful Bottlebrush tree next to our driveway. In case you’ve never seen a Bottlebrush tree, this is an example of its flowers  from the University of Florida Extension Service.

The Bottlebrush attracts hummingbirds and butterflies and has bright red flower spikes that are reminiscient of a bottle washer. The Bottlebrush plant is frequently sold as a shrub, but it can grow as a tree up to 25 feet in height. Our tree was probably only 15 or so feet tall, but it was beautiful.

Our weeklong hard freeze this past winter took its toll on our beautiful Bottlebrush tree. In a last ditch effort to revive our tree, FarmerMan severely cut back the branches in the hopes there was still life in its roots…

…and there was.

In January 2023, I made a career shift as an author and a publisher and moved all of my e-books from being exclusive with a single US/UK-concentrated retail distributor to the additional top four retail distributors, and dozens more smaller distributors, that are now delivering my e-books world-wide.  I expected a drop in royalties because the single retail distributor sales were based on the readers purchasing an annual subscription to read “free” books. Authors were paid royalties of a fraction of a penny for each page read.

While my gross income dropped, my net income has dipped only slightly because my marketing costs have drastically dropped; because more people (including libraries!) are willing to buy a book they want to read, more of my stories are flying off the pages and being read world-wide!

Would you like to pick a book to read?  Tap HERE to pick one out! (With the magic of invisible electrons, when you select a book, the webs will deliver your book to your favorite ebook reader.)

You keep reading; I’ll keep writing!

QuickJAB, The Latest Twist

Starting Over

JAB

The fragrant, beautiful gardenias in the front of our house have bloomed every May since we bought the house in 2018, and we know they were there when the previous owners bought the house  in 2013, so they had survived the high and low temperatures that fluctuated from year to year for more than ten years.

When the hard freeze that lasted four days hit in February 2023, we were saddened by the loss of so many of our pine trees that we had planted over the past three years but were completely shocked that our three sturdy gardenia bushes didn’t survive.  So, we started over.

In November 2022, in a series of unfortunate events, our faithful camping trailer that we bought new in 2015 bit the dust in a most unlikely incident. Out of respect for her faithful service, we won’t go into the details, but no humans, dogs, or chickens (even though they weren’t there) were injured. We had a choice: give up camping or get a new camping trailer. I’m certain you aren’t surprised that we bought a new camping trailer. We’re starting over by taking short trips to get used to our new trailer.

As an author with a publishing business, I’ve been closely tracking the dwindling benefits of exclusivity with a single online book distributor. I started over in January 2023, and now all 30+ of my books are being sold by over a dozen book distributors.

In February, I investigated several options of selling my books directly to readers online. By the beginning of March, my online Barrett Book Shop was live and in business!

 

I’ve been excited to learn that other authors are doing the same!  Take a peek at a very delightful author, Maria E. Schneider, at Bear Mountain Books. 

I’ve found my toe-tapping, head-bobbing theme song for 2023 on You Tube:  Chris Stapleton

You keep reading; I’ll keep writing!

QuickJAB, The Latest Twist

Celebrate the Small Stuff

JAB

Have you heard the old saying, “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff”? Not all that easy, is it? It hasn’t been for me!

Here’s an idea, before we hustle from one small stuff thing to another, let’s CELEBRATE the Small Stuff we’ve accomplished! Our timeless sage, Oprah Winfrey, said, “The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.”

Here’s my first celebration for 2023:

I haven’t been celebrating the glorious, but small accomplishment of  THE END when I publish any of my books, and I have no idea why not. FarmerMan has been so faithfully supportive since my first book was published in 2016, my second book was published in 2018, and all the books after that. I was on a roll, or maybe it was a roar because I never took time to celebrate THE END before I charged forward with the next book.

How did we celebrate? We went to a new-to-us restaurant and enjoyed a nice dinner. I don’t have any photos to commemorate the grand celebration because our phones were OFF while we talked and laughed.

What have you celebrated lately? What should you celebrate this month?

QuickJAB, The Latest Twist

Best Way to Get Lost: Books

JAB

library

The absolutely best place to get lost in books is at your local library, particularly if your appetite for reading far exceeds your budget for buying books or paying for a subscription to borrow “free” or reduced price books.

The goal of public libraries is to provide books for you to read. No charge, no catch, unless of course you rack up late fees, but that’s on you. Read and return: that’s all they ask.

Has it been a while since you’ve been to the library because your vision of the library is a stuffy, shushing place with old books that are out of date?

Let’s update that thinking with a peek at a current library.

New Libraries

Libraries have gone digital. You can borrow an ebook, an audiobook, or if you love a paperback, that’s fine too. There’s no judgment in the library; librarians want you to read or listen to books.

But what if you want to read one of your favorite author’s books, but that budget thing is a huge block, and you haven’t seen her books on the shelves?

Let’s pick an author at random, for an example: Judith A. Barrett. I suspect there is not a shelf in the fiction section or on the table at the front door of your library where all her books are prominently displayed. No problem for us. We’ve got a link to her books, which is practically the same!

Here’s the link to a page with all of the Judith A. Barrett books listed with the identifiers, ISBN, that your local librarian can use to order the book for you to read then return, so someone else can read it.

Judith A. Barrett Books at Your Library

You’ll also find the link on the Judith A. Barrett website under the Books menu item as a pulldown tab. It’s called Judith A. Barrett Books at Your Library. Pretty catchy, isn’t it?  https://judithabarrett.com

QuickJAB, The Latest Twist

A Mountain of Goodness

JAB

Our beautiful Buff Orpington and Appenzeller Spitzhauben chickens were two days old when we brought them to their forever home coop from the feed store last August.

This morning, they had their first experience of two mountains of newly-mowed grass and weed clippings from the front field. Initially, they were very suspicious of the two new monstrous creatures in their run, but eventually two of the Buffs ventured close and discovered seeds, fresh green grass, and bugs. Game on!

The chickens have spent the entire day scratching and snacking at the two large piles; the mountain in the back that is much smaller than it was this morning, probably because it had the most green grass blades on top, but they are discovering more tasty grass, seeds, and bugs in the closer mountain.

I understood exactly how they felt when they first saw the two large, foreboding creatures. I tackled my first 2023 mountain when I expanded selling my books through new retailers: Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google, Apple, and a myriad of other international booksellers in addition to Amazon. As I scratched and searched through the mountain of goodness, I’ve discovered a few yummy royalties and am sharing the bounty with my newsletter readers.

The second mountain, with which I’m more wrestling than tackling, is the daunting monster of developing an online book shop, so I can sell my ebooks and paperbacks directly to readers. I’m taking small steps because it’s an entirely new world with all kinds of strange creatures to wrangle. I’m hoping Barrett Book Shop will be live by the end of February.

Have I ever told you learning is fun? It still is!