I’m home again, but there’s still many trips to Delaware in my future.
My father passed away on Thursday, 24 March 2022. He was 87. He’s home now, no longer in pain. My mother is coping with the loss of a man she loved for three-quarters of her life. It’s hard for all of us.
As a little added bonus, the trauma isn’t over for her or for us, because now comes the paperwork maze packed with bureaucratic dragons!
No, you can’t just die and have the funeral. Everyone and his brother have to be notified officially, with the correct death certificate. Some are copies and some are embossed originals (far more expensive). There’ll be a lot of backing and forthing, from one government agency to the next, to get it all done. Heaven only knows what the medical bills will be like. Thank God for my sister-in-law. She was a GS-13 before retirement so she marches into the fray, unafraid.
My sister-in-law makes other people bow to her will.
This is a golden opportunity to remind you, dear reader, that you need a will and clear instructions for what your family should do after your death. Don’t think you can cheat death by not having a will. Not having your paperwork in order will make the aftermath for your survivors that much harder to bear.
And, if you’re the creative type, make sure your will addresses your intellectual property. You created that art, wrote those novels, composed those songs, and they belong to you. After your death, they belong to your heirs, but only if they know about them and it’s properly recorded and handled. We went into that in “Career Indie Author,” and even provided a sample will to take to your lawyer.
Plenty of writers bequeathed nice estates to their loved ones (i.e., Agatha Christie). Multitudes of writers and musicians left nothing because they didn’t control their intellectual property or wrote wills; ask Prince’s or Jimi Hendrix’s families. Talk to your lawyer. Clarify your estate. Don’t make things harder for your family.
Now for something more fun.
Because life goes on, Bill and I have plans for the next few months.
First is Malice Domestic! Yay! Malice Domestic is a wonderful cozy mystery conference hosted by Sisters in Crime. It takes place annually (other than that two-year interregnum known as the Pandemic) in Bethesda, Md. This year, the conference opens on Thursday evening (21APR22) with Maureen Jennings (she of the “Murdoch Mysteries”) hosting. Then there’s panels galore, the Agatha awards, the Agatha banquet, lots more fun stuff, finishing up Sunday afternoon.
Malice is unique in that it welcomes fans just as much as writers. Malice is so much fun that people plan their vacations around it.
This will be our second time at Malice; we previously attended in 2019. We’ll be in the dealer room with our books. We’ve got show specials, including our first ever book bundle: seven volumes of the 223B Casebook Series for $70. That’s the collection of vintage Sherlock Holmes fan fiction, published between 1888 and 1930, not including Punch. It’s Sherlock as you’ve never seen him before. Many of the stories have not seen the light of day since their first publication date way back when. Bill unearthed them, annotated them, and here they are.
We’ve got other surprises and fun stuff too, so if you’re in Bethesda, stop on by. If you’d like to learn more about Malice: https://www.malicedomestic.org/
After that, we’ll be at the Hershey Art Fest on Saturday, 7 May 2022 from about 9 a.m. until the traditional early May thunderstorm rains us out. This show — hosted by the Derry Township Historical Society — has evolved since its earliest days wrapped around the Cocoa Beanery with a dozen writers, including Bill. After a few years downtown, the show relocated back to the Cocoa Beanery and started growing ever larger. The goal is to become a destination arts and crafts festival. It’s a juried show so they don’t accept just anyone. You won’t find yard sale fodder here.
We’ve always had a great time at Art Fest and this year should be no exception. We’ll have our canopy somewhere in the sea of canopies wrapping around the Cocoa Beanery and the Englewood Barn. Expect crafts, arts, food trucks, and fun. And us, for books. There’s plenty of free parking and it’s free to attend so come on out and see us!
Here’s their website http://hersheyartfest.org/ if you’d like a taste of who’s going to be there. It’s not a complete list, by any means. Expect far more vendors than are listed. In 2021, even with social distancing and recovering from the pandemic, Hershey Art Fest hosted over 100 artisans.
Our next event will be a thrill. We were accepted to the Gaithersburg Book Festival! It takes place on Saturday, 21 May 2022, from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. at Bohrer Park in Gaithersburg. We’ve never been to this book festival but it is supposed to be wonderful. Expect big crowds (20,000 book lovers!) and hundreds of authors of every description, including poets, literary, children’s authors, and a host of genre writers. The festival hosts many, many big-name authors as well as small-fry vendors like us.
It’s free and there’s free parking so if you’re anywhere near Gaithersburg on 21 May 2022 and you’re a booklover, you should stop in. Here’s the website https://www.gaithersburgbookfestival.org/ for more information. There’s something for everyone with this amazing array of authors and programs.
I have no idea where we’ll be in the sea of canopies. Look for our blue banners and signs.
That’s something else we’ve been working on: upgrading our signs. It’s odd to think about writers needing signs like a goat cheese vendor. However, if you do events — even library events — you should have a sign or two to advertise yourself. You should also be dressed properly. Just like goat cheese vendors should wear a T-shirt in their brand color with their logo and pictures of frolicking goats, writers should be in uniform for the occasion.
I’ve got so much to say about branding, signage and presentation when selling direct that I’ll save it for May’s newsletter.
Assuming, of course, that the universe cooperates.
Thanks again, dear readers, for joining us. Writers need readers and we need and appreciate each and every one of you.