I kicked off my summer this year with the release of a new book: the final book in the Bound Trilogy, Fated. With that book release came a few extra events, in addition to the “one every month” goal I’ve been keeping strong over the last two years. 


Today, I thought it would be fun to share with you a quick highlight or each event, including how many sales I made and my general experience.

Let’s do it.

MAY 16th
Event: LAGG Meet Cute (Pre-release, first sales for Fated)
Location: LAGG, American Fork, UT
Summary: This book event kicked off the summer with a strong start. At this event, I sold 18 books. This was my first event with the LAGG staff and community, and I had a blast. Keep reading for more info on my experience with them.

MAY 30th, RELEASE DAY
Event: The Dang Book Bash
Location: West Valley, UT
Summary: At this event, I sold 20 books, and 1 Bound Trilogy puzzle. I met tons of amazing people. This was my second time at one of the events put on by this same host, and by golly she is one of the coolest, most organized, energetic people I know. I loved my time at this event just as much as the last time I was there. I was upstairs this time, which got a little less foot traffic and a little fewer sales, but it was still awesome, and my booth neighbors were fantastic.


MAY 31st
Event: Books Signing
Location: Park City Barnes & Noble
Summary: I sold 8 books.
Man, I don’t know what happened. When I started doing book signing events, I started with Barnes & Noble. They were all so open and kind, and I soon gravitated toward Park City, because I swear that location had something special. They communicated quickly and professionally, and my favorite, they kept inviting me to come back. I enjoyed signing so much at this location that I thanked them in the acknowledgements in my newest release. Alas, things have changed. It’s rare now that I even get a response to an email or a returned phone call. Paperwork has been inaccurate, and seemingly unimportant. At this last signing, I left a book box set for my trilogy at their location because I was promised they would send me consignment paperwork. Over three weeks and five phone calls later, I still couldn’t get anyone to send me the paperwork, so I drove up there and picked up the book box myself.


JUNE 6th
Event: Summer Pop Up
Location: LAGG, American Fork UT
Summary: I sold 1 book, to a very kind human being who left and came back so she could purchase Bound. I also sold one sword bookmark. I honestly don’t think I’ve EVER met a more professional staff. No kidding. All of the staff at LAGG are friendly, engaged, and so on it. This was my second event with this team, and they were fantastic, and very thoughtful. 

My general experience? It was hot, and we were outside tucked under a tree, so we didn’t get very many people who came by. Still super fun to get to know my booth neighbors, and honestly I loved the staff. If you haven’t been in that store, they’ve done an amazing job with it. You should definitely go check it out.


JUNE 20th
Event: Car Show Charity Event, Put on to Support Finding Missing Persons
Location: Ogden, UT
Summary: I felt very cool to be allowed to set up my table inside the shop on such a hot day. I donated a book to the raffle, and I sold one book and a couple of sword bookmarks. All in all, the people were amazing, but the little foot traffic I did have were folks not really looking to purchase books. 


JULY 25th
Event: Pioneer Days Fair
Location: Wellington UT Park
Summary: I had a nice long break to wait for more books to come in the mail, and I was genuinely surprised by how many people came to this one. If you don’t know, Wellington UT is a drive-through town. Basically a smattering of homes and small businesses along the highway on the way to Moab. But man, people show up. 

I partnered with the author of The Little Red Fergie, which I illustrated and published. The author, his wife and I would partner together for the last three events of the summer. Including The Little Red Fergie, we sold 23 books, and had 11 other miscellaneous merch sales. 


AUGUST 1st
Event: Books Signing
Location: Barnes & Noble Orem UT
Summary: I partnered with the author of The Little Red Fergie. Together, we sold a total of 14 books.
This time, I was at given some information as to what was going on at this Barnes & Noble location. There had been a shift in management since I had scheduled and confirmed this event, and the person who took over was not aware of the event until I called about three weeks in advance to see if they had already ordered books. They had not. Thankfully, I had some books left over, which I said I would bring, and they had Bound, Severed, and Twice in a Lifetime in stock at their store. It turned out fine, but this is not the only BN location where management has dropped the ball. I sincerely hope that they figure it out, because man, I really love these bookstores. I know there's a lot of controversy right now because Barnes & Noble is a corporation, but they were the only bookstores I ever had access to growing up, it has always been a dream of mine to get my books into those stores, and they responded and took a chance on me when many indie bookstores wouldn't.


AUGUST 7-8th 
Event: International Days Fair
Location: Price City, UT
Summary: This was not my first time doing events back to back, or my first time selling books two days in a row. This was, however, my first two-day event, and the most costly to attend. This was a tricky one, because I’d had some personal things going on that made attending and sticking through this event difficult, especially in the heat. But the music was great, and the people were lovely. I partnered again with the author of The Little Red Fergie, and together we sold a total of 61 books, plus 12 other, non-book merchandise sales. Of those sales, I sold NINE complete Bound trilogy sets. I sold out of box sets, so I started giving away Bound trilogy tote bags if they purchased the whole trilogy. That’s 27 books alone, and I also sold entirely out of my hardcover stock for Bound, and came home with only two Bound paperbacks remaining. 


Overall, this summer has been great. I’m very grateful to have been included in so many awesome events, and I hope to continue this trend. Not only do I sell WAY more books in person than I do online, but I also genuinely love talking with people about stories. I still have a number of events in the remaining months this year, some of which will even take me out of the state of Utah. Doing these events has allowed me to make enough money to invest in rebranding, and finally, FINALLY to invest in the equipment and training to create audiobooks. Stay tuned, folks. 

One more thing I will say: I love having a completed trilogy out there, and I will absolutely be putting together more Bound trilogy book box sets, because they look great and people really seem to love them! 


I hope you all have had a good, eventful summer, and that you’ve had lots of opportunity to read good books and connect with great people. 


If you were one of the folks who saw me at an event this summer and you signed up for my email list, keep an eye on that email of yours. I’m doing another, sort of “end of summer” giveaway, and you will be included in the drawing!

You know those moments when you're doing something that brings you so much joy, so much peace, that you feel absolutely right with the world? 

For me, that's what writing does. Not thinking about writing, not planning my writing, or editing, or posting about my writing, or even preparing for book launch. But the actual act of writing, when I sit down, and I'm envisioning the scene as the words flow from my fingertips onto the page. I feel bliss. 

Often, I don't really realize this. Not fully, anyway. Yes, I know that writing makes me happy, that my days are so much better when I've gotten some kind of words on the page. But really, it's so much more than that. 

The last week has been a very tough one for me personally. I've had a lot of inner strife and stress because the ordeal that I've been going through has eaten up much of my focus and much of my time. This means that I've been feeling guilty about not working as much as I should have been, and yes, not writing as much as I should have been. But this evening, I sat down and started writing, listening to the same soundtrack I've been listening to throughout the entire process of drafting this current work in progress. 

And something truly amazing happened. For about 35 minutes, I didn't feel stress, or fear, or worry, or guilt. All I felt was joy. Joy that I was writing something beautiful (dark and sad, sure, but beautiful). I was creating something purely from my own soul, from my own imagination, and I was bringing it to life with my own words. That was so awesome to feel and to notice after such a heavy week. 

I implore you, friends, writers, readers, human beings. Pay attention to the things that you love. Really let yourself get that close-up look at how it makes you feel. And if you can, try to do it a little more often. 

I know this blog post was super short, but I just wanted to share that with you. Until next time, keep writing. Keep reading. Stay awesome.