Happy Monday!

Today is the beginning of what could be a very big week. The Wizard of Oz Festival starts in just three days, and in four, they will do the first dives to try to recover the stolen ruby slippers. Complete details are available here, but for those of you on my email list, I wanted to give a quick update: My signing will be from 12-1 on Friday, June 12, not 3:30-5:30 as I had listed in the newsletter. The 12-1 time was what had been agreed on before the dives were announced, and by then it was too late to get it changed in the advertising, so we’re going to stick to the original time. I’ll be around a lot of the day on Thursday and Friday though, so if you see me and we weren’t able to connect at the actual signing time, please come up and say hi! I also already signed all the books the museum currently has, and I’ll leave extra swag there if they’ll let me.

In other exciting news, I’m going to be interviewed for the documentary on the theft. I was about to say I’ve never been on TV before, but I just remembered I was seated next to the stage for a CMT special, so I was on every time they did a long-shot. But I’ve never had a speaking part before 🙂

If/when the shoes are found (trying not to jinx it) I hope they make the case files public, I would love to dive in and write the real story. Keep your fingers crossed with me.

I’ll be signing copies of Stealing the Ruby Slippers and Finding the Ruby Slippers at the Judy Garland Museum during Wizard of Oz Festival in Grand Rapids, MN on June 12. Ahead of the festival, I did a little interview with the museum and learned that there is a dive planned for two days during the festival— and they think the missing shoes will be recovered! You can read the whole interview here. From everything I had heard, I thought the shoes had been thrown either in the Mississippi or Pokegama Lake, this was the first I’d learned that they might be in a mine-lake. (Although, to be fair, the mine they’ve referenced, Tioga, is also the name of a beach on Pokegama, so I don’t know that I would have known there was a mine-lake associated with it!) I’m hoping to get to attend the dives, and will keep you posted if I do!

The Thief and The Damage are becoming audiobooks!

You can check out an interview I did with the narrator in the April edition of my newsletter. He’s awesome, and he’s done a great job bringing my characters to life.

This process has been a blast, and I want you to check the new versions out. To sweeten the deal, this summer, when you download either of my books through Audible or iTunes, email your receipt (even free downloads with your Audible subscription count!) and I’ll send you the either free digital versions of either of my books or at-cost physical copies!

Check out all the details here.

It’s the end of May already, and we’re gearing up for summer here. My husband and I made the decision to save the money and keep the kids home with us, which means learning to work while they’re here, and also rearranging schedules so we each get some concentrated time.

I’ve been spending a lot of May in a really reflective mode, which makes it a bit ironic that I haven’t been blogging. I’m taking on more responsibility in my day job, which I’m excited about and thankful for, but it’s taking up a lot of my mental capacity. And there’s something about spring in Minnesota—I don’t want to work. I want to be outside. Which isn’t necessarily all bad. It’s caused me to really reflect on my goals and activities and realize some of them just really aren’t that important. You saw that a bit with the May Goals Reflection, but I’ve let things go a bit more too. I can’t do it all, and I have to do some things that aren’t entirely fun, but I don’t have to do everything. I’m learning to say no, little by little. Even to myself.

A little over a month ago, I started a new job at NoiseTrade while basically everyone else at the company, including my favorite husband and co-parenter, was at SXSW Music Festival in Austin. While the job, overall, is structured in a way that still allows me a lot of writing time, that week, it didn’t. I get a little…hard to live with…when I’m not writing, so I was a bit desperate. I took extreme measures. My good friend and amazing mentor Charlotte gave me the opportunity to write about it on her blog. Check it out here. 

We’re approaching the one year birthday of my first book, Stealing the Ruby Slippers, and like any “baby” he has grown up and is taking on a life of his own. In May he and his sister, Finding the Ruby Slippers, are going together to the courthouse to legally change their names. Henceforth to be known as The Thief and The Damage, they’re also getting a new voice…literally. In May The Thief will be available in audio for purchase from all the usual suspects (Audible and iTunes.) I’m hoping it will also go into library catalogues, but because of the deal I have with ACX I don’t have as much (any) control over distribution and pricing as I normally do. (If you don’t have an Audible account, don’t sign up…yet. You get one book for free when you sign up. Wait until mine is up there are get it for free!)

Details are still being worked out, but for now, let me just say: there are going to be some pretty sweet promo packages that I will be offering to those of you that decide to buy the audio version. And for those of you who have the original covers/titles…there will be options for cool name-change stickers that you can put on your books, fridge, or mom’s car. Whatever floats your boat.

More will be on www.stealingtherubyslippers.com as details develop.