Category Archives: Local Events

Nano November: Week one in Review – Nano Word count: 30,262

by in For the Love of Donuts, Local Authors, Local Events, NaNoWriMo, Rachel Barnard | 4 Comments

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Total time spent: 16 hours and 40 minutes (1000 minutes)

Total word count: 30,262

Words per minute: 30.26 WPM

What a busy first week!

WIP Word Count Progress Reports:

The Optimist Sees the Donut – 18,721 words

The Pessimist Sees the Hole – 11,265 words

Café Connections (Aster & Tilde Book 1) – 20,640 words (12k of this written in October)

Day 1: 11/01/15, Sunday
Location(s):
• Seattle Region Kickoff St. James Espresso in Kirkland 10PM-11PM Oct 31st,
• At Home – morning (2773 words from 8:30AM – 10AM), evening and night (5:30PM -8PM for 4271 words)
• North Bend/Snoqualmie Region re-Kickoff Time Warp Write-in at Fall City Roadhouse 11:30AM-1PM, for 1520 words
• Seattle Region Verne and Wells 2:30PM-3:30PM for 1441 words
Noteworthy: Food poisoning had me abandoning the Seattle kickoff party early, but with the time change I was off to an early jumpstart the next morning and with multiple write-ins was able to round out my word count for the day.
Money spent: AFK: $17.20 for Bruschetta Cucco Panini and tots, Roadhouse: $18.44 for ricotta pancakes and OJ
Total time spent: 6 hours, 30 minutes
Total word count: 10,005

Day 2: 11/02/15, Monday
Location(s):
• Early at work 7:30AM – 8AM, 1k words
• At home 8PM – 8:45PM, 1004 words
Total time spent: 1 hour, 15 minutes
Total word count: 2104 words

Day 3: 11/03/15, Tuesday
Location(s):
• Early at work 7:20AM – 7:50AM, 1546 words
• Lunchtime at work 11:45AM-12:15PM, 983 words
• At Costco waiting for my new tires to be put on 7PM-7:45PM, 1425 words
Total time spent: 1 hour 45 minutes
Total word count: 3954 words

Day 4: 11/04/15, Wednesday
Location(s):
• Early at work 7:30AM – 8AM, 1391 words
• Neverending Bookstore write in 5PM – 5:40PM, 1500 words
Total time spent: 1 hour 10 minutes
Total word count: 2891 words

Day 5: 11/05/15, Thursday
Location(s):
• Early at work 7:20AM -7:50AM, 1148 words
• Spotted Cow 6:15PM – 7:45PM, 1683 words
Money spent: Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Gelato $3.50 from the Spotted Cow
Total time spent: 2 hours
Total word count: 2831 words

Day 6: 11/06/15, Friday
Location(s):
• Early at work 7:50AM -8AM, 698 words
• At home 7:40PM – 8:30PM, 2507 words
Total time spent: 1 hour
Total word count: 3205 words

Day 7: 11/07/15, Saturday
Location(s):
• Never ending bookstore write in 1-3PM, 3264 words
• St. James Espresso write in 6:30PM – 7:30PM, 1998 words
Money spent: Brew in Bothell peach and raspberry smoothie for $3.56 12 oz. and St. James chai tea latte for $4.25
Total time spent: 3 hours
Total word count: 5262 words

Nano November: Hallonanoween and other Costumed Parties

by in Local Events, NaNoWriMo and tagged , , , , , , , , ,

 

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I love costumes! My first “Halloween” costume of 2015 was my zombie Waldo for Thrill the World Redmond, WA. Though I didn’t win any prizes, I got to practice my zombie stare/zombie grunts/zombie walk/ and perform the Thriller with a bunch of other thrillingly dressed zombies. I also helped volunteer for the event. I plan on doing it all again next year!

Paul and Rachel made up as Derick Zoolander and Mugatu for a costume party.

For the Black Cat Bash in Seattle Studio 7 Paul and I dressed as Derek Zoolander and Mugatu. No, we didn’t win any costume contests here either, but we had such a fun time! It was a fun costume to craft and I love couple’s costumes!

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The third celebration was at Liquid Lime on 10/28, where I wore this funky number!

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The fourth and fourth and final celebrations took place on Halloween! As a National Novel Writing Participant, Halloween has become even more of an event for me as at the end of the night our kickoff begins. This year, as I’m in three different regions, I went to the kickoff party for Everett/Snohomish on Halloween during the day. The Hallonanoween celebration at St. James saw the second viewing of my donuts costume for the official Seattle event.

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I also wore the costume for the Time Warp re-kickoff for North Bend/Snoqualmie on the first of November at Fall City Roadhouse. I will wear this outfit to EVERY write in I attend! Yes to getting full money’s worth out of a sub ten dollar costume!

Photo by Sheri J. Kennedy

Photo by Sheri J. Kennedy

Seattle Specific Saturdays: 10/21 Author Book Release and Signing – N. Bend, WA Sheri J. Kennedy

by in Local Authors, Local Events, Seattle Specific Saturdays and tagged , | 6 Comments

Author Sheri J. Kennedy invites you to join her to Celebrate the Release of her third published novel, LIKENESS! There will be a Reading by the Author, Give-aways, and FREE CAKE! Books available for Signing, and will release same day on Amazon as paperback and Kindle. Come and celebrate this snappy contemporary novel that provides much to think about and plenty of humor as it considers the value of who we are.

RSVP here on the facebook event page

Where: Pioneer Cafe in NB   202 W North Bend Way, North Bend, Washington 98045

When: Wednesday October 21st 6PM

Who: Sheri J. Kennedy and her new book Likeness

*Stay tuned for Rachel Barnard’s review of Likeness on 10/22

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From the Amazon book description:

What if everyone became the same?… In LIKENESS, early millennium Seattle-based workers Charlie and Emmaline are thrust from their comfortable and quirky marketing department to the Worldwide Pharmaceutical Conference stage. They present their ad for a new drug, Assimilaire, that minimizes social anxiety by making one feel the same as those around them.
In a strange twist, a free sample causes the audience members to not only feel like, but to become like athletic geek Charlie and adventurous artist Emmaline.
Forced to stay at the conference by a bomb scare, the affected hotel guests are caught in a grand experiment and a madcap romp exposing the nature of similarity and difference.

This snappy contemporary novel provides much to think about and plenty of humor as it considers the value of who we are.

The Buzz from readers: “energetic, fun language made for a quick, happy read. BONUS: i quite liked the concept.”

“Emmaline is a strong business woman I could totally relate to. I fell in love with her!”

“Give me a good-sized dose of Charlie! Line up the pseudo-Charlies – but none is as charming as the original. Lucky Emmaline!”

“A great fiction read for the more philosophical or psychological leaning reader.”

“Never before has the impending apocalyptic dystopia been such an amusing romp.”

Seattle Specific Saturdays: AFK Renton Multi-Author Event Must Read! Today!

by in Free Valley Publishing, Local Authors, Local Eats, Local Events, Seattle Specific Saturdays and tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,

I love finding new local authors and Jeffrey Cook has set up another great AFK event you simply must check out! For more information, see the flyer below or visit the event’s facebook page here.

 

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Seattle Specific Saturdays: The Tomato Battle

by in Local Eats, Local Events, Seattle Specific Saturdays and tagged , ,

 

 

 

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Should you go to a tomato battle? The short answer: no. The long answer: if you don’t mind getting pelted in the face (ears, nose, cheeks, eyes, hair) and having dried fermenting/rotting tomato pieces all over your skin and hair, then maybe you might like the tomato battle.

Breakdown by:

price – The tomato battle started out around $29 for pre-registering. The price went up from there to end around $52 (day of). Then Groupon swooped in with a reduced price ($35). Even $29 is too much for this event. $29 is better spent at the ipic in Redmond or a live show at Laughs or The Village Theatre in Issaquah.

Time/Day/Date – This Battle fell on a boring Saturday (not much else going on) except for the fact that the weather kicked it up a gear and a full on windstorm was raging in the Seattle area. There were only around 500 people at the event (the website said 5,000 participants). The timing during the day was great, after lunch and before dinner. In the middle of any other thing you would have going on. Event started at 1PM. My buddies pictured above and below and I headed down to Seattle after 1PM and had an excellent meal at Pyramid Ale House (surprisingly no wait time) and meandered around back around 3:30PM in time to grab another beer/wine, check out the costume contest, chill and chat and spectate, and dance to a few songs.

Other entertainment – The music was not loud enough. The costume contest was rather lame (anything voted on by the audience who are somewhat drunk and non-serious is always, always super lame). The “beer” pong was impossible with the wind. I would not suggest showing up more than an hour before the battle as you will be impossibly anxious sitting (no seats so you’re standing) around waiting for the start time of the main event. I was glad that there was wine as well as beer for sale in the battle area.

Location – Pyrmaid Alehouse was a great central location in Seattle. There was plenty of cheap parking nearby (We paid $5). The alehouse was accommodating for our lunch date before the battle.

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Would I do it again? No.

Would I do it had I known all this before? Probably. It’s a one time gotta do it type thing. Like skydiving… Who does that more than once?

World Con is Here! And We are at World Con!

by in Local Events

So cool of FreeValley and NIWA to be at Worldcon.

freevalleypublishing's avatarFreeValley Publishing

It’s exciting to have World Con, aka Sasquan, nearby in Spokane, WA this year! There’s a great co-operative indie author book booth at Con, so be sure and check out the titles available from talented up and coming writers. FVP author Jeffrey Cook will be there to meet you.

Some of our FVP authors have books at the booth. Here are photos of the display taken and sent to us by a couple of our supporters…

Rachel's books - photo by Casondra Brewster Rachel’s books – photo by Casondra Brewster

David's books - photo by Thomas Alexander David’s books – photo by Thomas Alexander

Vicky's, Kennedy's, and some of Jeffrey's books - photo by Casondra Brewster Vicky’s, Kennedy’s, and some of Jeffrey’s books – photo by Casondra Brewster

Broad Table View - photo Casondra Brewster Broad Table View – photo Casondra Brewster

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Local Event: Destination Staycation at the AFK Renton, WA June 27

by in Local Authors, Local Eats, Local Events, Seattle Specific Saturdays and tagged , , , , , , , , ,

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8 local independent authors come together for one event. Selling and signing books all afternoon and evening.
AJ Downey, Sechin Tower, Lee French, Connie Jasperson, Lindsay Schopfer, Stephen Matlock, David Moore and Jeffrey Cook are the featured authors this time around.

Saturday, June 27
at 2:00pm – 9:00pm
Next Week · 90°F / 60°F Clear
AFK Elixirs & Eatery

3750 E Valley Rd, Renton, Washington 98055
I’m excited to see some authors I’ve been reading and meet some new ones! Who’s coming down for burgers, beers, and/or books???

Maple Valley Days!

by in Free Valley Publishing, Local Events, Maple Valley, Rachel Barnard, Seattle Specific Saturdays

What are you up to this weekend?

I hope you’re coming down to Maple Valley to support FreeValley Publishing at Maple Valley Days and get some great books!

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Maple Valley Days
06/12/15 – 06/14/15
Cost: Free
More Info

FreeValley Publishing will host a booth at the 2015 Maple Valley Days from June 12-14, 2015. Come visit the FVP booth and check out other Maple Valley local favorite vendors.

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Miscellaneous Mondays: Author Signing Event at St. James

by in Local Authors, Local Events, Miscellaneous Mondays and tagged , , ,

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Check us out! Two local authors meet at St. James Espresso in Kirkland 4/4/15.

I just finished her book and will be posting a review of her debut YA novel Sara Supernatural 4/23/15 so stay tuned.

For more information on Tiffany Belcher, check out her website: http://sarasupernatural.tateauthor.com/

 

What local authors have you met lately?