Gearing Up for the Holiday Season

At BookLocker, we’re smack dab in the middle of our busiest time of the year. Everybody, of course, wants their book published by Christmas. We usually get a book to market within a month so the last-minute authors are flooding us with their manuscripts right now. Shwew!! Also, it seems the bad economy is hurting our expensive competitors. Authors don’t want to spend thousands at one of the large POD publishers for something they can get for $317-$492 at BookLocker.com (and the most popular POD publishers use the same printer!). So, that’s adding to my workload as well. It sure is fun!

While it’s difficult working about 16 hours a day right now, I am still trying to take Sundays off. I did just that last weekend. Unfortunately, it rained all weekend long. (I’m writing this on Monday night and it’s STILL raining!) It’s almost Thanksgiving so we’re ready for snow…but God keeps sending rain. That’s okay. We know he’ll send a couple of blizzards our way in the coming weeks. We did have a few flurries one night last week but they didn’t stick…so they didn’t count. In fact, if Alyssa hadn’t glanced outside at just the right time, we’d have missed them.

This is also the time of year when I start getting nervous about the annual Christmas photo of the kids. Tradition dictates me dragging the reluctant children (aged 28 months to 22 years) outside during the first snowfall of the season. They then all force smiles and try to keep their eyes open while snowflakes are hitting them in the face (which is not easy!). There’s also the stress of knowing it just might not snow before Christmas. That’s the part that worries me the most each year!

Two years ago, we didn’t have any snow before Christmas. While bemoaning the fate of my Christmas cards that year, my friend and graphic designer, Corey LaFlamme, offered to add snow to the Christmas picture for us. Perfect! I dragged the children outside and took the annual photo. I then sent it to Corey. She did her magic and sent back the photo with not only snow, but an iceberg and penguins, too! It was hilarious! It was so professional that the clerk at the local photo place thought it was real (No kidding! She looked a bit sheepish when I told her it was fake.), and then told me I had to get a release from the designer before they’d print my pictures (which I did, of course).

Anyway, I’m watching the weather forecast and, if we don’t have snow by the end of the month, I’ll be asking Corey for help again this year.

This week’s Maxism:

While reading a story to Max and Mason at bedtime one night last week, Max got up and said, “Can you pause it? I have to go to the bathroom.”

Hugs to all!

Angela

P.S. WANT A GREAT CHRISTMAS GIFT IDEA? How to Reborn a Doll in a Day by Angela Hoy. See pics here:
https://www.writersweekly.com/books/1670.html

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