Diana Renn

Mysteries that Matter

Author

Launch Party #2 Recap, and Blue Voyage Giveaway Roundup!

by | Oct 19, 2015 | Blue Voyage, Blue Voyage book launch, Blue Voyage giveaways, Buttonwood Books, evil eye cake, nazar cake, Ohlins Bakery, Porter Square Books

An evil eye cake from Ohlin’s Bakery!

It was a busy weekend, celebrating BLUE VOYAGE’s launch! Many thanks to Porter Square Books in Cambridge for hosting the Evening Edition of my two-part release party!

And thank you to Ohlin’s Bakery in Belmont for a glorious and delicious cake! This cake represents a nazar, an evil eye charm to protect against the evil eye, so hopefully we all internalized a bit of good luck.

I know something was working for me on Friday because I got through the awful Friday traffic and found a parking spot right in front of the store!

I chose to have a nazar cake and to give out small evil eye beads for party favors because the evil eye protector is important in Turkish culture and very important to Zan in the book. (When she breaks a nazar bracelet, things start to get really tough for her!) (more…)

Author Events (and the importance of going)

by | Sep 29, 2015 | Ammi-Joan Paquette, author events, Brookline Booksmith, Josh Funk, Leila Sales, Porter Square Books

Ammi-Joan Paquette launches PRINCESS JUNIPER

Fall is upon us, and with it has come a whirlwind of author events, timed with the busy fall book release season! Summer can be a slow season for book promotion (trust me, I know, having promoted two books in the summer season) so for months I haven’t emerged from my writing cave or shed my pajama-like writing uniform. But suddenly friends’ books are all coming out in rapid succession, so this month I have stepped out!

I kicked off the book launch season by attending the Porter Square Books release party for Ammi-Joan Paquette’s great middle-grade adventure Princess Juniper of the Hourglass. The next week I attended a party for Josh Funk’s outstanding picture book, Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast. (There were pancake and French toast cookies, too, so if you missed this event, you really missed out). Days later, I went to the launch party for my very own editor, Leila Sales (also an acclaimed YA author!) who released her fourth YA novel,  Tonight the Streets Are Ours, at Brookline Booksmith. The very next day (whew!) I enjoyed an amazing talk and reading at Porter Square Books by my good friend (and writing group member) Patrick Gabridge, who was discussing his new historical novel Steering to Freedom. This Thursday I’m off to a public library event to see picture book author friend Debbie Sosin read from and talk about Charlotte and the Quiet Place, an important book for kids (well, for all of us!) about mindfulness in a busy world. (Too busy for book events? Maybe. But I’m mindfully trying to see as many as I can!)

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