Writer-palooza!

It’s been nonstop, writing-related activities around here … and the forecast is more of the same! I’ll be putting tons of pictures up on facebook, so friend me there if you haven’t already, but I want to give you a taste of what the life of a (not so) famous author is like. 🙂

Valentine’s weekend, I was very whiny–I mean wine-y. My Pendleton book signing back in December netted a connection, my mother’s friend’s friend, who owns a local winery. Plum Hill Vineyards celebrated its anniversary with live music, free food, a $5 tasting fee to try all ten wines, and a signing table of local authors. Perhaps next time they won’t put a grazing clutch of authors by the food table, but Barbara, Mary Jane, and I had a great time sampling the fare between costumers. Everyone was in great moods with high “spirits” so the two days of signing went extremely quickly. Now I have an idea for a romance that begins with the season’s plantings in March and heats up during the first “crush” in the fall …

Ever heard someone complain about an occurance in a novel being too coincidental? Well, isn’t that how real life is? My beau, Darren, and I hadn’t been at the vineyard for more than fifteen minutes when I recognized a voice coming toward us from the hallway. Three women walked in and gathered around the food table. I sidled over to Darren and whispered, “Either that’s Kevin’s girlfriend or it’s her twin sister.”

Which sounds facetious, but isn’t, because she really does have an identical twin!

I awkwardly gave a few half waves before finally asking if she was (okay, I’m going to use a fake name for her to protect her privacy … not that I would ever say anything bad about her, but it seems the right thing to do …) Sarah.

“No, I’m Susie, her twin. (another alias)” She reaches out to shake my hand. “Who are you?”

Giggling, I manage to say, “I’m Christina Berry, Kevin’s ex-wife.”

How surreal! We all laughed and chatted for awhile. They bought a few copies of my book–having me sign it to “my favorite twin”–and  even signed up for the infrequent, humorous newsletter like all of you should. Here’s a pic of us all. 🙂

Also had a surprise visit from a former tutoree of mine. We worked her math out from 6th grade through her senior year. She’s now graduated from college and amazed me by being all grown up. Katie, I’m so proud of you!

 

 

Today my friend and fellow writer, Judy Gann, drove down from Seattle to stay the weekend. We’ll be at the Oregon Christian Writers conference all day tomorrow, then at the American Christian Fiction Writers meeting Monday night, where Judy is speaking. Whew! I <3 being a writer! Of course, there are the usual internet appearances. Yet they are unusual in content, so I hope you check them out. Moody’s Fiction blog features my humorous look at techniques for kicking writer’s block to the curb.

Nora St. Laurent conducted a fabulously fun interview with me. She’ll draw a winner from the comments on the 20th, so hop on over!

I tend to skip setting description in novels, so I was especially interested in the quote used for this review on Love to Paint.

From Heart of a Bookworm names The Familiar Stranger as one of her favorite books!