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We hope everyone had a great Halloween! And for our readers in the US, we hope you all have a great Thanksgiving!
HallowCon Review
As we always do, we spent Halloween at HallowCon in Dalton, Georgia! It was wonderful to see everybody live and in-person again. Past Guest Author Stephanie Osborn graced us with some great scientific presentations. Author Brian K. Morris from Rising Tide Publications was one of our table-neighbors, and we had a great time hanging out with him and his lovely wife. The Oracle at Delphi game was a real hoot (again!), and the Trivia Game had some great players. We had a great event and sold more books, leather, and jewelry than we ever have! A big thanks to everyone that came out to see us! We look forward to seeing you on Halloween weekend next year!
Events for 2022
Speaking of conventions, we will be updating our calendar for 2022 in December's issue. We are excited to add some new events on top of our usual ones next year. We are growing!
At conventions, we try to find new authors for our Guest Author feature. As part of our mission to inspire deep reading and writing, we search for new (or new-to-you) and exciting books and genres for our readers to explore. I met this month's Guest Author, Larry Simpson, at Next Chapter in October, along with several other future GAs.
Funkey Munkey Market Update
We are also growing our bricks-and-mortar presence over at the Funkey Munkey Market at NorthGate Mall in Chattanooga, TN. We have a vendor booth there for our leather and chain maille. Last month we had a Demo Day during which we demonstrated our skills to mall shoppers. We had a blast meeting new people and presenting our crafts. We're planning a few more dates for the holiday season:
Saturday, November 13 10 AM - 5 PM
Saturday, December 11 10 AM - 5 PM
Sunday, December 19 10 AM / mall open - 5 PM
If you're in the area, drop by and see us! The Funkey Munkey hosts a wide variety of artists and crafters and will be open extended hours during the holiday shopping season.
The Holidaze
Supply chain insanity got you down? Let's remember the reason for the season and enjoy precious time with those we love. Time and attention are great gifts that we all need right now. If you need to spice it up with a little goodie for your sweetie, though, take a look at your local craft markets... we have goodies!
Don't forget... people love food! Homemade cookies, fudge, candy (buckeyes!) are a big hit in my family. Home-blended seasoning mixes, dry soup mixes, and drink mixes (like Russian tea with Tang -- yum!) in decorative jars are also a lot of fun. Just search for "gifts in a jar" using your favorite search engine for lots of fun ideas. If the store is short on jars (and some might be), a zippy plastic bag will do in a pinch. I've received mixes as gifts this way before, and they were a lot of fun.
Digital products have a completely different supply chain, so keep them in mind if you get in a tight spot. From ebooks (yes, shameless plug!) to mp3s, films, streaming service gift cards, digital patterns on sites like Etsy & Ravelry for the knitter in your life, fonts and graphics for the Cricut fanatic on sites like Creative Fabrica, there are many ways to share your blessings at the end of the year. I have a feeling that there will be a lot of gift cards in Christmas stockings this year...
I hope this helps! I wish everyone health and happiness here at the end of a crazy year. I hope you get to spend time with those you love and enjoy some great Sweater Weather!
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