Octoberween

Last year, I regaled you with all the great stuff that makes October my favorite month of the year.

You'll be glad to know my adoration of October continues unabated. In fact, I find myself reaching unprecedented levels of sentiment for this, the tenth month of our calendar year. I have new reasons to add to the list of why October will forever be tops in my heart.

*ding*

On the fifteenth of the month, my debut novel, Once a Duchess, will be released. That's one week from today. ONE WEEK. Resisting... urge... to... link... Barenaked Ladies... You might imagine I'm rather excited about this. You would imagine correctly. Gold star for you!

Then, on the twenty-third, I'll be participating in a free online webinar hosted by Crimson Romance, "Celebrating Historical Romance." Three historical romance authors, including myself, will chat about why we love the genre, and we'll answer your questions, too! Please sign up and join us for what will surely be a great time to be had by all.

Know what else you can do in October?
Stomp a grape. Don't even pretend you
aren't dying to try that.

I've even been invited to participate in a career fair, discussing novelist-as-career with a couple thousand high school students. Not that they'll all want to talk to me. But still. Big doings!

When I look at these things looming on my imminent horizon, it seems as though I'm actually a wee bit legitimate. I have a fledgling career. I'll always remember October as the month in which my professional life as a writer began.

There's a sense of rightness to that, as October is my birth month. I'll be celebrating my birthday just a couple days after the release of my novel. You better believe I'll be drunk on cake all next week.

All the other great October things are still a go, too. The weather is turning cooler. It was a bit nippy here this morning. Most of the leaves are stubbornly retaining their chlorophyll, but there are a few hints of gold and burnt orange foliage here and there, a tantalizing flash of ankle before the full riotous can-can of autumn is unleashed. Germany did not stop brewing beer in the last year, thank goodness, so Oktoberfest season is safe. Candy corn is on the shelves, and pumpkin has infused everything worth consuming. October is so darn tasty.

Yes, friends, October is treating me well. I hope yours is progressing in a likewise satisfactory fashion. Get out there and pick an apple and inhale the crisp air and raise a stein to the greatest month.

Cake.