I'm a winner!

Happy Monday, all. Did you have a nice weekend? It was a lovely, albeit slightly blustery, weekend here in MN. Basically this just means I spent all day Sunday raking and bagging leaves (10 bags total) and capped off my efforts with a yummy pot of turkey chili, a horrendous Vikings game, and an early trip to bed.

Right now, I'm planning something for next week and it's going to be big. Epic. So amazing that I'm already kind of freaking myself out, but that's okay. It will all be worth it. All will be revealed in time. But you know how the Muppets would run amok, waving their hands above their heads while screaming AAARRRRGGGGHHHH? Yeah, that's me right now. In a good way. Stay tuned.

On Saturday, I attended the Twin Cities Book Expo. It's in its 11th season but clearly I wasn't paying any attention because this was the first I've heard of it. My writing group met at the ungodly hour of 8:30am for breakfast, then carpooled to the expo.

Some highlights (more to come on these, hopefully soon):

• A mystery writer's panel including Erin Hart
• Oodles (and I do mean oodles) of hand outs from small publishers
• A jolt of creative writing time while shoving a string cheese and chocolate chip muffin down the hatch for lunch. (What diet?)
• And last, but not least, seeing this guy speak:

source

Why yes, that is Kevin Sorbo, aka Hercules. And no, thankfully he did NOT wear that ensemble to his talk. 

All jokes aside, I was impressed. I went into the little auditorium unsure of what to expect. Was this going to be some arrogant actor telling us how his life was so hard? 

Well, color me a fool. He was there to promote his new autobiography, "True Strength: My Journey from Hercules to Mere Mortal--and How Nearly Dying Saved My Life." You can learn more, here.

Not only was he an articulate and down-to-earth speaker, he was likable. He was funny. And yeah, he's not unattractive, either. :) If the book wasn't so expensive to buy on site and the line so long for an autograph, I would've considered it. Who knew? I'm a closet fangirl!

But Trish, I can hear you asking. What did you win?

Ah, yes. I happily registered for any drawing I could enter since I think the idea of free books is pretty darn cool. Today I had an email from Llewellyn|Midnight Ink|Flux. Looks like I won a set of TRUE GHOST books along with THE GHOST HUNTER'S FIELD GUIDE.

Just in time for Halloween, sweet! Um, maybe here is where I should mention that I really hate to be scared. I'm not sure if these books are the right fit for me, but I did just say I liked free books. I'll try to read a bit of them and report back, but only until I have my first scary dream. Then I'm out.

And sad... I just found out Brian Selznick is speaking around here at 6pm tonight. I have no chance of making it even though I am fascinated (and slightly intimidated) by his new book, Wonderstruck. If you've read this, please let me know what you think. The book is STUNNING and makes me want to read it immediately.