tiffanyshearn

Not Alright

The last month or so has been a significant struggle for me. I have felt overwhelmed, depressed, and at a loss for how to move forward. Many factors have contributed to the situation, and not all are entirely negative. The combination has driven me to the point where my emotional cup is full and every additional trigger sends it overflowing.

I’m working through the challenges. My husband has been an immense pillar of support, taking on more in the home and providing administrative support for the business. He and my sister were also extremely helpful with the Renaissance Faire over the last three weekends. I would not be where I am today without their help and support.

My blog posts and social media have not been as reliably regular as in the past. The timing will continue to be a bit sparse for a while longer. Something has to give while I recover my time, but it will not last forever.

To shift my focus, I want to highlight a few of the good things that have happened recently.

The Renaissance Faire was an immense success. I met many wonderful people and received overwhelmingly positive feedback on my books. On top of the faire, I have also received five more reviews on Amazon, hitting the fifty mark, and more people are reading through the series.
My business is going well in most areas. While I have felt back at square one, it is well beyond that point with potential upside remaining.
I took some time last weekend for myself. I went to a family lunch, watched TV, sat with my cats, and made some jam.

I will continue to push forward, focus on the positive, and take my counselor’s advice to apply the skills for emotional management. One day at a time, I will work to get back on track and find my balance. In the meantime, everyone please give my alpha readers some encouragement as they work through the draft of Hidden Strength.

(If you are curious about the muffin picture, I have also treated myself to chocolate muffins.)

2023 Ren Faire Moments

The Washington Midsummer Renaissance Faire is the first three weekends in August. While this might feel a bit premature to highlight some of my favorite moments, I will probably do a full Ren Faire review next week after it is all over. I’ll include any additional excitement in that one.

The Superfan

A young person working at a food stand for the fair walked past the first day just after opening. We snagged her with our stellar sales shouts, and she spared a few moments before her shift to come over and chat about my books. She was excited about them and said she would talk to her dad about getting them.

I underestimated the level of excitement, though. Over the first two days of the faire, she stopped by a few times, as did her dad. He works at the faire and wanted to make sure we would still be there other weekends or at least have enough on Sunday for them to buy a set.

He made a brief stop on Sunday and paid in advance so I could sign them for her when she came by after her shift. With her personalized books in hand, she stuck around for a while longer to chat and talk about how excited she was to read them. Sticking around could be problematic, but she did a wonderful job of letting us continue to sell and interact with other customers.

All respect for this young lady, and I hope she enjoys them even half as much as she anticipated.

On a Mission

I mentioned this one on Facebook already, so act surprised.

Having just finished a sale and signing, I turned to the next person in line holding one of my books. I thought it was the one my husband had been using to wave at the passing crowds. We tend to hold a copy of Hidden Memory so we can hand it to people for them to read the back.

“What are we doing for you?” I asked.

“Oh, I was just hoping you could sign this,” she replied, holding up a copy of Hidden Promise.

It took my brain a moment to process the sequence of events and associated possibilities. Did someone hand her the third book by accident? What did she mean by just the signature? I recovered quickly enough with a big grin.

Someone liked my books so much they did not want to wait for the faire to get the next in the series, but they still wanted the signature. That someone would bring a book to an event specifically for me to sign made me feel, for a little while, that I had made an impression.

Real-Time Feedback

During the days of weekend two, a few people who purchased books during the first stopped by to tell me how they, their friend, their child, or another person for whom they bought the book was loving it and could not put it down. A handful of people have also messaged me on social media with similar messages. One told me she regretted only picking up the first while she was at the fair, and that she already ordered book two.

Another two reviews have also already come in on Amazon, and I hope to see a few more. I’m up to 45 on Hidden Memory, which is so close to my goal for the year.

More to Come

I also got my hair braided, braved the extreme heat, and shipped a lost book to the person who bought it from me. Someone turned the book into lost and found, so that was wonderful of them. I will try to do better at getting some pictures next time, but no promises.

Stay cool out there, friends!

Renaissance Faire 2023

My blog posts are going to be a bit sporadic this month. During the week, I’m covering for some people out at work. On the weekends, I’m putting in twelve-hour days in Monroe selling books at the Washington Midsummer Renaissance Faire.

Due to a horrid confluence of logistical nightmares brought upon by the increasing popularity of the event, it moved up north to Sky Meadows Park in Snohomish this year. The location is larger, and the event will only use a portion of it this year and next with plans to grow. It has closer freeway access to simplify the in and outbound traffic. Finally, they capped ticket sales and are not selling onsite to prevent exceeding safety capacity.

There remain challenges. The walkways could use some straw laid down and dampened each morning. They have a water truck drive through in the mornings, but the dirt paths are dry again by midday and the pedestrian traffic kicks up a fair amount of dust. People are still complaining about the food lines, but there are more vendors this year, and I would estimate the lines are about the same during peak times with more downtime to take advantage of.

As of this week, all remaining days of the faire are sold out. Hopefully, there will be more capacity next year, and anyone left out this year will look to buy tickets early. I’m excited to see the coming growth and to be a part of it.

With that, it is back to work for me. I will try to get some pictures this weekend and share some moments sometime next week. Maybe I will even post my first TikTok video in nearly a year from my tent.

Huzzah!

World Cup 2023 Begins!

How many nights in a week can I go with only three hours of sleep? We might find out in the coming month with the world cup being played in New Zealand and Australia. The majority of the games are scheduled to start between midnight and three AM in my local time zone. I should be grateful the times are not during the work day. I don’t think I could spare the time away to watch at all if they were.

The first US game was Friday early evening against Vietnam. While I don’t think this US team has the same flare as the one in 2019, they are still fun to watch. The rest of the world is also catching up in quality, which is making for much closer matches than in the past. It’s exciting to see the progress of women’s soccer, and I hope that starts to better translate to things like jersey availability, broadcast contracts, and especially pay.

For the group stage, I have the US, Canada, and England on my calendar for reminders, and then all the games in the knockout round. A handful of players from the OL Reign were called up for the world cup to play for their countries, so I’m excited to see what they can do there before coming back to Seattle for the remainder of the NWSL season.

Rapinoe is still my favorite. She brings such energy to the game right along with her attitude. She might be younger than me, but I still want to be her when I grow up. The combination of confidence and consideration in the face of the vehemence she far too often receives is reflective of inner strength I can only imagine.

On the field, I would have liked to have seen more shots on target for the US. Given the control, opportunities, and skill, you would expect more fireworks. Vietnam put up a good effort, but it couldn’t stop the shots from eventually chipping away. That PK was weak though, so work on getting more power behind those.

Canada and England’s games were a bit lackluster with great showings by their opponents. No big upsets as there were at the men’s tournament late last year in the group stage, but the heavy hitters have some things to think about and kinks to work out.

The next US game is against the Netherlands on July 26th at 6 PM PST. It is one of the last chances to watch a game at a reasonable time of day in the Americas. The game will also be a test for the US with their opponent ranked fifth by FIFA. Other top-ranked teams have yet to play their first game, so I’m excited to see what the tournament has in store.

Catch the action on various FOX channels in the US and support your favorite players.

Hidden Promise in KU!

Earlier this week, I pushed the button that shifted Hidden Promise, the third installment in the Hidden series, over to Kindle Unlimited. After a dip in April, I saw an uptick in page reads for the first two books in the series over the last couple of months, so if you have been waiting for the KU release, it has officially arrived!

The first three books are all available on Amazon in ebook, paperback, and now on KU. When you finish each one, please take a moment to leave a rating/review to help others find the series.

Happy reading before the World Cup starts!