It’s been a great outdoor bookselling season.

My final outdoor event of 2022 is one I’m the most excited about: Downtown Thursday on North Cedar Ave. in Owatonna. When? Thursday, August 4, 5-8:30 pm. Why am I excited? Because our downtown street renovation is almost finished! This will be the first chance for many residents to see up close the brand new stretch of three blocks that is more pedestrian friendly and will allow for many more pleasant outdoor dining options. In addition, our new hotel, a Marriot Courtyard, will have its grand opening that day. I have a feeling that the new hotel, combined with the refreshed and relandscaped street, and hopefully another new restaurant in the 200 block with revitalize the heart of downtown Owatonna and will make it an excellent draw for food, arts, shopping, and culture in southern Minnesota.

Downtown Thursday is a casual street fair featuring music concerts, food trucks, restaurants, shopping, and vendors like me who sell their arts and crafts or other merchandise. It’s a great venue for people watching and a great way to socialize and get the flavor of downtown Owatonna. I hope you’ll come to Owatonna and find me under my white canopy doing my thing. I’d love to meet you and perhaps sell you a signed copy of one or all of my books.

COMING EVENTS

• THURSDAY, AUGUST 4, 5:00 pm- 8:30 pm. Downtown Thursdays, North Cedar Ave, Owatonna MN
• FRIDAY, AUGUST 12, 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM. Beagle and Wolf Books & Bindery, Park Rapids MN.
• SATURDAY, AUGUST 13, 9 am – 3 pm. Northwoods Art & Book Festival. Hackensack MN

A New Option for Reading Dangerous Straits

Some of you may know that my first two books have been available at participating Minnesota libraries through Indie Minnesota. It’s a collection of books from local indie authors available exclusively on the BiblioBoard Library mobile and web platform. This collection is available to patrons of participating libraries in MN. Now I’m pleased to announce that Dangerous Straits is also available through Indie Minnesota.

So if you’re budget doesn’t allow you to purchase books and you prefer reading eBooks, you can borrow an e-version of Dangerous Straits from your participating MN library for free. “Not fair to me?” I hear you ask. Relax. I don’t lose a book sale. Actually, I receive a small commission periodically from BiblioBoard based on the number of borrows there have been for each book. It’s a win-win situation. Click on the Indie Minnesota logo below to borrow a copy of Dangerous Straits in electronic form.

New in 2022, find the e-book version at:  

Not Just Events

I have some favors to ask of you, my loyal readers and followers.

Brainstorming help

I’m looking for a surname that lends itself to teasing, funny rhymes and/or associations, and nicknames that adolescents might use to tease or humiliate a kid who has that last name. An example might be something like: Carter (the farter); Monk (the skunk); etc. I have one I’m using for my work in progress, but I think there’s something better out there. If you have an idea, please submit it in the comments below or email me at chrisnorburywriter@gmail.com. If I use your suggestion, I may give you a shout-out in the Acknowledgments section of the book.

Ongoing requests and ways you can help sales and by extension help Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southern MN. Remember I donate $1 to BBBS for each book of mine I sell.

1. Keep those beach-read photos coming in of you or a friend enjoying one of my books on your favorite beach, pool deck, lake cabin dock, cozy fireplace in winter, or any other place that you love to settle down and read a good page-turner like Straight River, Castle Danger, or Dangerous Straits. If it’s a good photo and in good taste, I’ll post it on social media and on my website, and you’ll get 15 minutes of fame (and help me sell books!)
2. Thanks for all the reviews. I’m getting a few every week or two, which is great. Slow and steady wins the race. I’d especially like reviews for Dangerous Straits so it can catch up to my first two books. Reviews don’t need to be long or detailed or masterpieces of literary review, just honest. Preferred sites to post reviews are Goodreads.com, Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com, and Bookbub.com. Once at the site, just do a search for the book title and then follow the links to post a review for that book. Thanks.