Tuesday, February 7, 2012

My weekend at the Glendale Chocolate Affaire - by Vijaya Schartz

Each year, on the first weekend of February, for the past twenty years or so, the City of Glendale sponsors the world renowned Chocolate Affaire, a festival of chocolate and romance, with music, art, food vendors, carriage rides through the Historic District, and many other attractions. And, of course, lots and lots of chocolate. Even chocolate pizza.

The local romance authors are invited each year to display and autograph their books, since romance and chocolate go hand in hand. I've been signing my novels at this event since my first book came out in 2000.

The Cerreta Chocolate and Candy Factory in Glendale is one of the sponsors, and they are always friendly to us authors. Each year I go home with a basket of candy, fudge, and chocolate. Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Cerreta.

This year, we even had the famous Romance Cover Model Jimmy Thomas, who showed off his gorgeous physique and graciously let visitors take pictures of him and with him for free. He will also participate in the ARIZONA DREAMIN' Romance Readers Convention in Phoenix the first weekend of June. Don't miss this if you love to read romance.

With my paperbacks now mostly out of print, I still get to participate and sign rare copies of my books. I thoroughly enjoy talking to loyal readers, who, year after year, come to chat and ask me about my next releases.

For those who still do not read electronic books, I was happy to announce the release this spring of WHITE TIGER, the first book in the CHRONICLES OF KASSOUK series, for the first time in paperback from Desert Breeze Publishing. I'm very excited about this upcoming release. It's been a while since one of my titles came out in print.

But nowadays, we chat a lot with the readers about eBooks. It's amazing how this year most readers I asked did own a kindle, a nook, or an ipad. And those who didn't have one still read eBooks on their phone or on their computer. And the rest mostly said they hadn't made the switch to eBooks yet, but were thinking about it.

This is great news for us authors who already committed to the future of books. EBooks are here to stay, and the proof is in the pudding.

Wishing you all good health, happiness and success.

Vijaya Schartz
Blasters, Guns, Swords, Cats, Romance with a Kick
http://www.vijayaschartz.com/

Find my books by clicking on the links at the top right, or download for your kindle directly from the revolving banner.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Great post! I love the theme. I also enjoyed your comments on the ebook industry. I've wondered how it's done at an event when an author doesn't have a book 'in hand' to promo. Chatting up the iPad, kindle or nook, seems like a great way to bridge that gap.

Janice Seagraves said...

Oh, Chocolate and the delectable Jimmy. *drool* Sounds like a lot of fun.

Janice~

Vijaya Schartz said...

Thanks, J.A.. And Janice, I'm adding a picture of Jimmy for you to drool all over.

Angela Britnell said...

What a great event - can't go wrong with such a winning combination

Laurel Hawkes said...

Great overview of the event! There were a few workshops as well. Love the pictures!

Stephanie Burkhart said...

Jimmy and Chocolate? what more does a girl need? Thanks for sharing Vijaya. I loved the pictures.

Smiles
Steph

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