Renaissance Bru and book release goodies questions!

Lady Barnacle and Sir Bub had an awesome time.

We've been busy here in the Baker household with the start of school and the weekly October birthdays, but I'm finally out from under the stress of planning an enormous joint birthday party for the kiddos that involved taking twenty children and their adults to a Renaissance Faire a few towns over. Needless to say, the momentous occasion of the Barnacle turning 4 and the Bub turning 7 was feted with appropriate grandeur. For reasons I still don't understand, I found it necessary to not only make elaborate favors for all the guests but also make my own costume. It's important to note that I'm deathly afraid the sewing machine my in-laws gave me a few Christmases ago, so I made my costume with hot glue. And it rained all day. I count myself very lucky that my costume didn't disintegrate...but what a story that would have been, eh?

I've been lazy about blog and website upkeep in between frantic birthday planning. It's hard to type with hot glue burns on your fingertips, anyway. Plus I was busy getting Island House through its final edits, redesigning my web banners, and writing a few new things that are in the submission pipeline now. But think of it this way: radio silence from me usually means more books are on the way! And look, you get a picture of adorable children and me and Hubs making fools of ourselves to make up for it. *g*

On that note, I'm pleased to announce that even though my holiday novella wasn't picked up for Dreamspinner Press' Advent Calendar this year, it was contracted as a stand-alone release in December 2014. Delayed gratification, thy name is Late Bloomer. It'll be worth the wait, I promise! I'll also have a few more future release announcements later in the month.

I'm also ramping up for release parties  and general hullabaloo for next month's release of my first novel, Island House. I'll be doing a release party on Dreamspinner Press' blog and probably taking over its Twitter for a bit, so I'm looking for ideas from you about what you as a reader look for in a release extravaganza. Do you like contests to win a free copy of the book? Do you want book-related swag? Charm bracelets? Gift cards? Post cards and magnets with pretty men on them? Posts introducing the characters? Snippets that didn't make it into the book?

Throw me some ideas for what YOU'D like to see happen during release week for Island House. This is my first book in paperback, and I'm excited to do it up right!