2025 Was so much fun!
It was the year of panel participation.
The year before I sat on my very first author panels, and to be honest, I was very nervous and full of imposter syndrome. Thankfully that was at Fall in Love New England with their friendly staff and willingness to take a chance on me. Add in the other supportive authors, I survived. Here I am nervous as can be!
The 2025 Author appearance season started off with a huge bang-a panel on Romantasy at Barnes and Noble with other authors from the CT chapter of RWA. They are a great and supportive group of authors. At this appearance I enjoyed hearing from the more prolific authors so much I almost forgot what I wanted to say!
From big box to public library- a large panel discussing summer romance reads. Again, listening to the other authors was worth the trip!
With all this new experience and a higher comfort with panel participation, I joined in on several author panels at Fall in Love New England in October. I even moderated one. That one took a fun twist! It was about developing a character’s personality. Cheri Allan, Christine Donovan, and Lori DiAnni joined me. Near the end I displayed a picture of a man and a woman. The audience was encouraged to suggest personalty traits. It got loud and fun and before it ended we had a whole plot drawn up that was filled with intrigue, surprise twists and naughty romance. Loved it!
Author Signing Events
Meeting Readers and learning from them is the main reason I attend author signing events. That may sound like an expected response, but I really mean it. I’m a people person. I’m still suffering from author imposter syndrome, so I may get shy about talking about my books, but anything else, I am game.
The highlights of 2025:
At a large town green summer fair, I was part of a larger state based author signing appearance. They assigned me a table between a memoir writer and a children’s book writer. Hmm, naughty between sweet! Because my covers are bright and next to kid-lit, I had several girls come over to my display. Sorry girls, not old enough! But I gave them innocent buttons with my innocent artwork. One girl returned later wearing my button and asked if she could have one for her cousin. Sure. She scooped up a handful and ran off. I guess she had a lot of cousins! HaHa!
Romanticonn in CT is run by Kitty Berry and she does a great job. Each year she adds more fun for Reader participation. It was my first year as a signing author and she and her staff made me feel very welcome. And I always enjoy displaying and talking about my cover art.
The signing event, Getting Witchy With It in Salem is fun. The year before I was an art vendor, this year as an author. The nice side treat to this event, is visiting Salem MA before the huge crowds do. My daughter-in-law attends with me and we turn it into a spooky fun mini vacation. Each year we check out new historical and movie favorite spots. Did you know the 1600s village shown in the beginning of a certain witch movie exists? Put on a costume and take some pictures. For a full list of favorite places to visit in Salem, be looking for a new post later in the year.
My most enjoyable author event is Fall in Love New England in October in MA. It runs the full weekend with many panels for Readers to get up close with Authors, then lunches and parties! This year I sponsored a themed lunch table and boy did I enjoy my tablemates company! Of course it was witch/Halloween themed and required a craft activity-. I each person a witch hat to decorate. So fun! Oh, and a wonderful thing happened, a Reader stopped me in the lobby. She had a copy of my book and asked me to sign it. I was so humbled and shocked, I apologize for being tongue tied! Yep, still working on being seen as an official author. Thank you so much for seeking me out. It meant the world to me!
Ending the year was a signing event at a college. It was in a gym that had a sectioned off area where a gymnastics tournament was finishing up. The sudden bursts of cheers was perfect! I wanted to somehow do a video with the cheers adding to it.
2025 was a great year of learning how to put myself out there as an author. 2026 has already started with two signing events and more to come. I hope our paths cross at one!
See you soon! Archer Atwood!
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This article is copyrighted 2026 Archer Atwood. All images and words are protected. No AI was used in writing this article-just me! Links to this article are welcome with credit to the author.