Many apologies, blog friends… I shared my “Thank Yous” on social media, but have been delayed in sharing them here! I know some of you steer clear of the “books of faces” and “threads” and “x’s” and such… so here were my thoughts just following our weekend together…

Dearest Lovelies

Now that I’ve had a bit of time to sleep and rest up a bit — I have some things to say about this year’s Coastal Magic Convention.

First, though, for anyone who wasn’t aware, and to update those who knew and have very sweetly been asking — my dad is doing much better, and is on the road to recovery. He was taken to the hospital by ambulance on Wednesday night, just as Dolorianne and I were about to head to the hotel for this weekend’s event. She went to be with him and other family at the hospital, and I came to Daytona. Thank you to everyone who prayed and sent their best wishes to him and our family. I’m so thankful that they were able to be there with him, even though I was not. They were absolutely missed at the event, but they were absolutely where they needed to be.

This was a tough one for me. The community of readers and authors who knew what was happening and stepped up to be supportive in so many ways fills my heart with gratitude. Kind words, making sure I ate, helping with prep and projects… I genuinely can’t thank you enough.

One of our first batches of “Thank You”s goes to our volunteers – including our Blogger/MODs and members of our Reading Challenge, among others.

Our Blogger/MODs have been working to promote Coastal Magic since June, and thanks their efforts then, and during our weekend, I hope each author felt they had an opportunity to reach new readers. Coastal Magic wouldn’t work without the time and dedication from these incredible friends. And you should DEFINITELY check out their blogs – really great stuff for book lovers!! Laura, Jay, Jennie, FranJessca, Crystal, Amber, PJ, Scherry, and Jen, thank you.
(And huge thanks to Gail, Nancy, and Sarah for stepping in to fill an MOD spot when we needed it. )

Reading Challenge peeps.
Rock. Stars.

What you accomplish every year is absolutely staggering. Your support of Coastal Magic, and each of our authors, is inspiring. I love the community you have created, and that the doors to that community remain open and inviting. Thank you for your enthusiasm, your unwavering support, and all the amazing experiences you create – both before and during our weekend together. Dolorianne, this group you ushered into existence is everything you envisioned and more. Thank you for all the hard work you put into making the challenge such an integral, defining part of our event.

Coastal Magic begins and ends with the stories and storytellers.

All the ideas I have for a fun weekend would go absolutely nowhere without our Featured Authors and our reader attendees.

Authors – for your words, for your time, for your engagement with our attendees – thank you. To say we wouldn’t have an event without you seems so obvious, but it’s much more than just having authors show up, do a job, and go home. Thank you to each of you who genuinely SHOWS UP for our readers. Your willingness to go above and beyond, long before we meet up in Daytona, make this event so, so magical. I hope you understand how much you mean to all of us. I hope you get as much out of our weekend together as we do.

Readers – for your support, for your continued dedication – even under crazy circumstances (Covid, hurricanes, etc.), for your excitement and enthusiasm – thank you. This weekend is made for you. I hope you had fun!! I hope you found some amazing new-to-you authors to love. I hope you connected with old friends and made new ones!! I hope we helped to fuel your love of stories and storytellers for another year.

The Shores Resort & Spa made a place for us when our original hotel informed us that they weren’t going to reopen on time. The Shores already had a full weekend of events, yet they made it work. Their staff was helpful and friendly, and their event reps bent over backwards and sideways to make our weekend successful.

I could not have asked for a better team for this weekend, both professionally and personally. Huge thanks to MacKenzie, Larry, Rose, Donna, April, and the rest of the crew that took such fantastic care of us.

The more I think about this year’s Coastal Magic, and the more comments I read from authors & readers from the weekend — the more I think this was one of our very best weekends. Not without the occasional hiccup, of course (some bigger than others), but overall.

I’m really pretty proud of our group, and so happy that so many people had such a great time.

I only took a few pics — so here are some of mine, and some others that I snagged.

And… in case you missed it…

# CMCon25 will be back at the lovely

Shores Resort & Spa

in Daytona Beach Shores on

on February 20-23, 2025

Our Featured Author Reveal,
The 2025 Reading Challenge season, and Weekend Registration
all start on June 1st!!

See you There!!! ❤

Just a quick note…

If you have registered to attend the 2024 Coastal Magic Convention, please check your email for the room block link at The Shores Resort & Spa. I will not be posting the link publicly, just so I can make sure ONLY registered attendees are using our block for the benfits.

All details you’ll need to get your room are there, along with who to contact at the hotel if you have any questions, would like an upgrade, or have any issues using the reservation link.

Can’t wait to see everyone in February!!

If you have NOT registered to attend our weekend — please be sure to do so ASAP! We have a limited number of full weekend registrations available!

Hello, my book lovelies!!
Can you belive it’s almost the end of September!!!!
And even more mind-boggling…
Can you believe we’re halfway through this “season” leading up to Coastal Magic in February!!!

This feels like a good time to run through a few reminders & updates for anyone who may have missed things along the way in our previous blogs, social media, and/or newsletters. And — share some info about a fun contest for readers, coming up in October!!

FYI: If you missed any of our final author additions, you definitely want to check out the updated list of Featured Authors here. 🙂

First… in the ICYMI files… our full #CMCon24 event has a “Book Besties Weekend” theme. Some of our activities will be:

• Thursday night – Book Besties Meet-Up (Welcome Mingle)
• Friday night – Besties Do Vegas… and bet on murder! (Murder/Mystery Event)
• Saturday night – Besties PJ Party (Casual Game Night)

I’ll be doing another live chat on Facebook or Instagram soon to go over some of the details for these activities. I’m super excited about our murder/mystery night, and can’t wait to see everyone in their “VIP Party Guest” attire!! (Of course, you’re welcome to dress casual and be a party crasher, too, LOL!)

I’ll be working on our panels and meet & greets schedule in the next couple of months, and will have the full lineup of the weekend’s activities to share around the beginning of the new year.

One thing to remember as you’re making your travel plans. If you’re a writer (published or not), and would like to attend our only block of author/craft workshops, you’ll want to arrive in time for Thursday morning’s “Writers Garage” classes, instructed by Tere Michaels. This is a separate registration and fee.
More details coming soon.

Moving on to our Reading Challenge. If you’d like to be a part of an enthusiastic group of readers who encourage each other while earning points for fun perks and prizes — this is the place for you!! We have a suggested schedule for those who want to read something from each Featured Author before February. We have a spotlight and live updates schedule for those who want to get to know our authors a bit better on a more engaging level. (Two authors are spotlighted each week in the group, so there are lots of opportunities to interact!) And we have our “book club style” group reads each month, that include a live zoom chat with the author at the end of each month. We also have regular posts about new releases and sales from our Featured Authors.

The really nice thing is, you can do as much or as little as you like, while being fully engaged with fellow book lovers — most of whom you’ll get to see in person in Daytona!!

Information about the challenge, how you earn points, what you can win on a monthly and cumulative basis, and all the schedules and forms are on our Reading Challege Page on this website here.
If you haven’t yet, you can join the Reading Challenge Facebook Group here.
Pop in. Say hi. We’d be thrilled to have you!!

A few other things that some of you may be interested in, that have been covered in previous blog posts (linking to the posts, rather than repeating all the info here):

• Coastal Magic Convention Merch (ongoing designs, along with new 2024 designs)(the sale is over, but this has all the various design links)
  https://coastalmagicconvention.com/2023/09/13/surprise-sale-on-cmcon24-merch/
• We’ve got ONE WEEK left for this year’s freebie download collection!! Over 20 Featured Authors have contributed stories to the “Besties Beachside Reads” Book Funnel collection. Ends September 30th.
  https://books.bookfunnel.com/coastalmagicauthors
• Our monthly CMCChats give a great peek into the personalities of some of our Featured Authors. This is a fun way to interact in real time with other readers and with the authors, themselves. Watch live to ask questions during the chat. Schedule is posted here:
  https://coastalmagicconvention.com/2023/08/12/coastal-magics-2024-cmcchats-have-begun/
• If you’re a “planner person”, and would like to get together with other readers and authors each week while you fancy up your spread for the following week, we have a Zoom chat for that! Each Saturday night at 9pm ET. Bring your planner and stickers and washi, oh my! We have themes to follow, or just do your own thing! We also have a VERY limited number of custom Coastal Magic Convention sticker collections left available. Here’s the “event” page on Facebook, where I post the Zoom link and we all share our finished layout pics. 🙂
  https://www.facebook.com/events/231687059340642/?active_tab=discussion
• I’ll be updating this page with direct post links in the next few days — but mark it now so you don’t miss any of the special Featured Author spotlights that our Featured Bloggers do each month!! (You can follow our social media, or their own, to catch them as well!) Lots of Q&As, contests, and guest blog posts from some of your favorite authors!!
  https://coastalmagicconvention.com/featured-bloggers/

One other quick reminder —
After all the hotel hoopla with having to move to Orlando last year, I decided to wait to open the room block for this year. Our custom reservations page will probably go live in late November. This way, it’ll fall into everyone’s “within 90 days” window if they have to cancel. I’ll be sharing the link in email to all registered attendees when it becomes available. ❤

So — I think that’s a good recap of where we are so far. You can keep up to date with these and other fun Coastal Magic Convention related things in our Facebook Authors & Attendees Group.

And now — I did promise an October contest!!
Keep your eyes peeled for an October themed bookish BINGO coming on October 1st!! Not only will it be fun to see everyone’s BINGO finds — but THERE WILL BE PRIZES!

And of course — if you haven’t registered to join us by the beach in Daytona, we’d love to have you! Bring your book loving besties with you, and make new friends while you’re here. We can’t wait to hang out with you!! Registration info and EventBrite link here. And we’re already halfway to February!