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!