Snowflake Bazaar – This Saturday, November 1, 2025
This Saturday, November 1st from 9am to 3pm, I’ll be at the Snowflake Bazaar in Saint Mary’s Church Gym (903 N. Jefferson Street) in Huntington, Indiana. There will be lots of crafts, plus a bake sale, lunch, and a raffle. I’ll be there with all of my crochet creations, my short story collections, and small art items. Below are a few of my newest critters, which I made with the last month of the birthday yarn club from Simply Socks Yarn Company. It took me awhile because I had to make a few with some of the yarn, so that I could show off the fun splashes of color! I’ll have all of these (and a bunch of their friends!) with me on Saturday!
Def Com X – November 15, 2025
After this weekend, my next event will be Def-Com X hosted by the Defiance Public Library at the Northtowne Mall (1500 N. Clinton Street) in Defiance, Ohio on November 15th from 10am to 4pm. This event is a mini comic con with free admission and an excellent lineup of vendors. I hope to see you there!
H3: Homemade, Handmade Holiday Winter Bazaar – November 22, 2025
The Saturday before Thanksgiving on November 22nd from 9am to 1pm, I’ll be returning to H3: Homemade, Handmade Holiday’s Winter Bazaar at the New Haven Community Center (7500 SR 930E, behind McDonald’s). I’ve had a great time at this event the past few years, and I’m looking forward to another one!
Since they’re all in the next few weeks, I probably won’t post here about each of these events as they happen, but keep an eye on my Facebook and Instagram pages for reminders and pictures of any exciting new creations!
Mark Your Calendars for 2026!
Winterval’s Warm Heart Market
It’s already time to mark your calendars for 2026! I’ve signed up for Winterval’s Warm Heart Market on Saturday, January 24th from 12pm to 3pm. It takes place in the Community Center (233 West Main Street) in downtown Fort Wayne, Indiana, and it’s part of other Winterval events around the downtown area that day!
Handmade Homemade Sale at Salomon Farm Park – October 19, 2025
It’s supposed to be cold and rainy tomorrow–perfect weather for shopping the Handmade Homemade Sale at Salomon Farm Park (817 W. Dupont Road) in Fort Wayne! I’ll be inside the Old Barn, along with a handful of other vendors, and there will be more inside the Learning Center too. The event is from noon to 5 p.m., and I just finished prepping a batch of new critters! I’ll have books and small art items as well. I hope to see you there!
One of my newest creations is this little pumpkin keychain–I haven’t made one for awhile, and I had forgotten how small and cute they are!
Upcoming Events:
If you’re already thinking about holiday shopping, here are the events I’m signed up for in November. I’m still on the lookout for a December event, and I just turned in my first application for January 2026 (!), so keep an eye on the Events page for more to be added.
Snowflake Bazaar – November 1, 2025
I just signed up for this one–I’ll be at the St. Mary Snowflake Bazaar on Saturday, November 1st from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. It’s in the Saint Mary’s Church Gym (903 N. Jefferson Street) in Huntington, Indiana, and has crafts, a bake sale, lunch, and a raffle!
Def-Com X – November 15, 2025
On November 15th, I’ll be in Defiance, Ohio at Def-Com X (in the Northtowne Mall) from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Def-Com is a mini comic con put on by the Defiance Public Library, and looks like it will be a fun time!
H3: Homemade, Handmade, Holiday – November 22, 2025
The weekend after that, on November 22nd, I’ll be back in New Haven, Indiana for the H3: Handmade, Homemade Holiday shopping event from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. I’ve been at this event the last few years, and it always has a nice variety of vendors and items. I might have to crochet another Christmas mug sloth this year too!
Sci-Fi Central @ Science Central – Saturday, September 27, 2025
Sci-Fi Central is this Saturday at Science Central (1950 N. Clinton Street) in Fort Wayne from 10 am to 5 pm! You can get your tickets now or at the door. This is the 10th annual Sci-Fi Central, and the theme this year is time travel. There will be demonstrations, props, vendors, a cosplay contest, and more!
I’ll have a table with my sci-fi and fantasy story collections, art items (more about those below), and lots and lots of crochet critters! I’ve been working on some new displays–I had them at my last event, but we’ve made improvements to the keychain displays, and they now hold even more keychains, which means you get even more to chose from 🙂
I’ll be at my table most of the day, but at noon, I’ll be giving a presentation about creative creations. Not only do you get to listen to a couple of stories, but you also get to learn how to make a tiny comic book, which will give you the opportunity to start making stories of your own!
Matching Art Bundles!
I’ve put together some matching sets of art items, which give you the option of getting a coordinating sticker and magnet or sticker and notecard art print set. You still have the option to buy the stickers on their own as well, but I wanted to give shoppers the option of a matching set too!
Mystery Magnets!
If you enjoy surprises, blind bags, and mystery items (like I do), then you now have the option to buy a mystery magnet. Each magnet has the cover art from one of my stories, and the package has a quote from the story on the outside, giving you a clue as to what the art on the magnet might be, but it’s still a mystery which one you will get!
New Business Card Holder
My other new item isn’t for sale, but I thought I’d share with you a preview of my new business card holder. I’ve been learning about the different options with 3D printing at the Allen County Public Library, and I found this pattern for a 3D printed business card holder. I thought it was perfect for my book-like business cards!
Next Event – Handmade Homemade Sale – October 19, 2025
Tentatively, my next event is the Handmade Homemade Sale on Sunday, October 19, 2025 at Salomon Farm Park (817 W. Dupont Road) from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. I haven’t received official confirmation yet, but since it is less than a month away, I wanted to let you know so you can put it on your calendars! Keep an eye on my events page for more details as well as any more events that I add this year!
I added another event! This Saturday (8/23), stop by the Craft and Vendor Fair at Greg Hubler Ford (6400 W. Hometown Blvd) in Muncie, Indiana between 12 p.m. and 4 p.m. and check out local artisans, crafters, and small businesses. I’ll be there with some new displays to show off my books, art items, and about 250 crochet creations!
While you’re there, check out the Muncie Senior Center Benefit Car Show happening at the same time!
Next Event – Sci-Fi Central on September 27, 2025
My next event is Sci-Fi Central at Science Central (1950 N. Clinton Street) in Fort Wayne on September 27th from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The theme is time travel, and there will be demonstrations, vendors, food trucks, and a cosplay contest. You can buy your tickets now on Science Central’s website!
Mark Your Calendars – Another New Event
I added another new event–this one isn’t for a little while, but I wanted to mention it in case you wanted to mark your calendars! On November 15, 2025, I’ll be at Def-Com X in Defiance Ohio (Northtowne Mall, 1500 N. Clinton Street) from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. This event is a mini art and comic convention put on by the Defiance Public Library System, and I’m excited to add it to my fall events!
New Ebook: Recipe for a Mage
As I mentioned in my previous post, I’ve been putting together standalone ebooks for the stories in Runes & Rivets, and “Recipe for a Mage” is now available as its own ebook! Currently, you can find it on Smashwords and Amazon, and it will be making its away to the other ebookstores soon. This is one of my longer stories, and it’s available for just 99 cents! I would recommend reading “H2O” before this one, but it both stories work on their own too. I hope you enjoy it!
Brimstone and Brine (March 2021 | Fantasy | Short Story) Smashwords | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iBooks | Kobo The bard carves a tale of friendship, sacrifice, and unexpected endings…even when you think you already know the tale. Returning home after a long voyage, Aldwyn and Meilyr ask the woman they love to choose between them, but before she can answer, a dangerous stranger arrives to threaten their village, demanding a sacrifice. Also available in Runes & Rivets
“Brimstone and Brine” was originally published in Stupefying Stories, and it’s been available in my collection Runes & Rivets for awhile now, but I finally finished putting together a standalone ebook version of it! Even better, it’s free! “Brimstone and Brine” is from my Tales from the Carving Bard set, and although each tale stands alone, it’s the one that I wrote first and the one that I would recommend reading first, so I made it free as a bit of a series starter.
Some of the delay on this has been sorting out a new upload process. Smashwords merged with Draft2Digital a few years ago, which doesn’t change how you read the ebooks, but the upload process is different (and somehow less user-friendly…). I had some issues getting the new system to not make changes to my formatting, so if you read the Smashwords version, and you notice anything odd about how it’s formatted, feel free to drop me a note through the contact page, and I’ll see what I can do to get it fixed. I try to test my ebooks out on as many devices/readers as I can, but I doubt I get them all!
I’m not sure if this was always the case or if it is another change at Smashwords, but I recently discovered that you have to have make an account to even read a free ebook on the site. As a person who is not a fan of having a bunch of unnecessary accounts, I decided to put this one on my website to give you another option for reading–you can find it here. Enjoy!
I like to have individual ebooks available in case someone only wants to read one story or a few connecting stories, but if you want all of my stories in (almost) one place, check out my collections, Sorcery & Widgets and Runes & Rivets (which includes “Brimstone and Brine”). I’m working on putting together covers and formatting for the other stories in Runes & Rivets, and I’ll be publishing them on Smashwords in the near future. I’m also planning to make some minor adjustments to my already-published ebooks (standardize the formatting, group stories that go together into series, etc), and as a part of that, I’m going to switch around which stories are available for free. Currently, it’s “A Small Kindness,” “Konstantin,” and “Nothing Altered,” but I’m going to trade those out for some of my newer stories, focusing on ones that start series, so get those for free while you can!
Smashwords Summer / Winter Sale through July 31, 2025
The Smashwords Summer/Winter Sale is happening now! You have a few days left to snag all of the great deals in the sale which ends July 31, 2025. My story collection, Sorcery & Widgets, is 50% and a handful of my stories are free–you can find all of them here, but there are a couple that might be of particular interest:
Sorcery & Widgets – 50% off
With this deal, you get 16 exciting science fiction and fantasy stories for $2.99! If you’re looking for lots of stories in one place and a variety of characters, subgenres, and worlds to explore for the rest of the summer, Sorcery & Widgets is a great pick!
Fish and Fools – Free
If you took advantage of my newest free story, “Brimstone and Brine” at the top, you’ll want to get “Fish and Fools” too. While each story has its own characters and adventure, “Brimstone and Brine” and “Fish and Fools” are both stories told by the Carving Bard, and if you pay attention, you can see a larger story building up in the frames.
H2O – Free
For a similar reason, you might want to grab a copy of “H2O“–it’s the first story in a set that continues with “Changing Keys” and “Recipe for a Mage“. “Changing Keys” is available in Sorcery & Widgets or as a standalone ebook. Currently, “Recipe for a Mage” is only available in my other collection Runes & Rivets, but soon it will also be available as its own ebook (see below). If you want to start at the beginning, you’ll want to pick up “H2O” before the end of the sale!
Upcoming: Recipe for a Mage
Recipe for a Mage (July 2020 | Urban Fantasy | Novelette) Ebook coming soon! Will her recent promotion to detective be enough to help Sonja move past the man she loved and lost? With her memory update, it seems unlikely. But a new partner and a new case centering on mysterious magical attacks might just be the recipe she needs to finally lay her past to rest. Originally published in Cosmic Crime Stories Available in Runes & Rivets.
I’m finalizing the standalone ebook version of “Recipe for a Mage,” and then you’ll be able to continue the story that began with “H2O” and “Changing Keys”! If you can’t wait to read it, it’s currently available, along with six other stories, in Runes & Rivets. Since I’m planning to work through all of the other stories as well, I probably won’t make a post when I publish this one, but I’ll do a roundup when they’re all available.
Next Event: Sci-Fi Central on September 27, 2025
Keep an eye on the events page in case I add something between now and then, but at the moment, my next event is Sci-Fi Central at Science Central in Fort Wayne on September 27, 2025. This year’s theme is time travel, and tickets are available through Science Central‘s website. I hope to see you there!
Book Signing @ Half-Price Books this Saturday, June 21, 2025
If you’re looking for something new to read this summer, stop by Half-Price Books in Fort Wayne (533 E Coliseum Blvd) this Saturday, June 21st between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. I’ll be signing and selling copies of both of my story collections, Sorcery & Widgets and Runes & Rivets. Plus, I’ll have my art items and lots of critters as well! I made a new version of my mini comic book, “A Tiny Scrap of Darkness”–you can see it in the background here along with many of the critters that I’ve made since my last event. A few of these have already found homes, but I’m hoping to finish a few new ones this week. You’ll have to stop by to see them all!
Smashwords Summer / Winter Sale – July 1-31, 2025
Free during the sale!
I just enrolled a handful of stories in the Smashwords Summer / Winter sale, which starts on July 1st and goes through July 31st. So, for the month of July, you can try “Running Into the Rain” (sci-fi), “Racing the Sand” (fantasy), “H2O” (urban fantasy), and “Fish and Fools” (fantasy) for free!
50% off in July!
My short story collection Sorcery & Widgets, which includes 16 science fiction and fantasy stories will also be half off (making it just under $3!) during the sale! I hope you find something great to read this summer!
Mark your Calendars:
Sci-Fi Central @ Science Central – September 27, 2025
I’ll be returning to Sci-Fi Central this year! I’ll post more details closer to the event, but I wanted you to be able to mark your calendars, especially since it moved to September. I had a fun time last year, and I’m looking forward to it again!
Spring Craft & Creation Show at the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum – April 12, 2025
My next event is this weekend! This Saturday, April 12th, the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum (1600 South Wayne Street, Auburn, Indiana 46706) is having a Spring Craft and Creation Show from 9am to 3pm. It’s also their free day for the museum, so you can shop the handcrafted items and check out the automobiles in the museum. They also have a couple of food trucks lined up, so you don’t even have to leave for coffee or lunch!
I’ll be there with my art items, books (freshly restocked!), and quotable critters. I haven’t had an event for a few months, so I have lots of new critters! New designs, new yarn, plus I’ve made new critters for almost all of the types that I sold out of in January. Here are some of my creations with new yarn:
I finally decided to try glow-in-the-dark yarn, and I was impressed with how much it glowed!
Reorganized “Stories” pages
I’ve been working on revising my “Stories” pages, so that they are easier to follow (hopefully!). Instead of several different versions of the page, there is now a main “Stories” page, which includes all of the collections, stories, descriptions, links to bookstores, and cover art. The other page is a “Printable Story List” page, which includes the highlights for each story in a more compact format and without the cover art. This page would work better if you want to print a checklist of stories to read or the images are slow to load.
Now that I have more stories published, I have a few that share characters and should probably be read in a certain order, so I’ve grouped these together within the “Individual Stories” section. There you can find “Tales of the Sea“, “Tales from the Carving Bard“, and “Memory and Music” if you want to read sets of stories that connect to each other. I’m working on putting together individual ebooks for the stories that don’t have them already, in case you just want to read one of these sets without getting the whole collection (although with the collections you get more stories for your money!)
I’d be interested to hear about your experience with the new stories pages–feel free to send me a message through the contact page if you have any feedback!
Upcoming Events
New! Yorktown Public Library Mini Comic Con – May 3, 2025
I added a new event on Saturday, May 3rd (which also happens to be Free Comic Book Day). The Yorktown Public Library (8920 West Adaline Street, Yorktown, Indiana 47396) is having a Mini Comic Con from 10am to 2pm. I’ll be there with my books, art, and crocheted critters!
Muncie Comic Con – May 10, 2025
The Muncie Comic Con is returning this year on Saturday, May 10th from 10am (9:30am for VIP tickets) to 5pm at the Delaware County Fairgrounds – Heartland Building (1200 N. Wheeling Avenue, Muncie, Indiana 47303). I’m still in the process of finalizing my registration, but I wanted to give you a heads up because you can buy your tickets now!
On Saturday, January 18th (tomorrow!) I’ll be at the 7th annual Michiana Regional Seed Swap at Goshen College Church Chapel (1900 S. Main Street) in Goshen, Indiana from 9:30am to 2pm. Check out the event page and Merry Lea’s Facebook for more details on the event, but there will be seeds to swap (you don’t have to bring any to participate), vendors, speakers, raffles, and food! I’ll have critters, nature photo cards, magnets, and stickers at my table, and I’ll be giving away some native seeds and tiny versions of my stories–stop by and say hi!
Here’s a sneak preview of the raffle basket that includes some of my critters:
New Critters!
I have lots of new critters for this event–some made with new yarn, and some that are new designs! The local yarn shop, Simply Socks, does yarn clubs a couple of times a year, and I signed up for the most recent one back in October. Each month, you receive 3 skeins of yarn, and this club had two multi-colored skeins and one coordinating solid color. I decided to try making critters that used more than one of the skeins to show off the color combinations. The pink/purple/blue critters are the first set of club yarns, and the yellow/green/dark blue are the second set. The third set should arrive any day now!
I also included a picture of my newest critter–an opossum! The fox isn’t a new design, but I tried making one out of sock yarn, and the result was this tiny friend. You can find all of the critters pictured here (and more!) at the Seed Swap tomorrow!
Winterval’s Warm Heart Market – January 25, 2025
Next Saturday, January 25th, I’ll be at Winterval’s Warm Heart Market at the Community Center (233 West Main Street) in downtown Fort Wayne from 12 pm to 3pm. Since these events are so close together, I probably won’t send out a reminder email for this one, but you can always follow me on Facebook or Instagram to get more posts and probably a critter picture or two of whatever new ones I create next week! I’ll have my books and all of my art items at Winterval as well–it’s always a nice event with homemade and handcrafted items. Plus, you can check out all of the other Winterval events around the downtown area too!
Smashwords is having an End of the Year sale, and I missed the deadline to enroll my stories (a new requirement this year), so I’m having my own sale! Check out the deals below, and be sure to read to the end to find out about a new event in January!
50% off Sorcery & Widgets – 16 Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories:
Explore new worlds—both magical and those among the stars—in this collection of science fiction and fantasy stories
Konstantin: Konstantin’s brain is hardwired to the ship, and there’s just one problem: someone is trying to shut down the ship—and him—for good.
Changing Keys: Niall never wanted any magical updates, but it looks like he might not have a choice if he wants to protect those closest to him and the woman he loved and lost.
Running Into the Rain: Pursued by the citymen, intergalactic spy Greg Meredith flees toward the ranchlands, desperate to access his neurochip to find what went wrong.
Captain Sable’s Crew: Some would call him a pirate, but Captain Devlin Sable is more concerned with forming a reliable crew. The Empire has other ideas—it wants him dead, and it’s willing to pay in gold.
From novelettes to flash fiction, this collection features sixteen stories. Mages, new tech, prophecies, superheroes, intersecting timelines, dragons, spaceships, and more await within the pages of Sorcery & Widgets.
Free Stories:
Want to try out just a story or two? Check out my stories that will be free through the end of the year:
A Prophecy and the People: When the Bard’s tale is interrupted by soldiers from the fire king’s army, she must try to escape the town without letting her unpredictable magic destroy it. But the question is, have the townspeople been listening to her tale of prophecy and action? Will they aid her, or turn her over to the soldiers? Each person must decide for themselves.
Inheritance of Nightmares: Even dragons could not defeat the nightmare beast that pursues Sian and her unique blend of magic. With nowhere else to go, she returns to the foothills she once called home. She knows it will track her there. It always does. Having escaped his own nightmares, Dagr lives a quiet existence in a mountain cave until his path crosses with Sian’s–and that of her nightmare beastie.
Claimed by the Sea: The sea does not relinquish treasures. The mender understands and has no intention of saving the water-logged woman until he notices the islands on her arm. She is a Guardian. Guardians protect the islands. Guardians call dragons from the sky. Itziar knows this island needs a Guardian–children are being snatched under the cover of storm and darkness–but can she save them without losing herself?
Retirement: With the intergalactic war over, they were supposed to be enjoying retirement. Instead, Mona learns that her husband has died in a gravcar accident, leaving her to hunt his killers. But the couple has too many enemies, and she doesn’t know where to start. She’ll have to untangle this new threat before she can retire in peace.
H²O: Love, betrayal, loss, and regret. She refuses to cry over the man she once loved. But he asked her to have one last drink for him, and at the very least, she owes him that.
Sparkles: Thomas was having a bad day. And that was before his ship started drifting toward a Molasses storm…
Coupons Expire at the End of the Year too!
If you have one of my coupons for a free story (check your critter tags or the back of the coloring pages), be sure to redeem them before January 1st! All of the coupons are redeemable on Smashwords, and they all expire at the end of the year–enjoy some final reads for 2024!
Mark Your Calendars for January Events!
Michiana Regional Seed Swap – January 18, 2025
I added a new event for January! On January 18th, I’ll be the Michiana Regional Seed Swap (Goshen College Church Chapel, 1900 S. Main Street, Goshen, Indiana 46526) from 9:30am to 2pm. I haven’t had a table at this event before, but I have attended it–it’s a great place to swap some seeds, including seeds for Indiana native plants, check out local vendors, and learn more about plants, seeds, and gardening from the featured speakers. Since this is a nature event, I’m planning to crochet some more critters based on real Indiana animals to have at my table. Stop by and check it out!
Winterval’s Warm Heart Market – January 25, 2025
The next weekend, on January 25th, I’ll be at Winterval‘s Warm Heart Market (The Community Center, 233 West Main Street, Fort Wayne, Indiana 46802) from 12pm to 3pm. I’ve had a table at this event for the last several years, and it’s always a fun time! I’ll be there with my quotable critters, books, and art items–hope to see you there!
H3: Homemade, Handmade Holiday Event – Saturday, November 23, 2024
This Saturday, November 23rd is the H3: Homemade, Handmade Holiday Event! It takes place from 9am-1pm at the New Haven Community Center (located behind McDonald’s at 7500 SR 930 E, Fort Wayne, Indiana 46803). This was a great event last year, and it sounds like they’ve expanded with even more variety this year! I’ll be there with my quotable critters, art items (stickers, magnets, buttons, pins, and more), and books!
You can check out some of my newest creations below. I’ve been experimenting with different yarn–some big and some small–along with a few new patterns recently, so I’ll have lots of new critters. And if you’re holiday shopping, they make great stocking stuffers too!
New Events – Mark your Calendars
Just this week, I’ve confirmed a few new events–one coming up in a few weeks and the others on the horizon for 2025, but keep an eye on the events page of my website because I’ll definitely be adding more for next year!
USF Holiday Bazaar – December 7, 2024
Stop by the Mimi & Ian Rolland Art and Visual Communication Center (1200 Leesburg Road, Fort Wayne, Indiana 46808) on December 7, 2024 between 9am and 2pm to check out the USF Holiday Bazaar, which features the entrepreneurial and creative endeavors of the University of Saint Francis faculty, staff, students, and alumni. I submitted my first stories after completing creative writing classes at USF, and I’m excited to be returning to sell my books, art, and other creations at this event!
Winterval Warm Heart Market – January 25, 2025
Up first in 2025 is the Winterval Warm Heart Market, which takes place at the Community Center in downtown Fort Wayne (233 West Main Street) from 12pm to 3pm on January 25th. I’m looking forward to bringing my handmade items to this market again this year.
Next Year! H3: Homemade, Handmade, Holiday – November 22, 2025
And finally, mark you calendars for next year’s H3 on November 22, 2025 from 9am-1pm at the New Haven Community Center (located behind McDonald’s at 7500 SR 930 E, Fort Wayne, Indiana 46803). I’m sure I’ll add other events between January and November next year, but these are the ones that I’m signed up for so far. I hope to see you at one (or more) of them!
Beth Powers 