Tag: Washington College

My Books, Writing

Invisible Violets – How to Get Signed and Personalized Books

Chrys Buckley
Chrys Buckley signing advanced reader copies of her book Invisible Violets at the Wandering Aengus Press booth at Portland book fest

Since announcing the release of my debut book, Invisible Violets: A Mixtape in Lyric Essays, which releases on March 13, 2026 from Wandering Aengus Press, people have asked me how they can get signed books.

I have answers for you!
And not just signed books, but also personalized!

It’s a bit of a Choose Your Own Adventure depending on where you live, and so this post serves as your answers for every scenario. Whether you live near me or far away, I have ways to get signed books to you.

Chrys Buckley signing advanced reader copies of her book Invisible Violets at the Wandering Aengus Press booth at the Portland Book Fest

How to Get Signed Books in Portland, Oregon

There are lots of ways to get signed books in the City of Roses:

  • Join me at my launch party on March 13, 7-8:30 p.m. at BOLD Coffee and Books. There will be a conversation about the book. There will be the reading of excerpts from the book. There will be food and drinks available for purchase before and during the event, as is always the case at BOLD. And there will be book signing. You can buy the book at the event and get it signed on the spot. This will be an easy way to get a signed book and it will be a blast!
  • Come to one of my other local events and buy a book and have me sign it! A whole bunch of different events are in the works, and I’m working on creating an Events page to keep it all in one place. Suffice it to say, there will be other opportunities outside of the launch.
  • Pre-order my book (pre-order hub here) and bring your copy to any of my events or coordinate meeting up with me in person outside of events to have me sign it.

How to Get Signed Books on Orcas Island and in Seattle

Along with local events, I’m working on some Orcas and Seattle events as well.

Orcas Island: Plans aren’t definite yet, but I’m working on two separate trips for bookish events on the island. One will be in June 2026 and will be an event with my publisher and other authors at the press, details TBD. Another will be next winter, January 2027 or so, and will be more focused on my book and its many mentions of life on Orcas.

Seattle: This is a bit more ephemeral, but would likely be coupled with the Orcas trips, either on my way there or on my way back. Details TBD. My dream is to do an event at Easy Street Records in West Seattle.

For either of these locations, you could either buy the book at the event or pre-order the book and bring it to the event for me to sign.

How to Get Signed Books if You Live in the United States outside of the Pacific Northwest

Most of my inquiries so far have come from people in this category. This is for you if you:

  • Went to high school with me in New Jersey
  • Went to blind camp (or JKRC or Avalon or Drew) with me in New Jersey
  • Went to Washington College with me for a brief time
  • Went to Northern Arizona University with me for a brief time
  • Know me from a certain internet forum (iykyk)
  • Know me from Camp Orkila and don’t live in the Pacific Northwest
  • Went to medical school with me and went outside the PNW for residency and/or practice
  • Know me from social media or this website/blog
  • Don’t know me at all

To make this available to people in places I’m not likely to travel to in the near future, I’ve partnered with local bookstore Annie Bloom’s Books in Multnomah Village, and they will be my hub for signed and personalized books.

Here’s how to get signed books through Annie Bloom’s Books:

  • Order Invisible Violets from them using this direct link to my Signature Page.
  • In your Order Comment at checkout, write these things:
    • You are requesting a signed copy or a personalized copy.
    • What name you want it personalized to.
    • A quick note about how you know me, if you do, so I can write a more personalized note. This is especially helpful if you have changed your name since we knew each other most, or if I know you mostly by a screen name.
    • Your order comment could read something like this. “Requesting personalized copy, addressed to X. This is so-and-so from such-and-where.”
  • Then I’ll go in and sign and personalize and Annie Bloom’s will ship to you.

Note: This is for shipping to US addresses only! Which brings me to…

Chrys Buckley signing advanced reader copies of Invisible Violets at the Wandering Aengus Press booth at the Portland Book Fest

How to Get Signed Books at the NOAH Conference (Columbus, OH)

This isn’t a done deal yet, but I’m thinking of going to the NOAH Conference this summer, and will update here with details as plans progress. If I go, I’ll definitely bring books with me to sell and sign!

How to Get Signed Books if You Live Outside the US

If you want a signed copy of my book and you live outside of the US, you can buy the book from me directly, via Venmo or what have you, which will have to include the shipping costs, and I’ll sign or personalize and mail it to you. You can always reach out to me via my Contact Form if you need to set this up.

I think I have covered every earthly possibility for getting signed books to everyone who wants one. If you have questions or need help with any of the methods, reach out to me here!

Chrys

Chrys Buckley signing advanced reader copies of Invisible Violets at the Wandering Aengus Press booth at the Portland Book Fest

Image description: four photos of Chrys Buckley signing advanced reader copies of Invisible Violets at the Wandering Aengus Press booth at Portland Book Fest.

Music, Writing

The Artist’s Way Reflections – Time Travel: Creative Monsters and Champions

Chrys Buckley

task7Today’s column will cover the Time Travel tasks from Week One. Next week, we’ll move on to Week Two. You can find the full schedule for the rest of the year at the bottom of this post!

I decided to pull out the Time Travel tasks (Tasks 3-7, so most of them) from Week One in their own post for a couple of reasons. One was to be able to ease in, pacing-wise, by spreading Week One out over two weeks here.

Sometimes starting (or restarting) The Artist’s Way can feel a bit like thawing out something frozen, and there’s something painful and scary about that. It can be like melting something that solidified inside you. And it’s not easy.

To me, these Time Travel tasks feel like the first steps in that process. And they can be hard. Last time through, in March, I skipped most of them and only half-heartedly and incompletely did the ones I didn’t skip.

I thought they deserved extra attention in their own post as an acknowledgement that they’re hard, and a way of tackling them together.

Continue reading “The Artist’s Way Reflections – Time Travel: Creative Monsters and Champions” →

Samples, Writing

Miss You, Love

Chrys Buckley

Our talk turns to crushes. “I just miss that feeling, you know?” I say. “Like when you’re just so alive that even when it hurts you’re just glad you can feel. I miss the excitement.”

Jillian says, “My friend Emily calls it the ketchup phase.”

“Catching up with what?” I ask, uncertain.

“Well, because it’s like, when you first fall for someone, they’re all you think about. No matter what the subject, it reminds you of them. Someone could say, ‘pass the ketchup,’ and your first thought is, oh wow, my guy likes ketchup too.”

I sigh. “Yes, that’s what I miss, the ketchup phase. I hope I’m not too old or numb.”

~~~

A tiny little conversational snippet from Moonchild. It took place almost fifteen (!!!) years ago, this talk, but the funny thing is that I feel a little bit of that at the current moment, too. And wow, the topic of passion, in so many different forms, keeps coming up in the manuscript. It may be more of an underlying theme in Moonchild than I realized.

Check out other Samples, Published and Early Work!

~Chrys

Music, Samples, Writing

When You’re Eighteen with Crippling Writers Block, Music Can Set You Free

Chrys Buckley

EMindexInstead of sitting down to absorb the album, I let it trickle in, play it over and over while I read my astronomy textbook, when I doodle in my journal hoping to come up with story ideas for my creative writing class, when I’m on the phone, when I’m reading books and when Jillian comes over to chill.

One night I sit on my inflatable chair writing away in my journal with half my mind on the page and half with the music. As I try to think up story ideas, a song called “Moonchild” starts, launching me into the ether in its intro. Something about the words, the singing, though I don’t know it by heart yet, makes me feel at all like my old vibrant self, or at least its shadow. By the time I get to the bridge, the song stops me in my tracks, using my foot absentmindedly against my bed to rock my chair. I have the seed of a story idea.

Continue reading “When You’re Eighteen with Crippling Writers Block, Music Can Set You Free” →

Samples, Writing

When You’re Eighteen with Crippling Writer’s Block and Rehashing Old Relationships

Chrys Buckley

writers-block21I try to have crushes, because it’s one thing I’ve always done without much prompting, and if my most recent breakup shut me down, then what better than infatuation to open me back up. I don’t care if I get burned. In fact it might be better that way.

I rehash all the things I told myself when Nick and I started going out. I thought then that I was enlightened, that all my previous pain was acceptable because it helped me get to that precious present moment. Nick was very practical. When I had problems with my parents—which I wasn’t supposed to have because I was enlightened, but which I did, because I always did, and because I was a teenager and they still treated me like I was twelve—we approached it in very rational, spiritually advanced ways. I wasn’t supposed to get mad, or let it bother me much or dare dwell on it, Nick kept reminding me.

Continue reading “When You’re Eighteen with Crippling Writer’s Block and Rehashing Old Relationships” →

Samples, Writing

Icebreakers

Chrys Buckley

whirlwind-passion-neil-shapiroMy friends and I hang out in Stacy’s room and read from a questions book meant to give interesting topics to discuss at parties, to get to know other people better than those icebreaker games during orientation.

“Okay,” I say, flipping through the book. “Would you rather live a life that’s simple, safe and secure or one full of adventure and passion, with high highs and low lows?”

“I’d vote for the latter,” says Jillian.

“I don’t know that there’s a such thing as a simple and secure life,” says John. “I mean I think they’re getting at the whole like, house with kids and a dog, but I think that’s a pretty unsafe, insecure, exciting life too. Anything could happen even in that situation.”

Continue reading “Icebreakers” →

Blindness and Disability, Samples, Writing

Crabby Girl

Chrys Buckley

crabindexOne night in early September, there’s a crab feast in the cafeteria for dinner. Everyone’s so excited, especially the students from Maryland. I’ve never had crab before. John, sitting next to me, demonstrates for all of us. He whacks his crab a few times with a mallot, and then pulls the crab apart. I watch closely but can’t see how he knows what’s the meat and what’s pieces of bone or innards. It looks like brain surgery.

Continue reading “Crabby Girl” →

Samples, Writing

Writers at Sunset on the Eve of College

Chrys Buckley

marylandsunsetindexWe go back to the outdoor school for dinner, then they drive us all to the beach for the evening. I hang out on a towel on the sand and watch a fiery, cloud-filled sunset with Jen and Christina, two writers who live in a dorm by the Lit House. The Lit House is a special building on campus for all the English majors to have meetings, workshops and readings. Most of our Sophie Kerr weekend events took place there.

“Are either of you taking the freshman creative writing class?” I ask.

“I am,“ says Christina. She has long straight dark blond hair, and wears a beanie. She’s small, one of those small people like my mother who carries a big voice.

“Cool,” I say, flexing my toes and watching a cloud fill with red like a pen burst inside it. “Me too.”

Continue reading “Writers at Sunset on the Eve of College” →