Life Gets Crazy and A Book Signing

A couple people in my family have had minor surgery in the last week. One of them is my middle son, who had his wisdom teeth extracted. He's recovering, but as any of you know who've been through this, it's no fun.

I had a book signing on Saturday at a local independent store, THE BOOK LADIES in Corona, California. I arrived just on time, worrying those really nice book sellers! I had to laugh, because I'm normally (okay compulsively) early. But I'm a mom first, and I was cooking my poor son something soft to eat before I left for the signing.

In fact, as I write this, I'm cooking him some noodles and jumping up and down to keep a warm compress on his slightly swollen face. Since my kids are older now, I'm not as good a multi-tasking as I used to be!

So where was I?

Ah, the book signing. I always have a blast at THE BOOK LADIES. But watching these booksellers in action was just amazing. They hand sold to every customer. They recognized all returning customer, greeted new customers and went out of their way to make every person the bookstore feel comfortable and NOT pressured to buy books unless they wanted. That's especially important to me as an author signing that day. I want people to feel comfortable enough to come over and pick up one of my books to browse through it, or maybe just chat with me, without feeling pressured to buy. I've had really fun conversations with people who never bought a book, but I still enjoyed meeting them.

That's part of the fun of book signings. And here's a secret—sometimes those very customers come back and buy the signed stock that I've left behind.

So a Big Thank You to all the wonderful book sellers out there! I appreciate them both as a reader and an author!

Oh yes, my sister came by my signing. My sister has never ever walked out of a bookstore empty handed. She loves books. And the two booksellers were so wonderful to her, that she ended up buying a big stack of books. Jackie (book seller and long time friend of mine) gave her a really nice canvass bag to carry her books in.

I immediately started harassing my sister, trying to get her to give me the canvass bag. (Never mind that she'd bought me a really cool doggy-keychain!) I cajoled and pouted, insisting that when we exchanged all the books we bought, she should give me hers in the canvass bag.

My sister just laughed at me. Isn't that mean?

To my surprise, THE BOOKLADIES took all my whining seriously and gave me my very own canvass bag! Do these ladies rock or what?

Okay sure, they took pity on my sister and just wanted me to Stop Whining, but still…it really is a cool canvass bag 

Happy Reading! Oh and for the record, I bought two Sherrilyn Kenyon books. I've been dying to read her!