Before I ramble on about yesterday, I want to draw your attention to the program that Blue Willow Bookshop in Houston, TX has started to provide books to the school libraries destroyed by Hurricane Ike. Please help them restock their shelves. It’s the right thing to do and it will make you feel good all weekend. (Thanks, Bookavore, for the link.)
Note to self: celebrate birthday on book tour as frequently as possible.
The people on my plane to Denver did not wish me a happy birthday (most were snoring), but they were the only people who didn’t.
The day started off fabulously at Bruce Randolph Middle School, where I spoke to the entire 8th grade. They were a fantastic audience – I could have stayed there all day.
Afterwards I signed lots of books.
And they gave me a birthday present and an awesome card.
After Bruce Randolph, we dashed to St. Mary’s Academy and then to Hill Middle School. My Author Nanny, Julia, said that I spoke to more than 700 students over the course of the day. (The formal title of Author Nannies is “media escort” but that is a boring and non-descriptive title.) Thanks to everyone for being so kind, and a big shout-out to Sade at Bruce Randolph and Mckenna at St. Mary’s for helping me run the presentation technology.
I also did four drive-by stock signings. That’s when an author pops in, signs copies of whatever stock is on hand, then dashes off. Usually we do it standing next to the Customer Service desk. One store really rolled out the red carpet, er, the green tablecloth, and made me feel right at home.
My evening event was at The Bookies, a store that specializes in providing a mind-boggling selection of books to teachers. I had a “small world” moment there when Amanda, the woman in the picture, came up to me. She was the newspaper advisor at my daughters’ high school back in Horsham, PA and worked closely with Bookavore, my oldest, when she wrote for that paper. Now Amanda is teaching in Colorado. I also came across with a few teachers I had met on previous trips out there; it was practically old home night.
They packed the store with teachers and fed me banana bread. And EVERYBODY wished me happy birthday. I think more than a thousand people said that to me.
It felt really nice.
TONIGHT’S EVENT: Friday, October 24 at 7:00 pm: Tattered Cover, Denver, East Colfax store 303-436-9219
TOMORROW’S EVENT: Saturday, October 25 at 1:00 pm: The Bookstall of Chestnut Court, Winnetka, IL 847-446-0882
great post…
Looks like you’re having fun! I’m so thrilled for the success of Chains–much deserved. Thanks, too, for the Blue Willow link. I’ll be sure to make some noise about it.
Happy happy happy birthday. Lots of cake, yum. I missed having my cake and eating it, too, but I plan to take care of that this weekend.
Hope it was a fabulous day.
teri
“Author nanny” is a great phrase. I started calling mine “Sherpas” after I realized how weird it felt to use the phrase “my escort” when speaking to my spouse on the phone. Happy birthday. I hope you get some sleep this weekend.