Unlike my first book signing, which you can read about here, the signing on April 30th was pretty darn sweet. We laughed. We cried. We ate a lot of fried green beans.
My main concern going into this was, namely, what to wear. Well, that and tripping in front of people or spilling something on myself, but that said, I wasn’t sure what to wear in anticipation for all of those things happening. I asked The Hubs’ opinion on this and he said, “I guess you could wear pants. Or a dress. Or a skirt.”
So, I texted my mother the same question.
No response.
So, I took it to Facebook. Facebook responded with:
- Multiple outfits with wardrobe changes every fifteen minutes
This is a plan I can stand behind.
Unfortunately, The Hubs limited my luggage to one bag shared between the two of us, so I packed two dress options: a black dress and a vintage, 60s dress. It was going to be on the cold side Saturday and, since I’m perpetually cold, I decided to wear the vintage dress. Because you can’t go wrong with vintage.
This is where things went somewhat wrong.
I had a whole team of people with me because that’s how I roll: The Hubs, The Rowdy Boys, and my mother. May I note: my children were angels. They also ate for three hours straight. We also picked which table to set up at, based on which had the electric plug for their tablets.
I had a snazzy vinyl sign, a poster, my books, and a mug full of chocolate. Oh, and book marks and business cards. My table looked decent. Not great, but decent. Here are things other authors had that were, in fact, great:
- A three tiered wedding cake made of spackle
- Table cloths (the library put plastic table clothes on there, but some people had cloths that went along with the book’s color scheme)
- Standup pictures of the setting of the book
- Items related to the book (Russian nesting dolls and an orthodox icon).
Why did I not know this? I mean…looking back, it seems like I should have known this. It makes sense. Some of those tables were works of art! My amazing best friend, Sara, MADE me an awesome mini-book of With Me Now and an engraved pen! It totally dressed up my table.
And, speaking of dresses. There was the matter of my dress. I realized I was going to be in
trouble when I threw my messenger bag over my shoulder and it hung lower than my dress. Uh oh. Look, my legs from the knee up are freakishly long. I realized this as a child, when, sitting in the church pew, my knees hit the hymn book rack and my friend Karen’s didn’t. So, that’s fun.
The picture on the left is the lovely and sweet Meghan Gorecki, fellow writer and Gettysburg addict and on the right is long time friend and partner in crime, Candy. Of note, I’m a behemoth next to all my friends, apparently. And, I wore platforms.
I showed some serious leg. I just put everything I needed on the table because there was noooooo waaaaaaay I was going to try and lean over to paw through boxes and bags to find something.
The best comment of the afternoon was when The Hubs looked at me and said, “I always thought that was a shirt.”
Nope.
Other than the battle of avoiding mooning the good patrons of the Bethel Park Library, it was a fantastic day! Two book signings down. This one wasn’t nearly as terrifying as the first one, so I’m hoping they get better from here? Maybe?
I still have limited copies of Haunt available for purchase, so if you want a paperback, hit me up.
In other news: The sequel to With Me Now is a real thing now. I’d be the happiest kid on the block if I can finish it by the end of May. Stay tuned.