My Very First Book Signing: The Afterword

So… My book signing…

First off, let me state that I had a ton of fun! Considering that Ukazoo is a used book store (which I totally recommend, fyi) where people go for bargains, not full-priced books, it wasn’t as profitable as it could have been elsewhere.

Yet I still enjoyed myself thoroughly, and not just because I got Oreo Dream Cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory afterward.

For one thing, it was a fascinating adventure in human observation. Apparently, I’m not the only person who can’t stand salespeople. Most customers walked by my nice little table and purposely looked every which way but at me, as if they were terrified that I might rope them into a pointless and pushy conversation if they dared to meet my gaze.

Which, just for the record, I had no plans on doing. The people who did smile back got a cheerful. “Hi, how are you?” and then an appropriate response depending on what they said. If they kept walking, then I went right back to writing in my little notebook.

Incidentally, that little notebook is the second reason why I found yesterday so worthwhile. I wrote almost the entire Author’s Note/Historical Prologue section to Designing America while I sat there. And while I know I’ll be adding bits and pieces here and deleting sentences there, I’m quite content with that first draft. It wrote well and shouldn’t take too much effort to make it read well too.

I did sell one copy of The Politician’s Pawn to an actual customer (and four more to ridiculously adorable family members), and jotted down my information and professional website for another person who wanted the Kindle copy of Not So Human. I also chatted with some very nice and helpful people about such things as how to properly pronounce “Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.”

Incidentally, that mother-daughter duo was very impressed that I said it correctly, though that’s what happens when you live there for seventeen years. You pick up on little things like that.

There was one gentleman who stands out the most, however. When he stopped to eye my table, I asked him if he liked political thrillers or fantasy fiction. He shook his head and said no, so I politely pursued the conversation by inquiring what genres he did like.

He answered, “Oh, you know, books about characters.”

Maybe I should have told him about my historical or Christian fiction stories instead. I’m pretty sure those involve such creative constructions. Not sure… Maybe I should go back and check.

My Very First Book Signing: The Prequel

This Saturday, 1-3 pm at Ukazoo Books in Towson, MD, I have a book signing for both The

Politician’s Pawn and Not So Human.

I’ve never done one of these before, so it’ll certainly be a learning experience.

I already shared my experience with someone else’s book signing… the one where he approached me with a pretentious “Hello. I’m an author.” Clearly, I won’t be taking that tack.

The problem is I’m not sure what tack is appropriate.

I know that, when I’m shopping, I hate to be bothered. Store clerks – and I’ve been one myself, so this isn’t a matter of being snobbish – can say “hello” and welcome me in, but anything more and I feel like they’re wasting my time with their sales pitches.

I can read the humongous signs in the windows proclaiming the buy-17-get-0.03%-off-a-purchase-less-than-$2 (BSGZOAPLTT) sale going on, thank them very much. I don’t need anyone pointing it out again. My contacts work just fine.

And when it comes to book buying in particular, I would much rather have room to look at the front cover, read the jacket description and flip the work open to make up my own mind.

People who gush about how absolutely wonderful their books are sound disingenuous. Of course they’re going to say their book rocks! They wrote it and they’re trying to make a sale.

So, again… not sure how I’m going to approach this.

I already know I’ll be situated in Ukazoo’s biggest room. So I’m thinking of simply asking people who walk in what their favorite genre is and letting them take the lead from there. If they want to chit-chat, awesome! If not, then I’ll leave them unaccosted.

Maybe I’ll even read one of my own books while they browse.

If anybody has a better suggestion, I’m all ears. Leave a note in the comments section!

Off The Beaten Path

I’ve mentioned a few times now that I’m working on the fourth installment of my Faerietales series. I actually finished editing the first draft a week ago and plan on going over it again shortly.

Believe me, there’s still a lot of work to be done.

But while I was still in the process of writing this masterpiece in the making, I read two other fantasy books, one by Jim Butcher and one by Seanan McGuire, both of whom are experts in their craft. Butcher pretty much owns the genre at this point, and while McGuire is more up-and-coming comparatively speaking, she’s still phenomenal.

Now, they’re both purists in their writing. By that, I mean they stick with all the “ancient texts.” I swear they went to school to study mythology before they ever dreamt about writing their respective series, The Dresden Files and October Daye. So in their worlds, faeries include a wide range of critters of varying shapes and sizes, from the beautiful to the terrifying, with an equally diverse assortment of magical powers.

In fact, Butcher and McGuire both covered the same exact myth recently: The Wild Hunt.

That’d be one of the terrifying ones. But so cool! (I’m not going to describe it myself, but here’s the Wikipedia article if you’re curious.)

The thing is, reading their accounts proved to be a blatant reminder of how far off the beaten path I’ve taken my own stories. In my fantasy world, faeries are all humanoid, all have wings and aren’t magical. If they want to maintain their anonymity around clueless humans, they do so through scientific means, not spells or pixie dust.

In main character Sabrina’s case, I like it that way. I meant it that way. Yet still, sometimes I have to wonder…

So far, most of the people I know of who’ve read the Faerietales books aren’t die-hard fantasy fans, and so I didn’t have to worry about offending any of them with the license that I took.

But I’m really curious to see what the typical Jim Butcher or Seanan McGuire fan would think after picking up a Jeannette DiLouie novel. Will they love my fantastical twists or hate them?

Who knows… Maybe I’ll find out after my book signing on October 3.