My First Book Signing!

I started today off with a coffee-bag-related injury. How, Jen, you may ask, does one sustain a coffee-bag-related injury? Unfortunately, I can't tell you since I was half asleep when I did it, and I don't actually know. A coffee can would make sense, but somehow I managed this with a half empty bag. The only reason this is of note, is because it happened on the index finger of my right hand, almost exactly where my finger might rest on the paper when I am writing. For a time there, I was afraid all my books would be signed in blood. Well, that was the only unpleasant thing that happened today, thank goodness.

I spent the afternoon at Chapters in Calgary's Chinook Centre. I have to say, the staff and manager there were fantastic. They are all, without exception, nice, helpful people. My thanks go out to them for being so great.

I was somewhat worried that no one would talk to me, however, within half an hour of being there a gentleman called Layton asked me to sign a book! My hand was shaking so much I made the worst signature I've ever done in my life, and misspelled "reading". (As in "happy reading!") I was surprised and encouraged that most of the people who were interested in the book were my age or more, when I was expecting more the early university crowd. I do hope they won't be disappointed. I also had a few conversations with people who were in the business and wanted to know what my publishing experience was like. On two separate occasions, a little girl came by and snatched up a copy and asked her parents to buy it. Of course one look at the cover, and their parents said "no". One of them pleaded, "but the skeletons are cool!" I signed six books in all, which is nowhere near comparable to J.K. Rowling, but amazingly good for me. The manager of the store told me that was pretty much average for a new author. The last book I signed was bought by a fellow named Doug (who's already emailed me to ask about the book!) and the session ended on a positive note.

The questions I got asked most frequently were if the book was part of a series and if it was any good. It had occurred to me that morning to print up a copy of the reviews I had from other authors, since the book was virtually unknown, so those came in handy for letting people know what some other readers thought.

And of course, I have to give a big thank you to my friends Laura and Mary who came out to give me some support.