Signing books and meeting people.

Two signings in the last two days (and two more over the next two). Seventeen books signed and sold, and some very interesting people bumped into.

There was the lady that showed up today with a pad of paper covered in sticky notes. She was running errands for the elderly lady she cares for, and one of the stops was to come and pick up a signed copy of this science fiction book the Pueblo Chieftan mentioned in yesterday’s paper. She’s a retired physics teacher and an avid reader. I hope she’s already curled up with the book and digging Molly’s adventures.

Another interesting character I bumped into today was James C. Humes. The author of ~40 books on history, our presidents, Churchill, politics, and himself, James has written words that will outlive us all. As in humanity. You see, one of James’s claims to fame is having written the plaque left on the Moon to commemorate Apollo 11’s landing. Barring a very unlucky shot from a meteorite, those words will live on a tad longer than this post.

Then there were the young readers. A family with two kids (Brandi and Jacob) picked up a copy, and I could already see some potential fights over who gets to read when. Twelve or thirteenish, these are the kind of readers I hope will love Molly’s story. When they start carrying the book around at school, and bragging about this awesome adventure they are in the middle of (and nobody else has heard of), hopefully my cachet will rise with their coolness.

I went into these two signings with low expectations, hoping for 4-7 books from each (and already steeling myself for getting blanked). I tripled my best hopes, had a great time, met some wonderful people, and feel energized for doing more. Can’t ask for more than that!