So I did my first book fair appearance at the Leimert Park Book Fair on Saturday. It was wonderful chaos with many lessons learned and awesome people met. Since 32 CANDLES had only been out a week, I didn’t expect to sell any books at my signing. I decided that this would be a great time to work on my not selling any books coping skills, which is a little akin to the first day at a new school, and not having anyone to sit with at lunch. I talked to the non-fiction writer sitting next to me at my signing table, the lovely and warm, Terence Roberts, who was in the Little Rock Nine. Then he left and my editormate, Attica Locke came to sit next to me, and married writers, Steven Barnes and Tananarive Due came to sit at the neighboring table. I ended up having an awesome time, and I even sold like four books, so yay for dipping my toe in the water of book signing.
Now I’m about to cannonball into the pool with my first official LA book signing, tonight, at 7pm, at Barnes & Noble-The Grove. A few people have asked me how the night will go. We’ll begin at 7:15 with a reading that will go until 7:30 or so, then we’ll take questions until 8PM, and then I’ll be signing books until whenever. See the invite below and I hope to see you there. And thanks to Jennifer May Nickel for ignoring the security guards glare and taking the above pic of the book event sign at Barnes & Noble!