The book signing went pretty well, I think. Sold around 20 books, which isn’t bad for Fairbanks, and saw one friend from the North Road where I grew up whom I hadn’t seen in probably 20 years, plus another one who had no idea I was writing for a living, and did a wonderfully classic double-take when he saw me. :) And a third whom we had no idea was living in Fairbanks, but who is in fact actually working part-time at the B&N, so that was all-around awesome.
Ted, more than once, went dashing off to the shelved books to get copies of books I’d sold all the copies of (HEART OF STONE and THE QUEEN’S BASTARD, mostly) from my little display table. Ted is an awfully good guy.
One woman, the mother of a fan who lives in Chicago, came by with a bag full of books that her daughter’d sent to have signed, so that was awesome. Equally awesome was the fact that the grandmother accompanying the mother saw fit to move two large display/signs so people could actually see me when they came into the store. :)
Another gentleman whose wife had gone to UAF’s creative writing program told me the story of how they’d met when she’d picked him up off a fantasy bookrack at a used bookstore. :) She’d apparently come to Alaska with a fella, and they’d broken up shortly after arriving, so she’d gone to drown her sorrows by stopping by the bookstore, and found someone she knew to talk about it to. She said, “I guess I’m free to date now. Maybe him,” she said, gesturing to my storyteller. “He’s kind of cute. Tell him he should ask me out.”
“Ah!” said the friend, “that’s my friend John! John! Ask Mary out, she thinks you’re cute!”
That was thirty years ago. :)
Anyway, so it was a good day. We did a very little bit of shopping before the signing, but there were no mad crushes of people (though the parking lots were all crammed full), and we had a specific shopping list, so it was pretty strategic strike. That’s the only kind of shopping I like to do anyway, so it was all good. :)