Book signing!

...is over! It was last night at Books Inc. in Mountain View, and it was (by their standards) a smashing success. The organizer told me that local authors (read: unknowns) often get little or no turnout, but we filled fifteen seats and had people standing behind them. The bookstore sold out of the 15 books we gave them a month ago and sold nine more of the box we'd brought (they kept a few to stock, so you can still get the book there if you missed the signing). I read a chapter from "Common and Precious" (chapter 5, if you own the book, In Which Meli Meets The Kidnappers And Is Brought To A Filthy Hospital) and answered questions for about fifteen minutes, then signed for half an hour and spent another fifteen minutes talking to a journalism student (friend of a friend) who had read and enjoyed the book. So all in all, it was a great success, thanks mostly to Mark, who did a great job getting the word out to all of our assorted friends. He took pictures too (forthcoming) and helped chat people up during the event.

If you showed up, many thanks! It really means a lot to me to have people take time out of their evening and spend their hard-earned money. I gotta say, it was a lot of fun. Books Inc. had a great setup, a little podium in back and chairs for the audience, and Nadine, the organizer, was very helpful and kept things running smoothly. Mostly it was great chatting with people and being asked serious questions about my book. Yow. I need to get to do another one of those sometime soon.