The Flirting with Forty release party at Bellevue’s Barnes & Noble was great fun last night. We had about 70 people attend the bookstore event and about the same number drop in at Ooba Tooba’s for the Mai Tais and music, although not everyone attended both. Lots of the guys skipped the bookstore reading (can’t say I blame them) and just showed up at the restaurant for food and drink, and others just wanted to get a signed book but not party. I was simply thrilled that people showed up period.
I’d been increasingly nervous about party and book’s release–why I don’t know, but that’s me, a bona fide cortisol junkie–but an email from my editor yesterday morning helped me shift gears. She’d written to let me know the good news that the book has gone back for a third printing already, making it 32,000 copies for a book that doesn’t officially hit store shelves until today, which is fabulous. More than fabulous. I might finally start breathing again.
I’ve been worried. I mean, sure, I worry about everything, but this worry is different. This worry stemmed from the fact that Flirting wasn’t just putting a little toe in the water to test the temperature, it was a throwing of the whole self in. I’m not writing as many Harlequins as I used to and I don’t want to lose my readers. I love my readers. But what if my readers didn’t love what I’m writing now? What if my readers went away?
So far–and it’s only been a day, but you know me, always grasping eagerly at straws–they haven’t gone away. In fact, they–or those marvelous Redbook Magazine readers who’ve been reading the excerpts of Flirting in this summer’s magazine–have been buying lots of copies of Flirting. And it may never happen again, and it might just be a brief happy thing, so I’m going to share it, but over at Amazon Flirting tonight was ranked #886. If you’re Nora Roberts or Christine Feehan or Sophie Kinsella #886 might not be good, but for me, it’s brilliant. It’s tripping the light fantastic and I’m humbled and happy and grateful.
And hopeful.
I hope the book will continue to do well. It’s only been ‘out’ a day but it’s in 3x the number of bookstores Frog Prince was. It’s being carried by Costco and Target and it could be in your local bookstore, too.
So it’s good, all good, and there you have the arrival. Of Flirting. Of a larger print run. Of a strong showing at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.com. Of more good things to come.
The departure? Our little much loved, extremely playful Skitty Kitty (the kitten in Hawaii) died today. It’s not right, and not fair, but at least she/he was with Surfer Ty at the very end. And that is a very good place to be.
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