Wrapping Up

I’m sitting at Newark waiting to board my flight back to Seattle after a weekend in New Jersey for my final Mrs. Perfect book events. I feel like it’s the last day of school before summer after a hectic round of exams. No more traveling to promote Mrs Perfect, no more book clubs, no more speaking, at least not until July 27th when I head to San Francisco for the RWA national conference.

Although I’m painfully tired this morning–I slept only an hour and fifty minutes last night–I’m so happy I came to New Jersey this weekend. The events went great and at Books & Greetings in Northvale on Saturday night book store owner, Kenny Sarafin, went out of his way to make me feel like a star. He served wine and cheese, had tons of books, had chairs and readers and hand sold me like crazy. I love Kenny. His store has to be one of my favorites anywhere. People have asked me why I do an event in such a little town in northern New Jersey and I say, because Kenny’s there. If you are an author and don’t know Kenny, send him a note, or send an arc, and introduce yourself. He really is that wonderful.

But I can’t give Kenny all the credit. My readers are wonderful, too, and several traveled quite a distance to join me Saturday night. Sue and Helen and Cindy all drove an hour or more to see me. Sue brought her husband from Long Island. Helen her daughter and friend Grace. Cindy raced through a daughter’s birthday party to meet me and then had car trouble enroute so her husband had to drive an hour and a half, too, to make sure her car was in condition to be driven home. Even my driver was a star. He picked me up from my Woodbridge hotel at 4 pm and I told him I should be finished around 8, 8:30 at the latest. Instead with readers continuing to arrive even at 9, I stayed to make sure I met everyone and signed books for all that wanted one. I didn’t end up leaving the store until 10 pm.

I spoke to the NJ RWA chapter Saturday, too, giving my two hour Hero & Heroine workshops. Author Lois Winston had arranged to bring me out six months earlier and the chapter’s terrific. It’s a big group and dynamic with lots of publishing successes. I was glad when my reader friend Mitchy was able to join me for the day. I’ve wanted to meet her for a couple years now so it was really fun to have her there.

I promise to post photos soon from my trip. Now it’s back home to finish my book. I’m on chapter twelve–which is good–but there are at least ten more chapters to go.

More from Seattle!