Reader Dinners

My reader dinners have been the best thing I’ve done in terms of career in years. I LOVE meeting with my readers and having a chance to sit down and just relax and talk over a good meal.

Why host my own dinners? For one, I love treating my loyal readers to a girls night out. And for another, it’s so hard to talk in a bookstore setting, and as more and more bookstores cut back on signings and formal events I find that I end up stressing quite a bit about the success of a store event. In stores there is definitely pressure to perform–how many people will come? How many books will be sold? Does the bookstore like commercial fiction authors? And most worrying, how will the bookseller feel if the numbers aren’t what they hope them to be?

It’s a totally different ballgame with my dinners. When I host my dinners, I know ahead of time how many are coming and where they’re coming from. I pick a good restaurant and make reservations and as people arrive we order cocktails and drinks and there are fun goodie bags at everyone’s place. Basically, I’m throwing a party in your area and I love these laid back fun girl events and I always leave sooooo grateful to have my readers who have become my friends.

In the next week I’ll be sharing more photos from my trip to the East and Southeast and here are two to get us started. Both of the pictures are from the book club I attended in Cumming, Georgia last Friday night. Allie Smith invited me ages ago and once I knew I’d be heading to Kentucky I shot her an email and voila! We were able to put together a great girls night out at Buckhead Pizza. As you can see from the group shot above, it was a fantastic turnout of fantastic women and my only regret is that I couldn’t have spent another couple hours with them instead of rushing to the airport to fly to Lexington.

While I was playing in Georgia, Kentucky and New Jersey, what were you doing? Have you begun your Christmas shopping? Are your plans for Thanksgiving all set? Fill me in and you could win one of my 2 mystery packages packed full of really cool stuff like books, a gift card and lots, lots more. The contest is a shortie–it runs through Thursday night and I’ll announce the 2 winners Friday morning.

And while I’m really glad to be home with all my boys (Surfer Ty is here right now, too) I do miss those amazing women I spent the last four days with. I can’t mention everyone here (after all, I had dinners with 79 of you!) I am so grateful you took time to join me, chat books and life, and meet each other. There’s a reason I’m successful… it’s called YOU.