Snow and Book Signing at Barnes & Noble

December 13, 2008, the impossible happened: It snowed in Winter Garden, Florida. True! No matter this snow was trucked in and laid in place to form a marvelous slide for kids to play on. The snow was part of a Reading Reindeer book event, and I was invited to sign at Barnes & Noble at Winter Garden Village at Fowler Groves.

Look at what the good people at Barnes & Noble did for me! I know this photo is a little blurry, but can I tell you that happiness and awe rushed through me when I saw this display.
Inside, I spoke with Kathy Aber, of The West Orange Times, who helped arrange my appearance at B&N.

I met a lot of great girls and a lot of moms too!


And one thing I learned from reading JA Konrath's blog is that you don't have to stay behind your table. I circulated the store, passing out my bookmarks and chatting with people. I even helped one lady find Twilight.

I did a short reading and discussion bit, and most of the girls I met are also budding writers. They had good questions and they were just so interested, it made me want to give them as much as I could.


I could give you some tips on book signings, but if you've been good enough to read this far, I am going to tell you the Super Secret to Selling Books. The casual reader will look at the photo below and assume I don't know how to use red-eye reduction in Photoshop. Not so, my writerly fiends, I mean friends. Look closely. I am using my gamma ray powers to sell a book. Notice how I waited till the mother looked away. Mwahaha.

Violet Raines Trailer on Scholastic Site!

The Violet Raines trailer filmed by Scholastic last November is up on their site!

Aack! It's scary to be on film! But the guys at Scholastic did such a great job--lightning strikes throughout the video, and the music adds excitement.

Click here to watch the trailer. Hope you enjoy it!

Brian Regan, Birdbaths, B&N, Courtney and Travis

Just wanted to check in with a few bits and unrelated pieces of my life. No transitions provided!

Brian Regan--I love him! I will, however, let him come to Orlando and see him only every other time. Due to my vigilant ticket buying, DVD watching, YouTube searching, Letterman sightings (I am relentless), I was familiar with the majority of the bits. And, to my crushing disappointment, Brian didn't come out to sign autographs. The guard kept saying he wouldn't, but the other faithful and I didn't believe her until a fancy tour bus emerged from a super secret location and passed us. Someone waved from the bus window. I'd like to think it was Brian.

Orlando has had several freeze warnings. This resulted in the water in both birdbaths icing over. (No ice skating.)

I had a book signing at Barnes & Noble, and I attended and spoke at SCBWI Miami on the First Books Panel. (More on those in a different post.)

Also, congrats to my bb Courtney Summers for the fantastic debut of her young adult novel, Cracked Up to Be. CUTB is listed as a category bestseller on Amazon; one trip through the book will tell you why. I found Parker Fadley to be a realistic character thrown into a situation she handles in a most believable way. I'm taking a second ride through this book and will blog on it more extensively later.

Finally, our hearts go out to Travis Erwin and his family--for those of you who haven't heard, their house burned to the ground earlier this month. If you'd like to help, you can contribute money or goods through this website: Habitat for Travis.

That's all for now. Catch up with you later!

Steve Cares

Brian Regan TONIGHT!

Brian Regan will be spinning his comedic gold tonight and I will be there!

Some time ago ago, I received an email alerting me that tickets for Brian Regan would go on sale the next day at 10 a.m. By 10:01 the next morning, I had purchased five floor seats close to the front! All right! I cannot wait.

I have been the epitome of discipline. From the moment I bought the tickets, I refrained from searching for new Brian bits on the Internet--I want to see it all live, then I'll get the DVD.

At the end of his act, Brian always comes out for an encore. This is the part where audience members shout the names of bits they want to hear; the key here is that there's a space, a few seconds after a joke is over, before people start yelling again. I will usurp that space and yell the piece I want to hear--"Flipper."

I will report later on my success. In the meantime, please enjoy this short bit.