Rainy paths and long winding roads

I have my first booksigning of this year in a couple of weeks and getting a little nervous. I haven't had a booksigning in a couple years and I have been reading articles, writers' blogs, letters and posts about booksigings and other things of that nature. One thing I've noticed is that a lot of authors do not hold booksignings. They have several reasons: cost, not enough in sales, and the closing of book stores is increasing. Why try to set up a book tour when you can go on virtual book tour with other blogs? That is something I want to look into. I think it's not saves on all the reasons listed before but I think you could cover a larger range of people. When I have my booksigning in Cleveland, a lot of my Indy people won't be able to come. On a virtual book tour, any and everyone can chcek it out. If they can't come by the blog on the specific day, they can always check it out later. So I'm definitely looking into that. I have decided that I want to set up an online book release party. For the same reasons, I want to have a nice online party and talk about Karma and take care of everything without spending all the money. So we shall see. I hope everything works out.

Funny thing happened...

A week ago, I was at the library writing like usual and this girl walked up to me. She worked there. I had seen her every time I was in there. She had to have been 20, 21 years old. She asked me if I was a writer. I said yes. She thought so because I'm always writing and I always lay my book in front of me for all to see. She asks me a few questions about being a writer and then leaves. I was like cool. That was nice. She comes back with a folder in her hand. She then asks me, "Can you read this essay for me? I've written this over and over and still feel like it's not right." I had just hit a writing speed bump so I said yes. This chick opened up the folder and it was a six page essay! At first I looked at it like what the hell! But...I did it anyway. Now, I wouldn't call myself an editor at all. I almost always need someone to look over my stuff, but I digress. She told me I could mark on it--pretty much do what I wanted. I marked things I thought were wrong and some really good lines. By the end of it, though, I had a lot more wrong marks. When I handed her the paper, she gave me this look like "Damn, I shouldn't have given it to her." I told her not be discouraged and just look at it one more time. Before she left, I gave her my card and asked her to check out my website when she had the chance. My card also has my cell number. She called me yesterday and said she got an A- (94) on her paper and her sorority sisters plan on reading "Karma Has a Name". That made me smile.