Good Experience

My book signing at Apostrophe Books went well, but it was a slow morning on 2^nd street. In a two hour slot I was only engaged in a few conversations which led to sales. My series overview intrigued many as in few words it revealed a lot as only the first sentence refers specifically to my first book:

The adventure has begun, a new race of vampires has emerged, and the Julian Empire is formed. Their sights are set on peaceful expansion with wars ever looming. Who can stand in the way of these new world titans as they assimilate the people around them? How far will they go to find their utopia on Earth, or will they have to look elsewhere? These are questions to be answered in this new genre bending vampire series by Richard Alan. Prepare yourself for “The Rising!”

Weather was a particular concern for me because physically I cannot handle the summer heat. It was in the triple digits on Saturday, but Sunday dropped back down into the low eighties. My skin still reacted with its usually pinpricking burn, but I was thankful I could handle it and stand my ground. Pictures taken showed the obvious strain by my poor forced smile; it didn’t work, and likely scared some people away as my pain translated into what looked like anger. Chocolate kisses (Vampire Kisses) brought them close like skittish birds snatching crumbs and setting off as soon as the treat was securely in hand.

Still, when I was able to engage people in conversation I was very well received back into the human race. It was amazing how quickly joy captured their mannerisms. Had my wife stayed at the table, perhaps more people would have been drawn in, but our friend, Stephanie, came by to support me, and they ran errands and talked away from the table much of the time. It didn’t bother me until I saw my poor attempt at a smile in our photos. She would have been far less scary.

It was, however, a good experience for me because it put me on a track of preparation leading up to the event. It forced me to think through my social networking online so I could pack my series promotion cards, personal business cards, and flyers with accurate information to find and interact with me in the vast world of cyberspace. It was the kick in the butt that pushed me to stop reading about it fearing the molehill that had grown into a mountain, and start diving into this world that was previously just a research and email tool. Now I am in cyberspace!

I have much to learn in this promo competition being naïve about programming, setting up my own web page, and making the pages I am at compelling by their graphics. I don’t know a thing about apps and often hit walls where I get confused and cautiously back out so as not to mess up anything I did get right. I am artistically very creative, but very slow at adapting it to this new internet medium.

Yeah, it was the adventure before the signing that was most important and, of course, the follow-through hereafter. If I can simply lure people to read the book they will find it unique in the genre, and may generate reviews about the delightfully diverse character of the story. It is written to a wide variety of interests so I expect reviews will vary except those that basically have said what I wrote here such as, “It’s truly entertaining, and full of surprises.” Thank you for the reviews none-the-less!