Tuesday night's group signing at the Cary Barnes & Noble

Tuesday night, I joined four other local SF and fantasy authors--David Drake, Kelly Gay, Lisa Shearin, and James Maxey--in what has become an annual event, our group panel discussion and signing at the Cary Barnes and Noble. All of us had books that had recently appeared, and the store had them all in stock, so the timing of the event was great. I even got to see for the first time the paperback version of The Wild Side.

As usual, the crowd, which numbered something around 35 people, was a nice size, and the people acted interested and asked good questions.

We began by introducing ourselves and our most recent books. Here I am showing off (and flogging) No Going Back, whose lovely John Picacio cover always makes a great first impression.

As always, click on a photo to see a larger image. All photos courtesy of Gina.

After that brief bit of plugging, Linda Maloof and her fine Barnes and Noble team asked the audience for questions. Folks asked us about everything from Ray Bradbury to books we'd recommend, and from our writing processes to how much we altered our work to try to hit commercial demands. (In my case, the answer to that last question was a resounding "Never!" and then a bit of a rant.)

Here we all are watching James as he responds to a question.

I must be answering something in this next photo, but I appear to be trying to cast a spell on someone.

I really did, by the way, have a name sheet in front of me, or at least I think I did, but in all these shots I appear to be sitting in front of Lisa's. Sorry about that.

After we finished, we all signed books for those who bought them and generally hung out and chatted. I was pleased to see the store sold out of its (admittedly small number of) copies of both No Going Back and Children No More. Here's the audience dispersing as we moved into that phase of the evening.

My thanks again to Linda and her team. They did a great job with the event, and I look forward to repeating it next year.

About the signing the other night

It went pretty well. I couldn't get a firm fix on the size of the crowd, but I'm pretty sure it topped fifty folks, people who braved a dark and stormy night (really) to come see us yak. Linda Maloof, the Community Relations Manager for this B&N and the organizer of the event, kicked us off with a question from her podium. We each answered it, and then Linda opened the floor to audience questions.

As part of our introductory answers, we each had the opportunity to flog our current works. I hate posting pictures of myself, but I've taken enough grief for not doing so that I'll put up one this time. In it, I'm standing and explaining about my project to raise money to help child soldiers and other children affected by war. (If you missed that post, I am donating 100% of the money I make from the sales of the hardback of Children No More to Falling Whistles, an organization that helps such children.)

The thing I'm holding is a mock-up of the final dust jacket of the book. If you look closely, you can see the gold whistle on its back; I'm wearing that same whistle.

To my surprise, the event lasted over two hours, and it could have gone longer; the audience was great. After it ended, we signed books and then visited in small groups for another half hour before finally dispersing.

All in all, it was a pleasant evening with a vastly better turn-out than I had expected. I thank all who attended.


(pictures courtesy of Gina)