Well, all of you living within 300 miles of Salt Lake City who decided not to come last night, you missed out. We had a great time at The King's English, and I feel like I've officially arrived having been a guest at their awesome bookstore.
The crowd was exactly as I'd hoped - big enough to have fun but small enough to have fun. A super duper Dashner Dude thanks to Jenn Northington of TKE for setting it all up and treating me so well. We're pretty much buds now and I look forward to more events in her store.
By the way, TKE is hosting an exclusive party for the launch of Stephenie Meyer's new book, THE HOST, when it comes out. Stephenie will be there, which is one of an extremely limited number of events she'll be doing. Yeah, that's right. Me and Stephenie Meyer, same store. I think she'll have more people. In fact, they're doing it at a high school. Some day for me!
Anyway, last night was really fun. I did my very first offical reading of THE 13TH REALITY, doing the first chapter. I tried my best to perform a British accent for MG, but failed miserably. Still, the kids in the audience seemed pretty enraptured if I do say so myself. Although it would've been way cooler if Mark Wright could've done it (did the audio version of my book).
A lot of the people there were friends and family, which was nice. But I also got to meet some cool kids, like Kailee and Kiley and Noah and Nathaniel and Ian and okay, I better stop because I'm gonna leave someone out. My cuz Kristie was even there! And Don came all the way from Texas! Well, kind of not really.
My good author friends Sara Zarr (STORY OF A GIRL) and Jessica Day George (DRAGON SLIPPERS) came (check out their blogs now!), which made me feel all special. Angie Wager (my longtime supporter and friend) was there, too, and might never forgive me for outing her as a Barnes and Noble employee within the walls of an independent bookstore. Jessica's agent, Amy Jameson, also came - she's way cool.
You may be asking yourself, why is James giving us a list of the people at his signing? The answer would be: no particular reason. Shut it.
Oh, and my awesome editor and her husband came (Lisa and Tracy Mangum) and brought me cookies! Such nice, if a little strange, people they are (hello, that's a compliment). Tracy took some pictures and posted them on my sis's Flickr site for The 13th Reality if you'd like to see: CLICK HERE. You should also check out Tracy's blog. Great stuff on there.
Hmm, what else? I ate at this sweet Italian cafe before the signing called Fresco's. Very, very good, and I'll be returning with the missus for sure.
Okay, I think that's just about enough on that. Even I'm bored now.
This weekend is the Storymaker's Conference in Sandy, UT. It's gonna be awesome as usual - it sold out of spots well over a month ago. Yours truly will be participating in 3 different workshop sessions, one of which will be with the utterly terrible and ugly J. Scott Savage. You might not have heard of him yet, but trust me, he is terrible and ugly. His first book comes out this August with my same publisher. Woot.
The only problem with this scenario: the NCAA tourney starts this weekend. I've never heard of such tragic scheduling in all my life. Good thing CBS streams it online baby!!!!!
Hey, Miss Zoot liked my book so much she upped her giveaway to 3 books! Check it out and put your name in the hat: CLICK HERE. Miss Zoot is pretty much awesome.
Man, I feel so lost now that I'm not reporting every day on a tour. Good news on that, by the way. Angie told me her little analysis of my trip showed they came out ahead. Which, evidently, is better than NOT coming out ahead. Woot. Also, I was the #8 bestseller in all the Deseret Book stores last week. Woot. (Honestly, I don't know what "woot" means or if I'm using it correctly.)
Oh, btw to Ron Simpson: the reason I'm so behind on Lost is BECAUSE we have a DVR. All the episodes are sitting there nice and pretty, waiting for a certain Lost marathon that will occur very soon in the Dashner household. Can't wait. NO SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wow, random. I'm pretty sure it's time to end this post now. I promise to be more interesting next time. Later!
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8 comments:
Man, I really REALLY wish I had been able to be there Jamestown. Sounds like you had a blast! Did you wife and kids show up?
So James. I went to Barnes and Noble today to buy your book. I was wrestling all my kids, so my husband said he'd buy the book, and I could head out to the car. After he bought the book and we met up again, he said "Wow. Those ladies behind the counter were going on and on about how great this book is. When I told them that my wife's cousin wrote it, they freaked out." One of them gave him her card and said "Will you please, please, please get him up here for a book signing? We would sell TONS of books!!" I'm impressed!! And now Casey is really excited to read it.
Sis, the family didn't come. Too late for the kids. Well, my kids, anyway.
Summersfam, aka cuz Karen, that is so awesome! Thanks for telling me that. It's so cool to hear about the book having buzz in a place I've never been before. I'll have to tell my publisher (got your email).
Hi James! We had a great time at King's English. Coolest bookstore in SLC. Not as large as Sam Wellers, but I really liked the place. I have some ideas brewing for the LOST season finale party in a few months. If I can get Mark to come, are you in? :)
Tracy
I did the same thing with my DVR on the Sarah Conners Chronicles. I wathced the first two episodes, then my writing class started and I recorded the rest. Last weekend I sat down and did laudnry and watched them all.
One day, you will have a book launch in a large venue. Just wait. I can predict the future....except for winning lottery numbers.
Scoops, that sounds fun. We'll have to see if we can caught up by then!
Ron, thanks for the pep talk!
I know who the Oceanic Six are! Nah Nah Nah Nah Nah!
I give you props for spot-on use of "woot." :-D
It's fun and very interesting to read about this crazy whirlwind world of book tours and signings and all those things that aspiring novelists never really think of. It looks like the work doesn't exactly end just because the manuscript does...
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