Author Archives: wendywelch

Piece of Cake

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My first book signing was Saturday. I went to Union Avenue Books, owned by Flossie and her daughter Bunny. (Feel free to try, but they’ve heard all the name jokes already.)

The unflappable Flossie, wearing a pretty orange scarf about a foot longer than she is, introduced me to 25 or so people standing around, waiting for something to happen. Turns out they were waiting for me. Well, that was nice of them!

I wanted my first signing to  be in Knoxville, the closest thing I have to a hometown. I went to university there, and my parents still live in the area. In fact, they showed up at the signing with a cake decorated to look like my book’s jacket–and a good story about how Mom got it.

The people at the cake decorating place said they couldn’t do the cover design, because it was copyrighted. My mother pointed out that it was my house on the cover, and my book it was covering, but this cut no cake–er, mustard–with the Food City team. She then suggested that all the evidence would be eaten before the copyright police could be called, it being a Saturday and them not working weekends and all. The cake decorators thought this over, then agreed they could reproduce the design IF my name was in a different color than on the book.

Whew. Glad Mom dodged jail time on that one.

So with cake, Flossie guiding the proceedings, Jack reading the “lost Chunky” story from the book, and me telling in my own words the “lonely cop prologue” story, a little Q&A and a whole lot of laughs, my first book signing went down a treat. Piece of cake, really.

Among the attendees were five ex-pat Big Stone Gappers, who’d read about the signing in the (very nice) articles that ran in the Daily Times and the Knoxville News Sentinel. We held “is it still there” conversations before the event started. Also attending was my honors program adviser from the nearby university, Dr. Wheeler. (I apologized to him for letting down the scholarship program that had given me a free four-year ride, by becoming a writer and academic. I know Dr. W had better hopes for his proteges.)

And it was lovely to have three friends show up: Carolyn, Ginger, and Maria, with friends of theirs towed in their wake.  They, along with the very pleasant strangers and Gap-ois, made a well-rounded audience who asked great questions and took care of the copyrighted cake quite nicely.

So it is now safe to say that my first book signing was a piece of cake.

3,2,1 LUNCH–er, Launch

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So Tuesday past was the launch day of my book. A memorable day in so many ways; I spent it throwing up.

Nah, not nerves: flu. Apparently it’s come early to rural Virginia this year.

Between visits to the toilet and “just take me now Lord” prayers, I checked Facebook. It’s what one does on these occasions….

And my friends, the ones from the midnight opening of the bookstore (for those who didn’t know, we opened at 12:01 Tuesday morning so a half dozen of our most loyal customers could get their copies) were sending notes.

“On chapter 14, and laughing myself silly!”

“You are describing just what it was like for me when I came to Big Stone.”

“Ha! This is so accurate!” (which didn’t have any additional information attached to it, and has kind of become a catch phrase for me now. It’s just so succinct and yet so… wide-ranging.)

And emails and facebook likes and comments were coming from people I didn’t know, who’d bought the book that day in their local bookshops in various locations across the States. That was fun, to hear from those reading in Vermont and California. (And thanks to Jennifer Gough at Ebenezer Books who put it on her “staff picks” shelf!) And there were people who won the book in promotional giveaways from St. Martin’s Press; some were posting reviews on Goodreads and Amazon, others sending notes and comments–nice comments!

But the funniest moment came when Jack gave a shout of laughter from behind his computer screen. “You’re not gonna believe this! We’re in Walmart!”

Sure enough, he showed me the link. Walmart’s offerings include a book that extols the virtues of shopping small in local communities. And what do you wanna bet the Walmart up the hill behind us will sell the book that’s about the bookstore below them?

It’s a mad, mad, crazy world out there, so I did what any sensible person would do under those circumstances: crawled back into bed with the basin beside me. Go by, mad world.