What a night! May 5, twenty-eight authors gathered in the UW Bookstore -Bellevue to tout our new books. I don't get rattled all that easily, but this night was something completely new for me. So many people there who knew lots of other people. I felt like I had been invited to a party where everyone knew everyone, and I was the only person new to the group.
But it wasn't like that at all. We all had our displays set out, ready for us, and the best part of it all was seeing my hardcover books for the FIRST TIME! Hats off to Lee, Donna, Heather, and Katie at
Arbordale Publishing who went above and beyond to make sure that Andrea (Gabriel, author and illustrator of Wandering Woolly, also from Arbordale) and I had our books for the event. They made it with just a couple of hours to spare!
They told us there was food and wine available to enjoy but a) I didn't find out until it was too late to get any, and b) I was so nervous, I couldn't really eat anyway. What do you do at an event like this? Do people just come up to you and talk to you? Do they actually buy your book?
What if I sit there the whole night, having driven three hours to get there, to be followed by a three-hour drive back home, and no one wants my book? It's daunting. It's frightening. And it's exhilarating!
Just before the evening began, I got a sign everything was going to be ok. Jeff (The Drake) Heckel showed up, the first of THREE former students who came to see me and buy my book. What an honor it was to sign the very first copy of
Fibonacci Zoo for Jeff and his kids. And then another Jeff (Wood) showed up with his wife. And then it was Bethany and Garrett with their kids and all of a sudden, I felt like a bit of a rock star.
I got my two minutes to speak, working through the presentation I had practiced, about 28 times while driving over (see earlier reference to three-hour drives...) and while the time slipped away before I could fully finish my story, I was able to close with my key line 'Remember, you can COUNT on Fibonacci!'
It got a few chuckles, and we moved on. The night was long, but then out of the blue, the lady sitting right in front, closest to me, won a trivia question and went to select her prize from the collection of books we had donated. She picked mine! Wow. I mean, I knew my friends would buy my book, but here was a lady I had never met who wanted, out of all the books she could choose from, mine! Later, when she came to have me sign it, I might have been beaming from ear to ear.
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| The view from my corner. |
Finally the presentations ended - and by the way, what an incredibly diverse set of stories, experiences, and perspectives. I was and still am incredulous at the talent I saw that night. But then it was the 'free-for-all' time. Well, not like the books were free for all...you still had to pay for them. But the lines started, and the books started moving, I was signing, making conversations with teachers, librarians, book sellers,etc. And it was such a rush! It was not unlike being at a farmer's market or a trade show where you see people approaching and wonder, are they coming to see me? You don't want to seem desperate or needy, but you don't want to blow them off either. It was almost an out of body experience for me. Pictures with my students, dedications to whole schools and classrooms, and just like that it was over, and there I was...with ONE copy left over. I looked around. Some authors had stacks left over. Some sold well. But I sold all but one of mine and I felt like they had gone to good homes or schools, where good kids will get to read about and learn good math.
Truth be told, afterwards, I was exhausted, emotionally spent. It didn't help that I had taught all day, then driven (how many hours was it?) across the passes to get there. But I was light as air, not wanting the night to end. I said my thank yous, grabbed some M&Ms for the road, and left, wondering when my next event would be, and how popular my book really was going to be. For one night, however, everything felt right.
So this was my first experience with a Christmas weekend and wow - it was jaw-dropping. I was worried I would be there too early and would have to find something to do for 45 minutes or so, but about 2 miles outside of town (not on the Seattle side, mind you) traffic just stopped. We inched along the whole rest of the way as the snow started to really come down. By the time I left, the snow had only picked up, and the backup (bumper to bumper) stretched for several miles. There's no way they all were going to make it for the tree lighting. But I didn't care - my work was done and I limped home with just the passenger side windshield wiper working - but that's a story for another time.
