Sunday, December 7, 2008

I signed books, I went off my diet (big time!), I got pressies, aka My Saturday in a Nutshell!

Yesterday was quite the whirlwind! It started around 11:30 AM, when three of my closest friends arrived. We adjourned to the living room to exchange our Christmas gifts. Much hilarity ensued, especially when I opened this big, honking gift from my friend Shael, who's become quite the knitting enthusiast this year. So much so that she...

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Knitted me a TARDIS!!

Now if she could knit me a Doctor to go along with it! (I'll give you a hint, Shael - I'd like mine in a size Ten!! :P)

After that, we went out to our favorite Chinese buffet and stuffed ourselves silly with all sorts of MSG-laced food. I'm not allowed Chinese food on my diet, so I felt like a very, very bad girl, even if I enjoyed every bite.

Then it was on to Borders for my book-signing. It wasn't at all what I expected, other than the fact that I only sold four books. But hey, that's four books I wouldn't have sold otherwise! Here's a pic of me sitting there, waiting for the thundering hordes:

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See how calm I look? When the whole time I was thinking, "Don't have a panic attack, don't have a panic attack..."

I put a bowl of candy on the table, but all it attracted was kids! One little girl picked up my book and started reading it, so I took it out of her hands and told her she could read it once she turned eighteen. There was a woman who came over and seemed interested, until I told her it was a m/m/f menage a trois romance, then she curled her lip. However, it didn't stop her from asking me a whole bunch of questions about getting published, because "I've got these stories in my head I'd love to write down. I've always wanted to be a writer." I just sat there with a frozen smile on my face, thinking, "Uh, no, you haven't always wanted to be a writer. Because if you had, YOU'D BE ONE!!"

I had a rather interesting conversation with this one man, an emigrant from the former Soviet Union, who'd been a published author back in his native country. He told me all kinds of fascinating stories about what it was like trying to work as a writer under a repressive Communist regime. Now he works as a writing teacher at the local community college. He didn't buy a book, but I signed a postcard and gave him a couple of my bookmarks. It was a real pleasure just talking to him.

A couple of fellow authors from my RWA chapter showed up and bought copies, as well as another author from the San Jose chapter whom I'd never met before. I was very touched that they'd all driven so far out of their way to come support me.

Just as I was getting ready to leave, this teenage girl comes up, takes one of the signed copies off the shelf behind me, and starts thumbing through it. When I asked her how old she was, she said, "Fourteen," and walked off to the cash register to buy it! Great! Now I'll be accused of corrupting the morals of a minor!

Afterwards, we all came back to my place and sat around watching the last couple of episodes of Supernatural while we ordered out pizza for dinner. Something else that isn't on my diet! I'm gonna have to pedal that ^%$#@! exercise bike for days!

So that was my first book-signing. Not bad for a maiden voyage, I guess. ;)

26 comments:

Unknown said...

*SQUEE*! A TARDIS! I want the real one, though...with the Doctor in it. :D

Sounds like things went great--go you!

Aubrey Leatherwood said...

Cat that's an awesome recap. Sounds like it was a great Saturday. Although, I confess, I'm really interested by your friend's um kniting projects.

--AUB

Cat Grant said...

Adrianne: Yeah, I hear that! I've got one of those small toy ones too, but it isn't bigger on the inside than the outside, unfortunately!

Aubrey: Shael's pretty creative with her knitting. She's done scarves with alien faces and the Impala from Supernatural too. ;)

Cassie Exline said...

Tardis? What's a tardis?

Congrats on your wonderful day and it was wonderful. Four books is four books.

Tardis, huh? My daughter knits, but I don't think she can add a doctor. lol

Unknown said...

I wound up calling my car the TARDIS because people kept telling me it looks bigger on the inside. :D

It's even the right shade of blue!

Cat Grant said...

Cassie: The TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimension in Space) is the Doctor's time machine/ship from the British sci-fi series Doctor Who.

Emily said...

Congrats on selling four books ~ that's great!!

And nice blonde hair. ;-)

Cat Grant said...

Emily: Thanks! And the hair... it's so bright when I first get it done! A 49-year-old woman with golden-yellow hair... yeah, that looks very natural! *eyeroll*

Anonymous said...

Congratulations and well done! Four books is a start. Next time it will be forty.

Emma Wayne Porter said...

Congrats, love. The first cut is the deepest, they say, and you survived and had fun, too, which is the most important part.

Anonymous said...

Congrats, Cat! We really wished we could have been there, but you're clear across the country. :(

Glad you had a nice time.

Cat Grant said...

Thanks for dropping by, Em. Hey, know knows? Maybe next time I'll sell ten copies. ;)

Rita St. Claire said...

Thanks for sharing your experience, Cat.

robynl said...

now I'm wanting a Chinese buffet right now; LOL. I love it. Glad you had a good time.

Jennifer Skully/Jasmine Haynes said...

You did great, Cat! I can't wait to finish reading the book. I peaked and read the first chapter, but then things got crazy and busy. Hopefully tonight! With a nice glass of wine, some chocolate and a soak in the tub.

And I do have to laugh so hard. That Soviet guy came to my signing, too, and talked for a very long time! Jeff at the Del Monte Borders told me he is quite a staple at the store.

Thanks so much for stopping by and trying out my books, too! It was a total pleasure meeting you!

Angie said...

Oh, ROFL! Tell Shael that's awesome! :D

I think I like Ten best too, but I have to admit that when I actually watched Nine in the new series (I was never a Who fan before, but got into it after Torchwood sucked me in) he has a powerful charisma about him which isn't obvious if all you've seen is still photos.

The thought of doing a bookstore signing just paralyzes me. O_O I can imagine myself just sitting there for hour after hour, trying hard to maintain a plastic smile while shoppers wander by, completely ignoring me and my stack of books. [hides under keyboard]

And having to police the ages of people buying your stuff? :P The bookstores don't do that -- I was buying incredibly explicit romances (snowballing, anyone?) from the time I was twelve, so why should you have to take books out of teenagers' hands?

I think you're incredibly brave, though. :D

Angie

Cat Grant said...

Angie: Yeah, if I'd known before what I know now, I'd probably think twice about it, but I guess every experience has its ups and downs. As for the teenager... well, there's not much I could do to stop her from buying the book. If her parents aren't keeping an eye on what she's reading, that's not my problem.

Angie said...

As for the teenager... well, there's not much I could do to stop her from buying the book. If her parents aren't keeping an eye on what she's reading, that's not my problem.

Exactly. [nod] And who's to say her parents would even object? I started reading historical romances at twelve because my mom started lending me hers. She certainly knew what was in them and didn't mind my reading them. It's not up to the bookstores to tell someone under eighteen that they can't read this or that, if their parents approve. And if their parents don't approve then it's their job to monitor what their kids are doing.

Angie

Cat Grant said...

Angie: And there much more explicit stuff being written in fan fiction, which anyone with a computer and a search engine can find.

Jasmine: Great meeting you too! Thanks so much for coming to my signing. If it hadn't been for you, Carolyn and Bette, the only copy I sold would've been to the fourteen-year-old!

Maria dj Maso said...

Don't worry about the teenage girl. I read all of Gordon Merrick's book (lots of gay sex) in my teens.

Anonymous said...

Congrats on your first Book Signing event! ^^

The covers of your books are such eye candies, I'm surprised that you didn't get more of curious people lining up to buy, browse the pages, or ask about the summary of the story.

Gemini Love said...

manage a trois?

Hm..... may have to check that out.

Cat Grant said...

Hey, newcomers! Thanks for commenting!

Maria: A good friend of mine grew up in San Francisco. She used to hang out at the public library near Castro Street and read gay porn - when she was twelve! Which, I suppose, explains a lot... ;)

anemoi: A lot of people looked, but then scurried away. I don't think they wanted other people to see them looking at *gasp* dirty books!

Lex Valentine said...

I do think people get embarrassed being seen picking up a book with naked men on the cover. LOL Having lived most of my life in Monterey County (30 years!) I know that people in that area can be ultra conservative. Which probably accounts for the fact that there are tons of teen pregnancies there. HEH. If you had been sitting in a SF bookstore you would have been swamped!

Anonymous said...

snug into here because i saw you are a writer. Anyway, i'm kinda interested the novel that you are writing, i'm just wondering since i'm overseas...do you think...you have some in online store, so i can buy it?

Cat Grant said...

Lex: You're right, people around here are pretty conservative. There's a woman in my local RWA chapter who can barely contain her disgust whenever I talk about my work. I should tell her to go take a look at the romance shelves at Borders - they're loaded with erotic romance. So people around here are buying them. They just don't want to be seen buying them. I guess it's more fun if it's an illicit pleasure!