3-2-1 Launch!

i love a good party. i love planning a good party. heck, i even love cleaning up after a good party.

but i always dread the days leading up to the party - when you start to count on your fingers who RSVP'd and who didn't - when you start to wonder whether anyone will show up. because it's not a good party without guests. that's why i have to say THANK YOU to everyone who came out Saturday night to help me launch BUTTER into the world.

Thank you for your enthusiasm, for your laughter...

Thank you for buying BUTTER and waiting so patiently in line to get it signed...

and Thank you especially for eating the food!! :D

as much as i loved having my friends and family there to support me, the biggest - and BEST - surprise of the night was seeing so many new faces. what a rush to meet the fellow writer who came out because she was touched by something i had written here on the blog... the reader who had reached out to me via email to share a very personal story after reading BUTTER... the young man who just happened to be browsing for books and stopped to listen to the talk and then stayed to buy a book. you all made my night!

i have to admit, all the preparations for the launch and my nerves had me wishing slightly that i could just get it over with. but from the moment i said hi to the first guest until i'd signed the very last book, i was having the time of my life.
it was a thrill like riding a roller coaster - you love every screaming soaring minute of it, but when it's over, you realize it's gone by too fast, and you just want to turn around and get right back on.

writing is such a solitary thing. it's hard to know if what you're doing will reach anyone in a meaningful way. maybe that's why moments like holding my book for the first time and seeing it in stores didn't hit me the way i had hoped they would. for me, the most powerful moment of this journey so far happened Saturday. meeting readers face to face and talking with them about the book reminded me that writing may start out as a solo effort, but when that book gets out into the world, it's like sending an invitation to one great big party. and i, for one, hope the party never ends.

best lines and borders

so this is it - my final final word on Borders.
it has to be final, because as of today, the doors are locked.
i checked in on the neighborhood store a few times during the going-out-of-business sale, just to take mental snapshots as the stock thinned and the prices dropped. i was thrilled to see the YA section was among the first to sell out, even before the steepest price cuts. and i've been happy, too, to see more cars parked outside of the nearby Indie and to see my favorite local Indie store as crowded as ever.
but every time i walked into Borders and saw the dark cafe, i wondered about the people who used to fill the tables - especially the ladies who got together every weekend to play Mahjong.

finally, this weekend, i spotted those ladies. our neighborhood grocery store is an experiment in luxury. it has a wine bar, cafes and even a book nook with tall dark shelves and ladders and cozy tables. step into the book nook, and you don't even know you're in a grocery store. AND - step into the book nook on a Saturday afternoon, and that's where you'll find my ladies, crowded around one of those tables playing Mahjong. i knew they'd find a place to play, but it did my heart good to see they still play in a place where they are surrounded by books.

time marches on and all that.

now for a round of "best lines."
warning! foul language ahead! ...well, really just one naughty word, and i didn't even write it, for once!

this line is from a book i just finished, Bill Carter's The War for Late Night (When Leno went early and television went crazy):

But the "People of Earth" letter - the manifesto, as NBC came to call it - changed the tone. This wasn't just Conan saying no; it was Conan saying no, and you're wrong, and, by the way, go fuck yourselves.

these lines are from a book i'm reading now, Slice of Cherry by Dia Reeves:

Kit was elder, after all, and as hardheaded as a statue - once she set herself on a path, dynamite couldn't blow her off it.

and

"Trying to understand Daddy is like trying to nail jelly to a tree."

i have a feeling i'll have some more "best lines" from Slice of Cherry by the time i'm done.

celebrating our independents

the sign is up. it's all official and stuff:

wait, what?? i don't blog for a week and a half, and when i come back, i'm STILL talking about Borders?
well, no, not exactly. i'm actually making up for my "woe-is-Borders" post with a "but, YAHOO! look who's THRIVING!" post.

i pitched this story about independent Phoenix bookstore, Changing Hands, and i think our reporter, Tyler, did a nice job with it.



a couple of weeks ago, i pulled a book off a shelf at Changing Hands and realized it was a signed copy. looking around the YA section a little more, i saw many signed copies, tucked away like secrets to be discovered by lucky readers.

just today, i found a book i've been looking for forever at CH. (i am allergic to ordering things online.) this book is sold out everywhere, but because CH is an independent that both sells AND BUYS books, there was a copy on the shelf marked "used." so i got a perfect-condition hardcover for half price!

these are both things i could never find at my Borders, and they were both worth the 40-minute trip to CH.

so, instead of lamenting the loss of Borders, today i am celebrating the success of independents and counting my blessings that i live in a city that has several. :D