How many of my fellow authors have feared this thought:

What if I gave a reading and nobody came?

Well, for the most part, I pretty much know now.

I decided at one point in the month or so after my book came out, that I wanted to just fly somewhere are do a random signing.  It was an author ego thing purely, but I just wanted to remember the feeling of going somewhere for my first book.  So I chose Chicago.  The local Penguin sales rep there and I are friends, so I'd kill two birds with one stone.

So I fly into Chicago... during a snow storm.  Just coming down like crazy.  One pair of friends cancel because of the weather since they would have barely made it after work on a good day.  Two others couldn't make it due to one of them being sick...
and at ten after seven, no one has shown up at The Book Cellar.  I of course feel a leetle mortified.

However the staff has read the book and a few friends of my sales rep friend show up to meet him.. and since we're in a place with the name "cellar" in it, we polish off several bottles of wine while I talk to the staff of the store and answer their questions.  Then a guy walks in who had braved the results of the earlier storm, none other than LJ's dmoonfire.  One brave soul made it through the weather, and frankly, I was touched by his efforts.  I have planned on knifing him for his mixed review, but pity stayed my hand and it actually turned out to be a fun little night of book discussion.  So while the event wasn't a huge financial success, we did sell some copies and had some excellent wine in the end.  Not a bad way to spend a night, despite the lack of crowd.  Now that I've had my one vanity travel however, I will be more calculating with my choice of events and weather conditions.

And yes, I bought a copy of my own book there.  I'm steadily getting a collection of books I sign to myself at the venues I appear at.

Oh, I have also signed every existing copy of Dead To Me in the Chicago area. Took two days to do it, but it be done.

And another high point. I found and bought this at 57th Street books near the University of Chicago.

It doesn't embiggen more, but it's a map showing and describing where monsters of the world are originally from and giving a picture and details on them.

I love it and it is MINE! Covet away... or order them from bigstick.com