I hope to do this again sometime

So tonight was our book signing. Ann Bremer, Emily Zied, and myself. The man who was our contact person hadn't been very optimistic about the whole thing, as they usually only have "big names" do signings. Oh well.....

We were to start at 7:00 pm. Ann and I arrive, and there is a stack of books on a table, chairs for each of us, and chairs in front of us....like for an audience to sit at. (?) I think to myself, "That must be where people wait when the line is too long!" (wishful thinking, I know.)

People start to arrive. We have smiles frozen on our faces because we're really not sure what we're supposed to do. One woman comes in with her teenage son with DS and says, "So what time do you start speaking?"

Speaking?

This is what my face looked like in response to that question. It looks confused.


We were SIGNING books, not speaking. Yes, I do public speaking all the time, but I have a SCRIPT...sorta...This is different. So we ask "the guy" who set everything up about this 'speaking' thing, and he tells us, "Oh, you know, you use the microphone (we hadn't noticed the MICROPHONE!) and you can talk about yourselves, or read something from the book, things like that.

So Emily arrives, and we tell her about the speaking thing, and that' she's first. There are now about 20 people seated, with some on the floor and some standing behind shelves peering over to see.

She is a great sport and hops up to the mic, and does a spectacular job of speaking. She reads part of her essay, and I see people wiping tears from their eyes. Later I'll add a picture of Emily speaking.

Then Ann gets up to the mic. She reads her essay and people laugh, clearly identifying with her feelings. Like Emily, she does a fantastic job.

Then it's my turn. I'm so glad to get this opportunity, because I've always felt that mine is much better when read out loud. People laugh at the story, which is a good thing because it's supposed to be funny.

Then we get on to signing our books. Here we are signing away. Notice we are all smiling because we can remember our names AND the page number our story is on!



Angela signed books too!


Oh, and I even did my nail art appropriate for the evening! (it's a Down Syndrome awareness ribbon)



Suddenly there was a problem! All the books were GONE! We'd SOLD OUT!!! There were still people in line, but no more books! Ann had brought a few with her, and she sold those! The guy from the store was stunned. He kept saying, "This has never happened before! In fact, two weeks ago we had the lead singer from The Styx here and HE only sold EIGHT COPIES! We had sold 30 in a very short time. He was now our best friend and wondered how soon we could come back. :wink:

The coolest thing about this whole book deal, is ALL the royalties go back to the non-profit that produced it, to purchase more copies of the book (which is now in it's 3rd printing by the way!) Our goal is to get a copy of this book into the hands of every new parent who's just been told their baby has DS, into every OB and geneticist's office, and into every NICU waiting room.

It was a wonderful evening, one that we were thrilled to have the pleasure of participating in!