A Book Promotion Weekend

September 10, 2007

This was a big weekend of book promotion for me. I got up Saturday and at 10:30 headed over to the Lake Orion Public Library and did a panel discussion with authors Marcus Sakey and William Wallace Green. (Sorry, Wallace doesn't have a website). It lasted until about 12:40 (that's when I sprinted out the door, anyway) and resulted in a number of sales. Overall I thought this was a particularly excellent panel, partly because of the smaller group of writers and partly because it was a very active, lively audience.

Out the door, as I said, at 12:40. Drove to the Romeo Public Library about 22 miles away (all back roads). Got there about 1:20. This was a larger panel of authors. I was in the excellent company of author Jan Brogan, Sean Chercover, Steven Sidor, Mitchell Bartoy and Karen Tintori.

They handled bookselling, so all I had to do was sign books, and we sold a fair number, which was cool, and met a lot of very cool book readers, which was great. I split, headed back home (got there around 4:00) to say hello to my family and change clothes. At 4:30 I jumped back into the car and headed down to Ann Arbor for a dinner party being thrown by Robin and Jamie Agnew, owners of Aunt Agatha's, a mystery bookstory in A2. They were lovely, the food and drink was excellent and the company was terrific. I had the pleasure of meeting very, very many people, but of unusual note was graphic artist and cartoonist (if cartoonist is the appropriate description, and I suspect it isn't) Kay Fedewa.

The drive between home and Ann Arbor varies a lot depending on traffic, but it took me over an hour and a half to get there. I was running out of steam, so I left the party early, around 7:30, promptly got stuck in downtown Ann Arbor as football traffic hit the roads, so it took me 45 minutes just to get the two miles through town. I got home around 9:40. Said hello to the family, touched base, then fell into bed.

On Sunday, I got up late, feeling wiped out, did some prep work for the Sunday event, got ready, had lunch out with the family, gassed up the car and left Oxford around 12:40 and drove back to Ann Arbor for the Kerrytown Book Fest. I got there some time around 2:15 or so, parked on 4th, and checked in. I ran into Midnight Ink author Susan Goodwin who had a booth and was hawking copies of her latest novel. We chatted a few minutes, then I kept wandering, checked in with Robin Agnew, then bumped into Jim Hall, the host of Cult Pop. He was there interviewing authors. We went over and hung out in the shade, chatting with Jerry (sorry, no last name again, duh!) until it was my time to be the ringmaster for a panel discussion called "Original Voices in Mystery."

The writers there were Judy Clemens, Jan Brogan, Karen Tintori, Jill Gregory, and Tom Grace. Jill and Karen not only co-write novels together under their combined names, but under a single pseudonym and separate books under their own names. Tom's website is usually www.tomgrace.net but for some reason it's not active today, so I linked to his page with his publisher.

After the panel, which I thought went fairly well, we went to a tent to sell a few books and sign them, then said our goodbyes. It was 4:30 or so. I jumped back in my car and drove back home, where I did some paperwork, practiced my guitar, hung out with my wife and kids, read, watched TV and collapsed into bed and slept in something resembling a coma.

Cheers,

Mark Terry