Novel Visions

Envision your novel*

Picture yourself at a bookstore signing. Hundreds of people are there to meet you, buy your book and get a signed copy. You’re being photographed. You’re getting handshakes. Some readers are potentially star-struck...

Wow. What a day. I am not ashamed to say that I am exhausted. Of course, I am also thrilled, elated, and grab your thesaurus for the rest. My first real book-signing after publication!

"Leave a Message With My Cat" has apparently struck a nerve. There were hundreds of people there! It was good for me that Pam was there the whole time, acting as gatekeeper. She's my rock. My editor also swung by long enough to cast an 'I told you so' look in my direction before melting back into the crowd.

I think the real draw was Dickens, but who doesn't love a huge black cat! I had to work with the store a little to ensure them that he would behave, but as one of the inspirations for Darwin, there was no way I was going to leave him behind.

There were a few scheduled readings throughout the day. I selected a range of passages from the novel: the exciting bit when Joshua is racing to save the kid/clone, Fred and Alice's heartbreak when they heard about the death of their daughter, and Chantier's revelation that her findings proved that the explosion was not an accident.

One of the funniest, and to me most important, comments by an attendee was how much she loved the book even though it was science-fiction. I took it as a side-ways compliment. Folks were equally excited to hear that Message was actually the second in a seven book series. The store was cleared out of both "I Should Have Listened to My Cat" and "Leave a Message With My Cat" by lunch time, and we were getting other copies delivered from stores around the city.

It was the kids that got me though. I know I had written the books to appeal to a broad audience, keeping the adult content out, making sure that the violence was real but not gory. I had no idea that this would net me a whole who of Cat loving kids! That fact alone inspires me to get the YA spinoff series started.

Ok, I am getting too tired to write now. Got to wrap up. My hand is cramped, the big banner has been furled and the few remaining books packed away. We collected over three-hundred dollars for the Black-Cat Rescue charity and the local shelters. All in all, a good day. I think I will sleep for a week.

* From Part 1 - Chapter 1 - Envisioning and Planning