My first book signing

I went to my first book signing yesterday while Darcy had her bachelorette weekend. While she and her bridal party were learning to pole dance, I was selling our anthology and chatting up readers.

It was a four-hour drive south to a reader's library day, but my cohort, Charley, and I had no trouble passing the time. We got there in plenty of time, set up our table, and wandered the room, meeting other authors. Behind us, to our left, was a woman who wrote a book titled The Golfer's Wife. I told her my brother was a golf professional. She asked where, and when I told her, it turned out she, too, was from Indiana.

Hearing that, the author to my left told me he was from Indiana. I wandered over to chat with him, learned he lived near Terre Haute, told him I owned a farm nearby, and discovered he knew my Uncle Cockeye.

Him: "Who didn't know Cockeye?"  

What are the odds?

I returned to our table and found a guy I'd befriended at a local conference. He bought a book, and the three of us chatted. At one point, he thought I said the Spanish word for water when telling him the name of a product.

Me: "I said Awk-quah. How did you hear Ah-qwa?"

He and I argued back and forth on what I had said, all in good fun. Later, we asked him to recommend a place for dinner, and he suggested a restaurant, giving us the street names like we were locals. We reminded him we weren't, but he didn't know the restaurant's name, so he asked another author.

Her: "Aqua."

Charley and I took that as a sign and went there for dinner after the book signing, laughing the entire time. It was 10/10, and we got there for happy hour.

I didn't come out ahead, but I'm enjoying the experience. If you want to support me, email me at cmkerwin@gmail.com, and I'll send you a signed copy of our anthology for $10.