Saturday was a magical day for me and just a bit surreal. It was a culmination of five years of hard work on my part and the support of special people in my life who believed in my manuscript. I've always lived my life with a "pay it forward" mindset; helping others when I could, supporting great writers when I was able and now standing in that spotlight made me a bit nervous. Like walking on stage for a solo performance, I had to put on my "big girl" britches and deal with the raging butterflies in my stomach.
The lovely Michelle Avery, events coordinator at Barnes & Noble, made me feel right at home and even had a table ready for me smack dab in the middle of the store. I was there for five hours and had a chance to share Addie's story with many people who stopped by to chat with me.
I don't know if you can see it in the picture above but I even had a special pen to autograph my books with. I guess I should thank the National Pen company. They surprised me with a complimentary engraved pen for my personal use. While my budget will probably not allow me the luxury of ordering more, I felt quite the professional signing all those books with such a stately instrument!
I was pleasantly surprised when some of my Taekwondo students decided to come out and join the celebration. Here I am with Aubree as she adds to her book collection.
Hensley was another one of my afterschool students who stopped by to pick up a signed copy of my book. It was a pleasant surprise and helped to settle the whirling butterflies.
I was at Barnes & Noble due to an invitation from Dogwood's Elementary School librarian, Heather Palmer. Here she is in her festive Santa hat. Every year they have their annual Book Fair at B & N and a portion of my book sales will help with their fundraising efforts.
I was even asked to do a reading of my book for the children in the store that afternoon. It was my first "official" reading and I'm glad I'd had many years doing school visits where I read to children or I'm might have been too nervous to speak!
All in all I had a lovely time. Not only was I told they sold at least 75% of my books they ordered in for this event, I also picked up quite a few more members for my FREE STORY CATCHER FAN CLUB. If you don't know about all the free goodies members of my fan club receive just for signing up, you can read more about it here.
Barnes & Noble was extremely kind to help me celebrate the upcoming release of my book, THE STORY CATCHER, by Anaiah Press on January 20, 2015. You can pre-order through Barnes & Noble (http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-story-catcher-donna-l-martin/1120753878?ean=9780990908548), and through Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Story-Catcher-Donna-L-Martin-ebook/dp/B00PHJRVG0/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1418015431&sr=8-3&keywords=the+story+catcher). I also received my first request for a school visit as well! May it be the first of many. **Fingers crossed**
Now, for my bit of news in the way of a surprise. Today is the official release of THE STORY CATCHER TRAILER. I hope you like it!
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