The quest to find my book in a store

Well, of course, I had to make a pilgrimage to see my book in the wild, as it were. The fact that I waited a day shows, I think, a strong sense of restraint.

Yesterday, my daughter and I went to the Barnes & Noble in Glendale, Calif., (a retail Mecca if there ever was one) and made a bee-line for the Science Fiction & Fantasy section. I scoured the new releases shelves…

…nothing.

Then we looked through the rest of the section. Nothing.

Well, OK, I thought. Maybe they haven’t put it out yet.

“Or maybe it already sold out,” Anna said. That made me feel slightly better, but I had my doubts.

We wandered over to the kids’ section and picked up a few books for her. Feeling a bit down, we started for the door. But there was a staffer at the info desk, so I thought I’d ask about it.

After communing with her computer for a moment, she pointed toward the front of the store. “It’s on the table up there.”

And lo, on the “New in Paperback” table, there it was! I had walked right by it, mostly because I didn’t think it would be there, given the brouhaha around Night Shade’s acquisition. I thought I’d simply be lucky to get it in a store. But the Night Shade team at Skyhorse did really, really good. Prime real estate, as it were.

After the requisite gleeful photo, I went and asked another staffer if I could sign their stock, and he reached for the “autographed copy” stickers.

“This is so cool,” I said. Then I looked up at the slightly non-plussed young man. “You probably get a lot of authors in here.”

“Oh, yeah. But hey, it’s cool for you. I get it.”

Yep. It totally was. After my first bookstore drop-in signing, Anna and I celebrated with pizza. And while it wasn’t an official New York slice, it was pretty darn good.

***

In other news, I’m talking about writing on two different blogs today. First, on the Qwillery, I talk about voice, both character and narrative, in The Daedalus Incident. And on the Irish writing site writing.ie, I talk about what makes for good characters in speculative fiction. Check ’em out!

And if you’re in the southern California area, I’m doing a for-real reading and signing this Saturday, Aug. 17, at 2:30 p.m. at Mysterious Galaxy in Redondo Beach. Hope you can make it!

(Above photo by Anna Martinez, the Official Photographer of The Daedalus Incident)
#SFWApro