Fan Girl Moment

Suzanne Enoch and Teresa Medeiros at Romance World in El Cajon, CA on 8/3/08.
Suzanne Enoch and Teresa Medeiros
at Romance World in El Cajon, CA on 8/3/08

On Sunday, I dragged my kids with me down to El Cajon to the Romance World bookstore. Two of my favorite Avon authors, Suzanne Enoch and Teresa Medeiros were signing their newest books, Before the Scandal: The Notorious Gentlemen and Some Like It Wicked. After attending the Janet Evanovich event here at Borders, I was a bit apprehensive, but we set out and got there when the store opened. And yes, I took my camera this time!

The kids were predictably bored. Especially the boy. Their kids section was limited and they only had 2 Star Wars books, one of which we own. DD did much better and I think she ended up with more books than I did.

There were maybe a dozen people in the store including the staff. So it was nothing like Janet Evanovich’s event. Although I hope their Borders event later this week is as well attended as that one!

I love the books these ladies write. I got about 9 books signed and managed to get thoroughly tongue-tied and not manage very coherent sentences. Suzanne did remember my name when I mentioned I was the one who blogged about England’s Perfect Hero (Lessons in Love, Book 3) being one of my “comfort reads” back in April.

My daughter impressed Teresa with her love of reading and ability to speak better than her mother. She even wrote down the names of two of the authors my daughter recommended. When she found out DD had written a story for my birthday, she encouraged her to keep up with her writing. DD came home and wrote two pages of a new story. Sad to say that’s more than I accomplished yesterday.

And, Suzanne? A full resolution copy of this picture should be in your inbox as promised.

Wasted Opportunity

We’ve had a heat wave here lately. It hit over 106oF this weekend. Now, take a good-sized Borders and cram an additional 500 people into it beyond the normal Saturday afternoon customers and you’ve got a recipe for a good session of people watching.

I’ll be one of the first to admit I hate crowds. If this book signing hadn’t been at my local Borders I wouldn’t have gone, especially if I’d known how many people would show up. They turned the AC down to 60o and it didn’t help. The only place you could feel cold air was under the vent in the hallway by the bathrooms.

I convinced DH to take the kids and go do something else, go home, whatever until I called them when I ended up with ticket #389 for the signing line. The line for the bathrooms were fortunately shorter.

Now, did I take advantage of this prime opportunity to watch those around me?

Not really. What was I thinking? Certainly not that this would be a great place to watch and think about non-verbal communication and expressions. No, my brain was obviously elsewhere.

It was interesting to note that the women took over the men’s bathroom as well because there were only three stalls between the two. While waiting in line three separate gentleman approached when a woman was inside the men’s room. The ladies on guard politely asked them to wait a moment and they just kinda shrugged and said they’d come back. This struck me funny because in my experience when a gal has to go, get out of her way.

Otherwise, the rest of my time was spent reading half the book that I was required to purchase in order to stand in line. I guess that says something for the author. I did overhear several “interesting” snippets of conversation. “Oh, I have no idea who she is, I’m a book collector.” Yeah, he didn’t look like a fanboi either, not like the guy dressed in red with purple streamers tied around his head, wrists and ankles, although I’m still not sure what he was supposed to be.

Oh… and did I EVEN think to take a camera with me? *headslap* *sigh* Oh well, 3 hours later I had three signatures and a couple cool stickers. Guess I better go get the loot in the mail to Bria (which is why I haven’t mentioned WHO was signing… Shhh… it’s a surprise!).