My First Book Launch

Friends, family, and neighbors helped me celebrate the launch of my novel, RIM TO RIM, with a party attended by about sixty people at a pizza place last month.

Lydia Ponczak, a fellow author and host of News and Views, a cable TV show, introduced me. She heaped on the compliments and told the audience that the quality of her critique group, Southland Scribes, increased ten times when I joined. Thank you, Lydia

Sufficiently embarrassed, I told my side of the story, giving credit to Southland Scribes for helping to edit my novel, connecting me with workshops and writing seminars, and guiding me away from the wrong paths to publication.

I then told the friendly crowd the inside story of the birth of RIM TO RIM and read an exciting selection from the text. I was heartened when I looked over the crowd to see so many people listening raptly. That encouraged me to keep reading, to speak more loudly and with more enthusiasm. Much of the fear of public speaking went away.

The evening went off without a hitch: the room and decorations looked inviting, the pizzas were good, hot, and plentiful, the acoustics were good . . . and revenue from books sold was enough to pay for it all. The event was, as far as I’m concerned, a big success. At the very least it was a great party.

PS: RIM TO RIM is available from Centuries and Sleuths Bookstore in Forest Park and on-line in paperback and for Nook from B&N.com, for i-pad from UncoveredBooks.com, and for Kindle from Amazon.com.