My First book signing

I attended my first book signing today 7/5, for two authors, Lawrence
Block (whom I collect) and Peter Blauner. The event was scheduled as an
outdoor lunchtime signing at the Bryant Park Reading Room in NYC, but
had to be moved indoors to the Coliseum Bookstore across the street due
to the weather. Luckily I happened to have the day off, so I brought a
couple of books from home to get signed and braved the rain, making
absolutely certain my books would not see a drop of rain.

Hosting the event was Charles Ardai, author and publisher of the Hard
Case Crime pulp fiction series. The event was pretty well attended
given the weather and the inconvenient time ... I mean how many people
can actually attend a weekday midday book signing. After a little under
an hours worth of talk and Q & A, both informative and humorous, I
purchased Block latest book, Hit Parade at the front counter and
brought my books to the signing table with the understanding that Block
signs 3 copies of books from home for every new book purchased. He
signed my first edition copies (with DJ) of Deadly Honeymoon (his first
hardback novel), After the First Death and Eight Million Ways to Die as
well as his new book. During my little chat with him, he complimented
me on how nice my copies were.

After this Charles Ardai was gracious enough to sign another book I
brought from home, Little Girl Lost. This, his first novel, was
published under his pseudonym Richard Aleas. He signed it "Charles
Ardai, aka Richard Aleas 7/5/2006". He jokingly commented that this
hardcover first was quite scarce, believing only about 500 were
published. All in all it was a great day of meeting authors i admire
and making my growing collection a little more special.

AL

On 5 Jul 2006 13:57:42 -0700, "Carney Wilde"
wrote:

The event was pretty well attended
given the weather and the inconvenient time ... I mean how many people
can actually attend a weekday midday book signing.


Well, there are several hundred thousand people who go to lunch around
there (Bryant Park, 42nd Street & 5th Ave, NYC.)

Actually,as someone who messes with Latin American lit, a year or so
ago I went to an Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez event at the same time and
venue, and I was the only one who showed up. I suppose she must have
been unhappy. I expressed my desire for a private reading, which was
denied, but she did sign my books.

Secretly I admit that I really go for the signings more than the
readings/QA, so that was my ideal event, lol

Denton

I envy you.

Al this time, I've been trying to arrange my schedule so I can attend
such event but no luck up 'til now.

We'll see next time if I can manage to at least get a book signed, I'll
let you all know!

cheers,
la agua fresca
http://aguafresca.healhtifica.com

PS: Wish me luck!

Carney Wilde wrote:
I attended my first book signing today 7/5, for two authors, Lawrence
Block (whom I collect) and Peter Blauner. The event was scheduled as an
outdoor lunchtime signing at the Bryant Park Reading Room in NYC, but
had to be moved indoors to the Coliseum Bookstore across the street due
to the weather. Luckily I happened to have the day off, so I brought a
couple of books from home to get signed and braved the rain, making
absolutely certain my books would not see a drop of rain.

Hosting the event was Charles Ardai, author and publisher of the Hard
Case Crime pulp fiction series. The event was pretty well attended
given the weather and the inconvenient time ... I mean how many people
can actually attend a weekday midday book signing. After a little under
an hours worth of talk and Q & A, both informative and humorous, I
purchased Block latest book, Hit Parade at the front counter and
brought my books to the signing table with the understanding that Block
signs 3 copies of books from home for every new book purchased. He
signed my first edition copies (with DJ) of Deadly Honeymoon (his first
hardback novel), After the First Death and Eight Million Ways to Die as
well as his new book. During my little chat with him, he complimented
me on how nice my copies were.

After this Charles Ardai was gracious enough to sign another book I
brought from home, Little Girl Lost. This, his first novel, was
published under his pseudonym Richard Aleas. He signed it "Charles
Ardai, aka Richard Aleas 7/5/2006". He jokingly commented that this
hardcover first was quite scarce, believing only about 500 were
published. All in all it was a great day of meeting authors i admire
and making my growing collection a little more special.

AL

On 5 Jul 2006 13:57:42 -0700, "Carney Wilde"
wrote:

I attended my first book signing today 7/5, for two authors, Lawrence
Block (whom I collect) and Peter Blauner. The event was scheduled as an
outdoor lunchtime signing at the Bryant Park Reading Room in NYC, but
had to be moved indoors to the Coliseum Bookstore across the street due
to the weather. Luckily I happened to have the day off, so I brought a
couple of books from home to get signed and braved the rain, making
absolutely certain my books would not see a drop of rain.

Hosting the event was Charles Ardai, author and publisher of the Hard
Case Crime pulp fiction series. The event was pretty well attended
given the weather and the inconvenient time ... I mean how many people
can actually attend a weekday midday book signing. After a little under
an hours worth of talk and Q & A, both informative and humorous, I
purchased Block latest book, Hit Parade at the front counter and
brought my books to the signing table with the understanding that Block
signs 3 copies of books from home for every new book purchased. He
signed my first edition copies (with DJ) of Deadly Honeymoon (his first
hardback novel), After the First Death and Eight Million Ways to Die as
well as his new book. During my little chat with him, he complimented
me on how nice my copies were.

After this Charles Ardai was gracious enough to sign another book I
brought from home, Little Girl Lost. This, his first novel, was
published under his pseudonym Richard Aleas. He signed it "Charles
Ardai, aka Richard Aleas 7/5/2006". He jokingly commented that this
hardcover first was quite scarce, believing only about 500 were
published. All in all it was a great day of meeting authors i admire
and making my growing collection a little more special.

AL

You're quite lucky to live in a place like NYC - cultural mecca of the
US, IMO.

I grew up on Long Island, and have been living in South Florida for
over 20 years now, so events like the one you described are few and
far between.

When I read about stuff like this, I really miss living up there. But
we make about 3 or 4 trips up a year and it's barely enough to satisfy
a former residents cultural craving.

I'm not bashing South Florida - it's great to be able to be on the
beach on New Years day, but NYC is like no other place in the world,
for many varied reasons.

Congrats on getting to your first signing. It is quite a thrill
coming home with those books now that they are signed, isn't it? For
me, that feeling has never gone away. I get it every time I get to a
signing.

Regards,

LiRM

Yeah, but at least you get to go to the Carl Hiassen signings :-)

Denton

On Thu, 06 Jul 2006 08:24:13 -0400, LiRM wrote:

I grew up on Long Island, and have been living in South Florida for
over 20 years now, so events like the one you described are few and
far between.

On Thu, 06 Jul 2006 17:21:02 -0400, Denton Taylor
wrote:

Yeah, but at least you get to go to the Carl Hiassen signings :-)

Denton

Yes, indeed, he is all over town. And Dave Barry as well. They are
both gentlemen when it comes to signings. Their lines usually run for
blocks and I've never seen either one of them take anything but the
finest and most well mannered approach to dealing with literally the
hundreds of people (maybe thousands, if we are talking about the Miami
Book Fair) who show up for signings.

This reminds me of an event in my college days. I had snuck backstage
for a Steve Miller concert. I found a piece of cardboard on a door
that said "Steve Miller Tuning" - which obviously meant he was in
there tuning up for the show. I grabbed the piece of cardboard (it
wasn't encrusted in jewels or anything) and found him meandering
around. I asked him to sign it and he got so ****ed off. I can
understand it to a point, but it was a piece of cardboard for Christ's
sake. Interestingly enough, Boz Scaggs happened to see this whole
thing go down and after Miller got done ranting, he came over. I felt
pretty bad about the whole thing, but I recognized him and asked him
if he wouldn't mind signing something for me as I'd been a fan of his
as well. Obviously, I was short on things to sign, Miller had taken
back his sign - so Scaggs took out a dollar bill out of his wallet and
signed "A felony for you" - as he joked about it being a felony to
mark up currency. He was so cool about the whole thing and it was
pretty obvious he thought Steve Miller might have overreacted a bit.
Ah well, maybe Miller was just having a bad day. And in retrospect I
shouldn't have taken down his sign - that was wrong.

It's interesting how the celebs react so differently to these kinds of
things, though.

I *did* go home and smash all my Steve Miller albums after the show,
though. wink j/k


On Thu, 06 Jul 2006 08:24:13 -0400, LiRM wrote:

I grew up on Long Island, and have been living in South Florida for
over 20 years now, so events like the one you described are few and
far between.