The First Signing

I did my first book signing today at the mall. It rained most of the night, but by noon the rain clouds had burned away leaving big white Rorschach clouds. As we parked, the sun felt warm on my face as I carted in books, tables and chairs.
Our first sale was to a nine year old girl. For some reason, she was drawn to our table. As we talked to her mom, the child read the first column. "She loves to read," her mom explained as she reached for her purse. She bought the book and I autographed it "To Alexsys". I had a smile on my face as they walked away. I love kids who read.
A moment later, two more young girls (ten or maybe eleven) stepped up and asked what we were doing. Jilda explained that we were setting up to sell my new book. "Is it your first?" the older girl asked. I told her it was. The younger of the two girls thrust her hand across the table to shake my hand and said "congratulation, I am happy for you." I could not believe how articulate these kids were. I was blown away.
We stayed for several hours and we did better than I imagined. We saw friends, family, and old teachers from Dora High School.
I had an opportunity to talk to a fellow writer who is on the staff of the Daily Mountain Eagle. Mandy came by to shoot a picture for the paper, but we had a chance to talk for a while about writing.
I can tell that she is a student of life. She had a class with Rick Bragg, who is one of my favorite authors today. Rick Bragg wrote a book called "It's All Over But The Shouting" that is one of the best books I have read in years. Mandy is in the planning stage of her first novel. I have a gut feeling that it will be very good.
We packed up our stuff to leave and when we got to the door, we had weather shock. The temps had dropped about fifteen degrees and a cold rain was blowing out of the northwest which made if feel much colder than 47 degrees.
We drove home slowly in the rain.