Sheila's LiveJournal

The experience was a mixed bag. It was a great deal of fun doing the signing in a cozy restaurant. The place was decorated for the holidays, and holiday music played quietly in the background mixed in with the restaurant's more usual selection of light jazz. The wine (red and white) flowed abundantly, the cheese plate also included  grapes and salami and relish to pile on the crackers. There was time to chat comfortably with old friends who came. I sold about as many books as I might've done at small bookstore, not as many as I sold at NASFIC when the book first appeared. But unlike a signing in a bookstore, there was no foot traffic to make spur-of-the-moment purchases.

And two-thirds of the people who went out of their way in the days before the event to tell me they were coming – didn't show. Go figure.

Afterwards, five friends stayed to have dinner with me. I had an arugula and baby spinach salad with warm portobello mushroom slices and crumbled blue cheese, followed by a rare filet mignon (I hadn't eaten beef for at least three weeks – I usually select fish when given a choice – and just felt like it) with spinach and asparagus (my choice of two vegetables), followed by coffee and a mocha creme brulee that was heavenly. Too many calories, probably, but hey, it's Christmas.

Would I do it again? Hmm. It wasn't as productive as I'd hoped, but it *was* fun.