The coolest panel ever

Yesterday morning I was on a panel with Steven Saylor, Lindsey Davis, and John Maddox Roberts.  So that's the Three Gods of ancient mysteries, and...er...me.  Also three Romans and a Greek.

And it was an absolute blast.  Ever since, I've been begging our editor Keith Kahla to do it again some time.  The session was standing room only, including my own dear cheer squad.  Thanks guys!  I will modestly admit I acquitted myself well.  My previous public speaking experience helped a lot.  To anyone who thinks or hopes to be in the same situation in the future: get some practise well beforehand.

I wish I could give you a verbatim script of everything that was said, because a lot of it was fascinating stuff.  I'll post photos at some point in the future; I have some but they need to be reworked and my travel machine is not the tool for the job.  At some point in the future I'll collate some of the bits that particularly struck me.

I didn't realize until later, and John confirmed, that despite all three publishing great stories for decades, this was the first time ever that Steven, Lindsey and John have been on the same stage at the same time. An historic moment.

People came up to say hello to me afterwards, complete strangers who wished me well, which I thought was very kind.  Then it was down to the book room.  All the authors sign for half an hour or so after their talks.  (Janet did an agent talk earlier in the week, and lo and behold they assigned her a signing space afterwards, for her non-existent book.)

Signings for newbies are a fraught exercise due to the tendency  to be assigned spaces next to Lee Child or Charlaine Harris.  Their queue snakes out the room and around the building while you sit there playing with a pen.  I was pleasantly surprised!  People not only bought the book and brought it over, but at one point I even had...OMG...a queue.  This is debut author heaven.  There were three books left in the store when the signing finished.  They disappeared that afternoon.  So I sold out!  There's no question in my mind what made that happen: the high quality of the panel session that came before.

You heard it here first

So Thursday night was the Macavity awards at Bouchercon, and winner of the Sue Feder Historical Mystery Award is Rebecca Cantrell, for A Trace of Smoke!

I'd just like to point out that in December '09, I listed it as one of the top two books of the year.

Yay for Rebecca!

Gary survives his first book event!

I have done a book event, and lived to tell the tale.

You couldn't find a friendlier, more welcoming place to start your book touring career than "M" is for Mystery.  Ed Kaufman owns the shop, and he and his wife Jeannie were fantastic about having a dubious debut author on the premises.

I don't seem to have got it too badly wrong, the only feedback later being to speak more slowly.  Which I instantly told my daughter Catriona in email because she's an excellent debater, except I keep telling her to speak more slowly.  Clearly it's a genetic fault.

Ed had a whole row of books lined up that were prepaids, meaning people had already ordered them from afar and they needed to be mailed off once signed.  Now logically, this makes perfect sense.  When one publishes a book, it's generally because you want to sell it.  But I was signing books for people I'd never met, and this is an odd sensation the first time you do it.  One book was to be dedicated, "To Cindy."  Which made me wonder about Cindy.  Who is she?  Why did she choose my book?  Will she enjoy it?  If you're reading this, Cindy, do let me know!

Yes, I'm getting metaphysical here, but it really is one of the oddest sensations, and very, very cool.

The first person ever to ask for a signed copy of a book I wrote was a lovely gentleman named Charles.  So I instantly asked for his autograph, which caused some slight confusion because the process is supposed to work in the opposite direction.  Here is Charles (my first signing!), Ed (owner of "M" is for Mystery), and me.  A normal day for most people, but an historic event for me.

'Twas the night before pub date...

Actually, it's the night before the night before pub date. But I get on a big plane tomorrow to fly to Bouchercon, and I don't imagine I'll have a chance to post between now and then, so this is the last thing I will write as an unpublished author.

There would be no book, no series, no sale, and certainly no success, except that my wife told me I should go for it. And then encouraged me while I wrote. And read every word. And corrected my punctuation. And corrected proofs. And put up with me while I spent long hours in the office. And was brave enough to stick with it even when a few of her friends suggested this was a dubious way for one's husband to behave.

Which is why the dedication page has only these two words:

Events

If you have a look at the top of this page, you'll see there's a new tab called Events.  No prizes for guessing what it's about.

This is my rendition of the same information on the GoodReads site.

If by chance you can make it to one of these, I would really love to meet you.  I've made so many friends over the net, it'd be great to actually use something other than a keyboard to communicate.