Gregory Alan to play at Book Launch

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A fantastic "Urban Acoustic" guitar player named Gregory Alan will be playing at my Book Launch at The Green Bean on Dec. 1st.  I first heard Greg play back in April, during national poetry month.  Our local writers group had organized poetry readings around town that month and I attended one at a local Starbucks where Greg was playing. His style is this smooth, soothing blend of pop, R&B, and contemporary jazz.

I'm not a big fan of live music.  It's always too loud, too overpowering, and in my opinion most musicians sound better when they've been edited and digitized on a CD.  So it was a surprise how much I liked Greg's sound.  Blair felt the same way because a little into Greg's second song he leaned over to me and said, "We should get his CD."

I've been a little nervous about the book launch.  I've invited all these people and now they're going to do what while they're there?  I'll read from my book, but that will be under 10 minutes.  And I'll sign book copies (which I hope will take a lot longer than 10 minutes!), and there will be cake and food and drink.  But music brings an added element of togetherness.  I think it will provide that cohesion I'm looking for. 

Plus, Greg gets a chance to sell his CD's and market himself, and I'm all for championing local artists.  All in all, I'm really looking forward to the event.

Lessons In Stalking Book Launch - Invitation Preview

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Invite1.jpgTo the right you'll see a preview of the invitation I'm sending out for my book launch.  I asked Linda Santell, my illustrator, to make up a few 8 x 10 posters to hang around town and while she was at it, had her shrink down the posters to postcard size for mailing invitations.  I think they turned out cute.  I especially like the "Lattes & Beer 1/2 Price" part.  I'm under no illusions as to what will really draw people in.

I'm donating 20% of all book sale proceeds to the Happy Hills Animal Foundation.  They are a local no-kill shelter run by volunteers with seeming unending amounts of dedication.   I'm thrilled to partner with them for this and am actually going to start volunteering with them, as well. I'm not sure doing what.  I just don't know that I can emotionally take working with abandoned cats and dogs.  I think I might break down daily.  But I can do grant-writing, fund-raising, work at animal fairs, and the like.  Maybe build up to actually working on site.  Because I know if I go in now, allergies or not, I'll be coming home day one with twenty cats and at least three dogs in tow.  It breaks my heart to see animals in cages when they're so desperate for a family to love.

Anyway, as I said, I'll have to build up to that.  But I'm thrilled that Happy Hills is bringing two cats to the book launch, both available for adoption.  I would LOVE to see both cats go home with someone.  That would be so much better than just selling books.  I would love to be able to make that my "thing": Every time I hold a book signing, I bring cats for adoption that find homes. 

For those of you in the area, please consider the posting here an open invite.  I'd love to have you at the book launch and please introduce yourself as a reader of my blog.  And remember: LATTES & BEER 1/2 PRICE.

What Else Can I Say About Me?

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In my never-ending quest for book promotion I've sent queries and press releases to newspapers and magazines, asking if they might be interested in doing a story on me as the "cat lady" with the Lessons In Stalking & Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul books coming out at the same time.

Interesting bit of journalism trivia: Several of the places I contacted about running an author profile said, "Sure, great, we'd love to spotlight you.  How about you write the article?"

This has resulted in way too many hours spent of me writing about, well, me.  Sounds fun, but it's harder than you might think.  Can't write anything.

As I informed Blair over dinner last night, I have reached an early saturation level and I don't want to write about me, I don't to hear about me, and I don't want to cobble together any more funny but hopefully moving personal stories about me (as relates to cats).  In a phrase, I am sick of me.

Tongue in cheek, of course.  I'm extremely grateful for the chance at book promotion and writing a Q&A article for a cat magazine was actually quite fun.  Makes me wonder though, how many of the "author profiles" we read in other (small) magazines are written by the authors as well?

I do feel like I'm regurgitating the same bits of information over and over though.  I looked at Lucy lazing in the sun today and told her she better get on the ball and do something cute sometime soon because I needed some new material.  (Naturally, she completely ignored me).

And good things continue to happen.  I've got a growing list of places my book is now available (take THAT Barnes & Nobles who won't look at me without a distributor) and am starting to line up things up for my book launch on December 1st at The Green Bean in downtown GSO.  More details on that to follow.

One other bright note.  My sister is working it for me.  She works at a small college outside Chicago and their bookstore is going to carry my book.  THANKS sis!

"Anti-Stalking Services" Now Available

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Ha!  I am cracking up.  My dear friend Pam e-mailed me that she had posted a review of Lessons In Stalking on Amazon, so I went to check it out.  The reivew is charming--thank you, Pam.  But I had to laugh at what else popped up.  Under the "Customers Interested In This Title May Also be Interested In..." heading, Amazon has listed "Free Hunting Gear" and "Anti-Stalking Services - Services offered from the UK's leading authority in stalking cases." 

How quickly I fell from "cat author" to "potential menance to society."

Anyway, you can check out Pam's nice review of my book here. 

And just to demonstrate the complete uselessness of numbers, check this out.  It's my book's rating copied off Amazon.  Somehow I moved in 1 day from being over the million mark (the higher the number, the worse the score) to book number 137,016 today.  All that with only 2 books sold off Amazon.  Maybe all those anti-stalking people in the UK are checking out my site.

Amazon.com Sales Rank: