Jewel Day Spa Event A HUGE Success!

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I had so much fun last night at the book signing. As we'd hoped, the place was packed.  Nicole (owner of Jewel Day Spa) had ordered food for 200 people and I do believe that many may have shown up. It was a beautiful if humid evening and I sold double the number of books I'd hoped to move.

There were a few fun moments. My Greensboro writer's group, the WGOT, has about 13 different subgroups and so I'm always meeting people who belong to the group whom I don't even know. One lovely woman from Novel III stopped and introduced herself and we made plans to have lunch later in the month. She asked to buy my book but when she went to pay, discovered she only had $8 on her instead of $10.  "That's okay," I said. "I know you're good for it."  I went to sign her book for her and joked, "Now I'm just going to write in here, 'You owe me two dollars.'" That got us laughing and coming up with other inscriptions. "I hope you enjoy this heavily discounted book." "I hope you don't feel guilty reading this book, realizing you still owe the author money."

I spoke with another woman who does feral cat rescue and who is fostering 19 cats in her home.  I sold her my book at wholesale price. A small reward for such magnificent work.

The other two authors there did as well if not better than me in sales. People showed up ready to buy books and many moved from table to table, buying each of our books one after the other. (We love those people. Thank you!)

A portion of my sales go to Happy Hills Animal Foundation (& oh my God, click on the Happy Hills link and look at the Adorable cat there on the home page) and Pam is donating a portion of her proceeds to the Greensboro Women's Resource Center (WRC). I didn't realize it until the end of the evening, but the company who set up the wine booth is also donating a portion of their proceeds to the WRC. So many good things happening last night.

Now I need to ready myself for our niece who arrives tonight for her weekend stay.  Getting ready will mainly involve my taking a nap, so I best get to it.

Many thanks again to everyone who made last night's event a success.

Jewel Day Spa Book Signing TONIGHT

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Just a reminder for those in the area that tonight from 7-9 PM, Jewel Day Spa at 1004 N. Elm Street in Greensboro (corner of Elm and Bessemer, across from Cobb Chiropractic) is celebrating their one-year anniversary with an evening of Women Authors & Wine. Yours truly will be there for a reading and book signing along with Greensboro authors Pam Cable and Nicole Hayes. Free admission, food, wine, house tours, and hand and chair massages.

We're expecting a huge turnout. A lot of press went out and the last three days I've had people coming up to me to say they'll be there. Usually what happens is I'll say something to remind people and then they're like, "What? Oh, yeah. You sent me something about that, right? Uh, yeah. We'll try to be there." So it's promising that people appear to have it marked on their calendars.  

I need to spend part of today getting ready. There's a lot of stuff that needs taken to these events. Folding table, tablecloth, books, cash box, change, signing pen, cat knick-knacks I use to decorate my table, easel, sign, bookmarks, cards and I'm sure there are things I'm forgetting.

I haven't even looked at my book to decide what story I'm reading. Something short. My take is people come to these events less to hear authors read and more to mingle and enjoy the ambiance. As long as the threatened thunderstorms hold off, we'll be in good shape.

If you're in the area, please stop by! It's going to be much fun!

Real Life Magic

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Today has been such a good day I may just have to cave and go buy a lotto ticket.  Get a load of the power of goal-setting.

I sat down this morning with a blank pad of paper and began to rough out my goals for the next 6 months. I started with Financial goals, as each year I assign myself an income goal. I'm a little ahead of schedule for this year, so I was doing the math on how much more I need to earn, equals X amount I need to earn per month, etc. 

I was scribbling notes in the margin as I wrote such as, "I like focusing on big tasks, like book projects, versus a lot of little projects."  I also noted it would be nice to have another column--guaranteed income--versus having to ferret out work.  I wondered how I would meet my financial goals with no new projects on the horizon and was thinking I'd have to get busy finding new magazines to write for.

I moved on to writing goals for my products/services some of those included actively seeking out more speaking engagements, maybe doing another cat book or more humor writing, and a few others.  I wrote I'd like to do more promotion of my cat book.

So then. I put all that aside and start the work of the day. And here's where the magic comes in. In the last 4 hours,  I've:

  • Received an e-mail from an editor that she's recommended me to a UK book company seeking a humor author for a new dog book. They wrote my editor asking if she knew of anyone and she gave them my name.
  • Last year I wrote an article for the 2007 Novel & Short Stories Writer's Market - a reference book that comes out yearly. I had to contact the editor for a quick update and was invited to pitch new article ideas.
  • Received a call from a fellow pet writer and friend. She's working on a new book on cats which will pull pieces from other authors and she wants to highlight several of my stories from Lessons In Stalking, as well as another humor piece I've written. 
  • This same author is starting a radio talk show heard by 2 million listeners and wants me on as a guest.
  • And she assigned me an article to write for the magazine she edits.
  • NC Career Networking Magazine, the magazine I write for and am Associate Editor of, has been picked up by Ingrams and our little magazine is flying to distributors, including some in Vegas and California.

I feel like someone dipped me in happy glue and all the good things in the Universe are winging my way and sticking to me.

All from the power of goal-setting? Not really. I think the real power lies in the intent behind the goal-setting. We create energy and intent with our thoughts and dreams. I apparently managed to harness and aim my intent in the right direction this morning. 

I think I'll go set some goals to adopt more cats. Maybe the Universe can find a way to work around Blair and make it happen. =)