The Authorized Version

With the expense of travelling these days and the easy, wide reach of the Internet, physical book tours and in-person book signings are becoming rarer and rarer. But there are still a lot of advantages to a real live author event.

Of course, number one has to be the joy of meeting your readers face to face, getting to show them your books and tell how they came to be, then the delight of a good question and answer session. A good book event always has a sense of energy that can inspire writers, readers and book sellers alike.

And then there’s the fun of getting to meet the store owners and managers— those people on the front line of connecting readers to books (and authors) they will love. I like to think of Beau Nash, the famous master of Ceremonies in the hay day of Bath’s Pump Room whose job it was to introduce young women to eligible males. In a book store everyone is eligible.

And there’s the stores themselves— my favorite signings are always in independent book stores and best of all are Mystery bookstores. As Barbara Tom, the owner of MURDER BY THE BOOK in Portland, Oregon said to me Saturday, "We’re a dying breed." But for those of us who love these unique offerings of civilization, they are worth fighting for.

MURDER BY THE BOOK has been serving the mystery reading community since 1983 and are proud to be a locally-owned independent bookstore. They say, "Since so many mystery writers have series, we have become serious about series. To the best of our ability, we try to keep in stock all the books in a series." And to make browsing easier the books are all arranged by category so you can go straight to the type of reading you like and find your favorite author or new ones in the same subgenre.

MBTB says, "If you are ever in Portland, Oregon, drop on by. We've got a slew of opinions -- is a gathering of mystery opinions a ‘clue of opinions’? -- and are happy to share them"

My event Saturday was an especially happy one because my sister-in-law Virginia, who lives in the area, arranged a luncheon at a nearby restaurant appropriately named Bread and Ink where I had the fun of meeting friends from college days, new friends, and fellow writer Debbie Goodwin.

And it wasn’t even raining, so we could walk up Hawthorne Blvd. To the signing.                             My husband Stan set up his computer to play my book video and handed out post cards to drop-in customers. Store owner Barbara provided coffee and nibbles, including dark chocolate— thank you, Barbara— and, unique to any event I’ve had before, interviewed me in a lively exchange with our guests. She took notes, too, and the interview will be posted under "Meet the Authors" on the MURDER BY THE BOOK website: http://www.mbtb.com/home 

Thank you to everyone who made this such a lovely day.