Maggie's Happy St. Patrick's Day Booksigning!

(In the picture above, Maggie Toussaint signs a copy of House of Lies for multi-published journalist and author, Robert Coram)

My booksigning ended exactly 33 hours ago but my feet haven't touched the ground yet. Tinkerbell has nothing on me. No kidding, I feel like I could flit across the world on fairy thin wings.

I was worried that my book seller had set it up for too long and that it would take forever. The four hours passed in the blink of an eye. People came and they came. I couldn't believe it. I did know most of them, and I was related to some of them, but still, it was a BIG crowd.

We outsold any previous booksigning this seller had ever had. And she claims to have had Pat Conroy's (The Prince of Tides) first booksigning. Seriously, we sold 60 copies of House of Lies!!! And there were 10 copies that were sold in pre-sales.

And, get this, unknownst to me, my seller had arranged for the local cable company to TAPE the whole event. So there was a movie camera taking the whole thing in. Both myself and the seller did introductory and closing remarks. Patrons were interviewed. She took up close and personal shots of the posterboard I made of the reviews for House of Lies. She videoed the chats we had about every 30 to 45 minutes where the seller talked about how wonderful I was and how great my book was. My head swelled to 4 times the normal size. I read excerpts from the book. I spoke about myself, my writing, all the while remembering to suck in my stomach, smile, and not say Um, um, every other word.

I asked for a copy of the video because I'd sure like to know what I said. I had no idea that being on tv was a part of this event. And, the cable person asked if I would be willing to do a 30-minute spot for local programming about writing. You could have knocked me over with a feather. I'm not sure this will actually happen but it is an idea fraught with possibilites. And of course I said YES.

Lessons learned: put a sign outside the venue on the day of the event. You might just draw in some incidental people. Also, be ready for anything because you can count on the unexpected happening. Oh, here's a good tip. Use a ball point pen to sign your name. If you use a more flowing ink you may blob your book while you're asking is that A-N-N or A-N-N-E. When the line dwindles, circulate among the folks who are waiting for the next giveaway - they came to see you! Lastly, this may seem a given but I was surprised at how many return smiles I got when I greeted each person with a smile.

I know there will be other signings, but this one will always be special.

Maggie Toussaint

check out House of Lies -- ebook at www.thewildrosepress.com and print book at www.amazon.com