LESSONS LEARNED AT BOOK LAUNCH

After two amazing launch events here in Birmingham, I am happy to share the following tidbits:

1. A full room with a podium and no microphone and the quilters sharing the stage = no nerves at all.

2. A full room with a raised stage and hot lights and no one but a wired-up me on the stage = hello nerves!

3. Nerves settle down as soon as you get the slides rolling.

4. Yet without the help of Awesome Teen Librarian, slides do not roll. Grr.

5. People you didn't personally invite and haven't seen in twenty years will show up.

6. People you just KNEW would be there, won't. And they won't buy a book, either. Much less, read it.

7. If there is cake, you won't get a chance to eat any of it.

8. Awesome Teen Librarian will know this, and will save you a slice before it's all gone.

9. You'll want to write long, personal inscriptions, but your mind will go blank. Then you will feel bad for being so generic (however clever).

10. You might even mess up someone's name. In which case, you eat the cost and grab a fresh book.

11. You'll forget to ask Husband to take pictures of the crowd. Yet you'll make sure he takes fifteen shots of the cake.

12. You'll get very thirsty. But there's no time to grab a bottled water.

13. Despite lack of water, you might cry. Especially if your mother is in the audience.

14. You'll be SO glad you remembered to put a tissue in your pocket.

15. But you'll wish you'd remembered your lipstick.

16. When the bookseller runs out of books, you'll feel like a rock star.

17. Then when your kids ask you "what's for supper?" you'll remember again that you're not.

18. This will make you smile. And you'll remember the gazillion reasons you have to be grateful for being in the exact spot in time that you're in.

Big THANK YOU to everyone involved. Pics from the Hoover Library event to follow tomorrow!