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Well, here’s the continuation of that blog a day, or so, ago:
This is still the first signing. One woman gave us an original drawing of Richard, and a poem about him. She’d paired them in the same frame, matted and very pretty. The couple that once gave us a miniature diorama of Anita and the other characters in a tiny cemetery, are now doing leather work. They gave us an embossed leather sign that says, “Anita Blake.” They even used pictures of a a real Browning so it’s an acurate gun embossed on the leather. How cool is that?
We had the whole gang there with us in St. Peters at the Barnes and Noble. Darla, Charles, and of course, Jonathon and me. But we also had Richard. He is now in Italy. It was the last event he’d be at. The last event he’d take pictures for us. We wish him well, him and Bea, but we will miss him.
We saw a lot of familiar faces, but also a lot of new ones. More people than ever before said it was their first book signing. Their very first ever, not just the first time they’d come to see me. My arm was really hurting from almost the beginning of the signing. It was very discouraging. I mean all the weight lifting and I was in serious pain. It truly made us worry about the rest of the tour. I mean this was the kick-off event. It did not bode well. I wanted one more event under our belts before I wrote a blog because I wanted to see how my arm was doing. We did Minneapolis last night at Uncle Hugo’s, and it was good. Darla had pointed out the chair at the first store, a Barnes and Noble, had been very low forcing my arm and shoulder up very high. So at Uncle Hugo’s we actually put a big phone book in the chair for me to sit on. Yeah, I felt a little silly sitting on something, very five-years-old, but it worked. I did about a 150 people and didn’t have to take a break, or ice my arm. In fact, I was able to sign stock after the crowd departed and I still didn’t hurt. We got everyone out the door around nine something. It was a record. The crowd was only a smidge smaller than last time I’d done the store and we got everyone done in about two or three hours less time. Several of the fans remarked on how much better I was doing. So hurt last time they felt guilty making me sign anything. The exercise has paid off, I just need to watch the chair height. Anyone who’s ever had a persistent injury will understood when I say, it throws other parts of the body out of wack. So it wasn’t just my arm hurting Tuesday, but my back. So higher chair for the back and arm and viola, it was was almost pain free.
We were also happy to see back, safe and sound, the young man from past signings who had me sign his chest before he went off to boot camp. He had me sign his book, Chest Boy, so we’ll refer to him here, as that. He got my signature across his chest once more, and I was reminded that he is, indeed, ticklish. I look forward to seeing him safe and sound in other signings. Be careful out there Chest Boy.