48 books lighter

The Horror of Writing was enormously successful! Check out the pics: http://www.angelfire.com/zine2/thedreampeople/rds/eventframe2.html

Everybody seemed to have such a great time. The authors cleaned up so nice and had such intelligent things to say about writing, literature and horror. They really did me proud. John was an excellent moderator (he always asks the questions people are interested in answering) and he kept the discussion moving. The turnout was huge…I counted at least 47 people from where I was sitting but I couldn’t see everyone. They had to bring out more chairs and even then there was still just standing room only. Plus the audience was so *interested* in writing and the writing life. Of course we’re all used to this stuff but these people were genuinely interested and thinking about the topics, you could tell by the questions they asked. There was no fidgeting during the discussion which lasted an hour, a lot of people asked questions and people even hung around a long time after the event was over.

Ron had huge support from his family and his grandmother sat right in the front row keeping him in line. She was hilarious and really did steal the show! After the discussion the authors were practically mobbed by people wanting to talk and sell books. Since Annapolis is Ron’s home town, and this was the debut of Ron’s book, there were some people buying 3 and 4 copies of his book.

A quick word to the wise for any authors doing signings…always bring copies of your book. The coordinator said she would order Douglas Winter’s book and that she had ordered it before when he’d made an appearance there. But she called at 4:30 to say she couldn’t get the books. By that time Doug had already left. You’d think she could have called the day before…

But Doug was a true team player and didn’t complain. Other than that initial hitch the event went smoothly. It was such a success that we want to plan similar events in the mid-atlantic area. We’re already looking into some stores in Richmond, VA where we might be able to do another workshop.