Book Signing at the Alpine Avenue Grand Rapids Schuler's

My first book signing in a book store. My first attempt to give a speech about my book in front of--well, the public.  Yes, it was a little intimidating, but it was also tremendously fun. I'm grateful to family and friends who came to support me on this momentous occasion. It meant a lot to me to see you in the audience. 

It was also incredibly exciting to meet new people.  I got to meet someawesome readers and aspiring writers.  They were such fun to talk to. And what a fantastic opportunity it was to meet the bloggers who came ( The Hiding Spot and The Compulsive Reader are no longer just electronic entities!)

Thanks, Schulers, for giving me this opportunity. I especially appreciate Mark's hospitality in making me feel comfortable at my first book signing.

Being Neighborly

A bunch of great neighbors got together Saturday night to celebrate the launch of The Everafter.  I love this group! Where would we be without each other? We're there for each other at the bus stop every day. And when something important happens to one of us, it's as if it's happened to all. Special thanks to Alice for hosting. (Oh, and not everyone made it into the picture! We have to arrange another makeup picture session at the bus stop!)

Okemos High School Teachers Celebrate

Some of the teachers at school got together at lunchtime to celebrate the release of

The Everafter with me. (If you don't

 have Lunch...sorry, you missed out!)   They, too, gave me an orchid--this time a purple one to match the cover! And they also gave me a sweatshirt and a bracelet in honor of the first two episodes of The Everafter, in which Maddy uses a sweatshirt and a bracelet to travel back to her life and learn about herself. So many pictures were taken that I can't possibly include them all, but here are a few!

Critique Group Celebrates!

So many wonderful celebrations for the release of The Everafter. I can't thanks people enough for all the kind things they did to share this experience with me. My critique group celebrated with me at my house, and the amazing Ruth McNally Barshaw

 drew several pictures to help us all remember the events by. It's always fun to be anywhere with Ruth. No matter where she is, she's sketching. So there are 

lots of wonderful images of every critique group meeting, conference or party. One is, of course, the awesome image of the orchid (white--just like the one on the book cover) that the group gave me. I'm also fond of the image she drew of me opening the present given to me by the son of Deb Diessen.  Because Twinkies play a role in the book, he thought it would be great fun to give me a box of those. It was fun, and I have to admit that I tried one for the first time since elementary! (See the top right...)  

I'm also crazy about the picture of all of us. How does Ruth manage to caricature us so well? 

I always love especially the pictures Ruth 

draws for me of my daughter, and 

here you can also see her 

playing with the ribbons from my gift. She didn't give me a book release present, but she's the best present I've ever gotten for any occasion!