My publicity agent (i.e. Mom) set up an appearance at the Sand Castle Literary Club (I won’t call it a book club because nobody named Harry Potter as their favorite). It was my first public appearance and I was looking forward to seeing how I would do.

It was set for 3pm so I figured I’d leave work at noon for an easy drive up to Daytona. Well, that went all wrong. Out of the office thirty minutes late. Got to the bridge over the interstate and north-bound traffic was at a standstill. Just great. Wheeled around and ran south to the 408, east via 50 to I-95. For those outside of Florida, instead of taking the hypotenuse (C), I took the right angle legs (A and B). And Daytona was packed with bikers – didn’t get to their condo until 2:30.

After a quick lunch, we went over to Karen and Jim Burkhalter’s condo, who were graciously hosting the event. And then the Curse of the Raymonds set in – I started to sweat. I always do this under pressure, usually because I wind myself up. But the assembling ladies were nice enough to ignore my meltdown. I took the chair and off we went.

I got rolling and perspiration was past-piration – I dried right up. I told them about the Writer’s room, the sources that got me interested in Tyre and Alexander, side stories, and then my writing history over the last decade. Then I talked about how the book was produced, its highs and lows of self publishing. Then we did Q&A.

My audience was great. They were polite, attentive, and appreciative – just a great group of ladies. I thought that all we needed was a corpse and we could have The Sand Castle Literary Club Solves a Crime. Really, their questions were fun and I couldn’t have hoped for better input – I commented on each and then we’d chat them around. The one that floored me was “What are my favorite books?” You’d think it would be easy but I had to think about it. Named a few, then posed the question (as a closer) back to them – we went around the room with it. And, as mentioned, Harry Potter was not in attendance.

And I sold two more books. And had a very fun and special time.

After chatting with Mom and Dad, I rode home in the twilight, jazz on the radio, just smiling my way down the road, watching the bikers tear past.

The end of a very good day.

Thanks, ladies!