Meeting the Authors...the Best Part of being a Bookseller

There are so many tasks to running a bookstore, but for me, one of the best is planning book signing events and meeting the authors.  Where the rest of the world has their rock-star-celebrity crushes, we booksellers are always “stuck” on the authors, and when one of our favorites comes through our door and comes to life as a real live person, we’ve been known to swoon.

Author book signings, while being the best things ever, are also, as we say here in town, wicked stressful.  Will anyone show up and validate our Blue Bunny belief that this talented and worthy word warrior is someone worth visiting?  It is never a sure thing.  Of course there are the bigger events we’ve been privileged to host (think Jeff “Wimpy Kid” Kinney and Jane “Fancy Nancy” O’Connor) where a large crowd is expected and happily arrives.  But what of the lesser-known authors and illustrators?  Our challenge is to get the word out to the perfect audience that someone special is coming. 

How do we schedule these events?  Sometimes an author will reach out to us, sometimes a publisher will call to arrange events for an author, and sometimes, we have a book we love, and we’ll get in touch, with an invitation from our end first.  Always, we do our best to deliver a quality experience for our guest of honor, and our customers (many times, this includes cupcakes!)

This Saturday, we have a author visiting who reached out first to us, and consequently, was encouraged to visit after I read his book. David Fleming will be doing a reading, Q and A, and book signing of his excellent first middle-grade novel, The Saturday Boy. Although Fleming may be an unfamiliar name to kids, teachers, and parents, this book is one of the best for this middle-school age group I have read this year.  Like the books of two of our author visitors from last spring, Kimberly Newton Fusco (Beholding Bee) and Lynda Mullaly Hunt (One for the Murphys), this book has humor, truth, and depth, and I’m so pleased to be able to recommend it.  It tells the story of a quirky middle-school aged boy whose Dad is away in Afghanistan and whose best "friend" has started to turn on him.  The letters he has from his Dad give him strength and love during a difficult time in his life. The book was published to great critical review, and we hope to help it gain more popularity and recognition.

Early next month, on Nov. 2nd, two more of Massachusetts’ best authors for middle-grade and young adult readers will be visiting The Blue Bunny together, with a similar reading, Q and A, and signing program planned.  Erin Dionne (Total Tragedy of a Girl Named Hamlet and Notes from an Accidental Band Geek) will be sharing her latest book Moxie and the Art of Rule Breaking -- a mystery based on the Isabella Stuart Gardner art heist.  And Nancy Werlin (Impossible, Extraordinary and Rules of Survival) will be celebrating the release of Unthinkable -- the sequel to her bestselling YA fantasy Impossible.  Both Erin and Nancy are terrific writers, speakers, and role models, and we can’t wait to welcome them back to the store.

It’s our goal at The Blue Bunny to make every visitor feel welcome, loved and comfortable.  So often our author visitors become our very good friends.  We invite you to stop by and meet some of these Blue Bunny friends.  The generosity and sincerity of spirit they always bring is great inspiration for us all.  The cupcakes aren't bad either.

Please join us if you can, or let us know if you would like a signed copy of one of their books, if you can’t visit in person:

• Meet David Fleming, this Sat. Oct. 26th, 11 a.m. to noon.

• Meet Erin Dionne and Nancy Werlin, Sat. Nov. 2nd, 2-3:30 p.m.

• Meet Barney Saltzberg, Mon. Nov. 11th (Veteran’s Day), 10:30-11:30 a.m. (Beautiful Oops and A Little Bit of Oomph-special music/storytime)

• Meet Donna Seim, Sat. Nov. 16th, 2-4 p.m. (Charley book signing and fundraising event for the Home for Little Wanderers).

• And, of course, our very favorite author/illustrator...Meet Peter H. Reynolds, Saturday November 23rd, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. (The Smallest Gift of Christmas)