I am pretty excited this morning so I’m not sure I can write a meaningful blog post for you. What is so exciting? The one photo that I entered in the county fair WON the People’s Choice Award. This means that, even while the judges didn’t give it a ribbon, the people visiting the photography exhibit voted it best of show.
This is a photo of my mom’s cat, Smokey, leaping, quite unexpectedly, out of some bushes and flowers in pursuit of a bee. I was trying to get a sweet shot of him peering out from behind some flowers. At the moment I pressed the shutter release button, I heard Smokey crashing through the bushes and thought—“darn it, I missed the shot.” When I looked at my digital camera screen, however, I saw the most marvelous action shot I’ve ever taken. And this is the photo I entered in the local fair.
People’s Choice Award. Wow!
If you want to see the photo visit my Catscapades blog at http://www.matilijapress.com/catscapades
In the meantime, I am attending a friend’s book signing today. Do you support your friends, authors from your writers’ group and other local authors by attending their book signings? You should. We should all help and support each other by attending library events featuring authors, book signings wherever they are being held, public presentations by authors, etc. Not only is it a nice thing to do, you could learn volumes—that is, if you pay attention.
Observe what makes this event successful or unsuccessful. What would you do differently as far as the program or your approach? Did the author advertise—how, through what channels? Is this author able to engage attendees or is she/he stand-offish? What sort of book display does the author have? Is it attractive? What gimmick does the author use to entice interaction with attendees?
The signing I’m attending today is at a cupcake bakery. Strange place, you say? Well, not really. The book, “I Murdered the PTA,” has a cupcake on the cover. The main character refers to the women in PTA as “cupcakes.” Here’s an example of a novelist using a nonfiction hook to promote her book. Can’t wait to get my mouth around one of those yummy cupcakes today. What a treat!