Monkey Madness Monday: Book Signing on the Base

On Saturday I was hosted by the Joint Bases of Lewis McChord for a book signing. It was at the PX, and this was my first in-store signing. My dad went with me for moral support, and it helped me calm my nerves a bit.

They are very no nonsense. You come in, sit at a table, sign books. An hour later you sign all the books you didn't sell, and you're on your way.

They supplied me with an escort, her name was Dawn, and she was very sweet, and it gave me someone to talk to during lulls.

It was a very surreal experience. They had three giant posters on the walls with my big giant face and book cover. They had me sign one before I left, and gave me one to take home.

People wanted to get their picture taken with me which I found to be very sweet and a little crazy, because in my mind, I am a nobody. I felt a little like a rock star.

I met some very interesting people. A wedding singer, teacher, a book blogger, an author with three books under his belt. Unfortunately, I also met a man who's son disappeared in Afghanistan. One thing I didn't think about when taking a signing on base was meeting people who had experienced real loss.

The base really knows how to treat their guests. They have both me and my father swag bags. There was some really cool stuff in there, and army t-shirt and hat, a reebok water bottle, a cosmetic bag full of samples, and I'm talking good samples: Prada, Versace, Jessica McClintock, Vera Wang.

They were very kind and appreciative, which I found funny. I was the one that should have been appreciative and I definitely was. They were awesome.

They had purchased 50 books. They sold a few before the signing, we sold 17 in the hour I was there, and Dawn assured me that they would sell the rest in probably the next few days.

I would definitely do another signing on base and highly recommend it to other authors in the area.

Oh, let's not forget our monkey. I got this picture courtesy of Heather at Starting on the Write Page...

Monkey Madness Monday: Goals, Obstacles, and My Addiction to Netflix

So, it's officially the commencement of 2012 (resolutions don't begin on the 1st, at least in my world), so thus begins the attempt to reach all my goals for the year. Today will actually be a little difficult because I'm going to be taking down the Christmas decorations and cleaning house, but I will fit in the elliptical, hopefully some writing and reading (there's a book I need to finish in the next couple days).

There are things I'll have to sacrifice to reach my goals for the year, and this is all part of my resolutions to balance my time. I need to cut back on the Netflix. This will be hard because I think it's actually become a crutch for me on the weeks my kids are at their dads.

When they're gone, I crawl into bed early with my Kindle and watch stuff, right now I'm watching Gray's Anatomy. I just need to shift gears. Instead of crawling into bed and watching Netflix, I need to be reading. OR, I need to not crawl in to bed and I need to be writing.

As you all know, if you've been reading me for awhile, I suffered from exhaustion the last few months of the year, so I'll have to fight this as well. It leaves me too tired to do much of anything except lay around and watch shows and movies. I'm going to kick exhaustion's ass this year to get my butt on the elliptical and get back to the things I love, reading and writing.

But I'll probably need to take baby steps.

Do you have any goals you want to reach this year? What are some obstacles you foresee that may keep you from those goals? How will you get past them.

Monkey Madness Monday

I could not help but share this video for Money Madness Monday.  My friend Donna posted it to my Facebook last week and every time I watch it, I crack up.

Had a very busy weekend.  Lots of soccer.  Met my Harbingers of Doom for coffee at Elliott Bay Books.  Met my friend Jarucia for appetizers and drinks.

Other stuff happened, but I think that's better suited for a vlog.

Worked on my rewrite of Sliced.  The name is very apropos for what I'm doing to this novel.  I think I'm going to have to do another revision after the rewrite, I'm not sure how the flow is working with all the hacking I'm doing.  I think it will be an interesting novel when I'm finished though.

I'm still not able to comment on your blogs, so I'm sorry.  I'm reading them, I promise.

Happy Monday.