Friday, August 19, 2016

Surprise!

Last week when I was in Barnes and Noble at Goodland there was a table set up with a whole display of my new non-fiction academic book, surrounded by all of my mysteries. Not only was I delighted, I was so surprised.

This boondoggle occurred with no effort on my part. It was a gift. Out of the blue. Generating publicity is such an elusive part of publishing that it's easy to forget that sometimes good things simply happen.

The full title of the Nicodemus book is Nicodemus: Post-Reconstruction Politics and Racial Justice in Western Kansas. It's about 19th century African American Politicians and their contribution to the settlement of the West. Specifically, it's about the philosophies of three men in Nicodemus, who affected local, state, and national politics.

Not much connection to my mysteries. I can come up with one. Sort of. The Lottie Albright mysteries are set in Western Kansas and all have some sort of history worked in somewhere. But still. Who would have thought that B & N would have a display linking the two genres.

Through the years I have become very open to the delights of appearances and events. Even the ones that are disastrous have comical aspects. I started to go into some of the specifics then erased the copy. Because I'm well aware of the effort involved for booksellers and organizations to put signings together and would hate for followers of this blog to think I'm making fun of their time and efforts.

I'm deeply grateful for all the breaks I've had and very conscious that writers far more talented than I have not been so lucky. I'm very much aware of how far I have to go in learning the craft and polishing what little skill I have.

There's never a time when I attend a conference that I don't go home sobered by the knowledge that the writers at the top of the bestseller lists are the most disciplined hard-working people I know. Without exception.



6 comments:

Irene Bennett Brown said...

Walking into a Barnes and Noble bookstore and seeing your book on the shelf is enough to set the heart happily thumping, but an unexpected entire table display of your books? How'd you survive the thrill? So happy for you, dear friend.

Donis Casey said...

What a lovely thing to happen. May it be the first of many, many times.

Unknown said...

It's always cool to hear about things that happen in my home state! What a thrill for you to happen on that event!

Charlotte Hinger said...

Irene, I don't know how I overlooked these comments. Thank you! We have been through so much stuff--good and bad together. And our friendship will last forever.

Charlotte Hinger said...

Mary Jane--thank you for your very kind comments.

Charlotte Hinger said...

Donis--I'm still so very thrilled that this happened. Who would have thought.