I have signed books!  I fretted about it all week and then everything went like clockwork.  Hooray!

I planned on arriving at Chevalier’s Books half an hour early to give myself time to set up my candy cauldrons and Parma Violets, but of course I got to Larchmont Blvd. a full hour ahead of time.  I couldn’t go in that early, so I drove around the neighborhood for thirty minutes (there are some huge houses around there). By the time  I got back, parked the car and hauled my bags and boxes into the shop I was really nervous but Norman Dixon and everyone else at Chevalier’s couldn’t have been nicer.  The table was right at the front of the shop, so I put the cauldrons next to the window where they could be seen from the street.  I wasn’t sure whether I should sit down right away, but Barbara the storyteller came and chatted and asked me to sign a copy for her granddaughter and her new puppy, so that got things off to a good start.

As soon as eleven o’clock rolled around, the people I had emailed about the event started to arrive (hooray!).  They bought books and stood around near the table, talking and laughing for the whole two hours.  At first I was concerned that the store might not like that, but Norman said it was exactly what they wanted.  My friend Judy stopped everyone who came in and told them all about the book and steered them toward the table — she even went outside and accosted people in the street, asking them if they had children and if so how old they were.  And it worked!  People came in, looked at the books, chatted…and then bought them.  One lady only came in because she saw the cauldrons.  She was impressed that I’d made the cakes and put the whole thing together and she bought a book too.  Some people bought three!

It was lots of fun and at the end of it Chevalier’s had sold all but five of their copies of Spellbinder, so I signed those for them and toddled off across the road to have lunch at Le Petit Greek (I love Greek food).

My next signing is in two weeks and you’ll never guess where.  Clue: it involves traveling by air and being really cold.

But more on that later!