To kick off the Washington Romance Writers Retreat, a booksigning was held at Turn the page Bookstore Café. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the store, it’s owned and operated by Bruce Wilder who is the husband of New York Times Bestselling author Nora Roberts.
Not only does Turn The Page offer personalized service, good coffee and over 2000 different titles in most genres, many of which are autographed, but also it is the most hospitable bookstore I’ve ever had the pleasure of signing books in!
The story of my day began at 5:45 a. m. in Johnstown’s airport with a delayed flight! I didn’t arrive at Turn The Page until over an hour after the official start time of 11:30, but Bruce and his staff made me feel incredibly welcome and part of the wonderful booksigning, which included Nora Roberts, J. D. Robb, Charlaine Harris, Ruth Langan/R.C. Ryan, Gail Barrett, Roxanne St. Clair, Leigh Duncan (signing her first book!), Ellen Dugan, Susan Donovan, Lavinia Kent, Michelle Monkou, Christine Trent, Jean Marie Ward, Karen Anders, Heidi Betts and, of course, me…Susan Meier.
The interesting thing about this event is that readers eagerly await its arrival every year. Hundreds of fabulous romance readers arrive, get a ticket (so they don’t have to stand in line for hours) and then enjoy scenic Boonsboro, Maryland until their time arrives to meet the authors.
I was lucky enough to be sitting at the first table with the lovely and talented Susan Donovan. Susan is an NYT bestselling author of sexy, funny romances and she loves the fans. The fans also love her! She’s generous and spontaneous and she entertained everyone who came through the door.
We met some of the most incredible people. Readers with stories of their own to share, who talked to us about everything from new babies (or grandbabies) to their hobbies and jobs. It was a fantastic opportunity for writers to listen to those stories and understand how much readers enjoy a book that allows them to slip away for a few hours.
So thanks to Bruce Wilder and company for making the day special not just for fifteen authors who signed, but also for those wonderful readers!
I’ll definitely return to Turn The Page someday when I get to be one of the happy readers browsing through the stacks!
susan
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
WOW, Susan! I got a Google Alert that led me to your blog and all I can say is thank you. You are such a sweet lady. (Do let me know if you get a hankering for some outlet shopping!) - Susan Donovan
Your love of the readers was so clear as you chatted with them. That was fun for me!
And, yes, outlet shopping is always in my future!
susan
Post a Comment