A Pleasant Sunday Afternoon

Robin Agnew

Usually, I don't schedule signings on Sundays (except Mother's Day - go figure.  My kids think what Mothers do on Mother's Day is set up & run an event and then go out with a bunch of authors for a beer.)  But really, Sunday signings have a whole different ambience.  There's something more languid and relaxed about them, for some reason.

This past Sunday, we hosted two of my favorite Chicagoans, Libby Hellman and Sharon Fiffer, both (coincidentally) on book 6.  We had to finagle the date as both women are busy, but finally settled on Sunday, November 8.  There was some confusion over the time as I was a little too relaxed, and posted different times in the newsletter and on the postcards I mail out.  However - it was a Sunday.  Relax.

I got to the store around 12:15 or so, to find our loyal employee busily vacuuming (my husband has recently cleared a few fresh inches of floor space, which is always exciting and won't last, so we have to gather our rosebuds etc.  Hence the vacuum).  I hastily re-lettered our outdoor easel sign with Libby & Sharon's names and the time (was it the right one? who can say) and set it out on the sidewalk.  Then Marty (loyal employee) and I got to work moving our handy bookshelves on wheels.  I love the wheels, but anything full of books is heavy...

Anyway we cleared some more floor space for the event in this manner (more vacuuming required) and I set out the books, or product, as I call the things when I'm cranky.  (Like when Loren Estleman signs and I'm trying to squeeze many of the 60+ titles he has written on one friggin' table).

I hustled (well, I didn't hustle - it was Sunday!) across the street to buy a couple of bottles of water for the ladies and ran into Libby parking her car, so we were able to chit chat and have tea at the same time, while she told me about her next book, which sounds terrific.  Libby and I - I have to say it - lingered, but we finally ambled back across the street, to find a slightly annoyed reporter from the Ann Arbor Journal who figured that the event had started at 1:30.  But as it worked out - Sunday mojo - she was able to sit and interview the authors before their talk.  And said reporter, the lovely Lisa Allmendinger, wrote up a great story and even took photos.

And did I mention the nice thing about Sharon Fiffer, aside from her general niceness and intelligence?  She has a HUGE family in the area, many of whom attended.  So they hung on her every word and bought books.  I love people with big families (Marcus Sakey is another such wonder).  All told we had a lovely afternoon - Libby and Sharon were more than entertaining, we sold a respectable number of books, and everyone seemed pleased.

After Marty & I moved back the shelves filled with heavy "product" I was free to leave.  As I was walking out the door, a customer asked, "Where are you going?"  Why, to enjoy my Sunday, of course...there were some leaves in the backyard with my name on them.

Comments

[bookwitch]

There's only one thing I don't like with fluent signing times, and that's when the signing between five and six ends with author departing at 5.30, because there was no longer a queue. I need to know I can rush in at 5.45 and find them still there.

[Robin Agnew]

This was actually atypical of me - not sure why it happened. In any case it would be a rare signing where the author wasn't there for an hour at the very least. We had a woman in yesterday who stayed for three and a half hours!