I Didn't Expect It!

Months ago, my publisher asked me to block off some specific dates in October to attend AASL in St. Louis. As with most conferences, I checked my schedule, saw that I was free, and agreed without much thought. At this stage, I trust them to send me to events that make sense.

But now that I’m home from AASL, I have so many thoughts, many of which revolve around gratitude. Yes, I got to see author friends who I don’t get to see often (or ever!), but I also got to see SO. MANY. LIBRARIANS.

And holy cow - they were supportive beyond my wildest dreams. My first signing for The House with No Keys was at 9:00 a.m. with Publisher’s Spotlight. When the exhibit hall doors opened, people started running in. No, I’m not exaggerating. They were running. Big smiles on their faces, canvas tote bags at the ready. I asked the Director of Sales what in the heck everyone was sprinting for and with a smile, she said:

“Your line. Look - they’re running to your line.”

Friends, I nearly died. I’ve been in this industry many years. I wrote 5 full novels before writing The Mystery of Locked Rooms and while those did well, they didn’t light the world on fire, you know? I had plenty of events where there wasn’t a line, and more than a handful where there weren’t even any people! In the past year, though, things have changed. I now get dozens of reader emails a week, I’ve been told I’m an “auto-buy”, I regularly get asked for blurbs, and . . .

People ran to get into my line.

When I got back into the car after my second signing, I was tearful. Shocked. Grateful. Yes, this industry can really rough us up and we have to have thick skin, but there are moments like this, too, that we need to commit to memory. I’ll never forget those lines and how such lovely, passionate people stood for an hour to get a signed book from me. I hope they know that halfway through, I was gently told that there were still over 90 people in line and that I’d need to move it along (AKA stop being so chatty, Lindsay, haha!). I really wish I could have had a full conversation with all of them because I owe them a big thank you.

Thank you for reading. Thank you for putting my books into the hands of your students. Thank you for caring. Thank you for allowing me to do the job of my dreams.

Thank you.