But, I was not sitting around the tv watching football all day. I was out doing a little Christmas shopping and listening to a couple of authors discussing their debut books.
I started my day at the Hallmark store where Jim Shore was signing figurines. If you have not ever heard of him, I highly recommend you check out his website. He has some of the absolute cutest stuff I have ever seen! I especially love his Disney figurines. I am going to get on my soapbox for a minute here. I went in and asked what the rules were and was told he would sign two pieces per person. I had my daughter with me, thank goodness, so I dutifully picked out my four pieces and went to get in line. The problem, the line moved incredibly slow because people had six to ten pieces they were getting signed and they were there by themselves!! I have no problems with stipulations to signings, but if you are going to set the limits then stick to them!! I would have loved to pick up a couple more pieces to be signed but I did what was told only to have to stand in line twice as long because I as about the only one that did!
http://www.jimshore.com/
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| Me with Jim Shore |
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| Two of the figurines I bought today. The other two are too cute, but Christmas presents so I have to keep them under wraps. |
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| Jim's signature |
Anyway, because of this I was late to Murder by the Book to hear the first of two authors. If anyone is at all familiar with the store, you know that one co-owner recently died very suddenly. I did ask someone there today whom I have seen at the store several times for book signings and he said that David had a clot which caused a massive coronary. Very sad for the store and the community.
Laura DiSilverio was the first author. She has a new mystery book out called Swift Justice. This is the first in the series and she stated that the second is on the way to the publisher soon. Laura is a former Lt. Colonel in the Air Force. When asked why she turned down the Col. offer, she stated that she had two small children and was no longer willing to go overseas for extended periods of time. She also stated that she had always wanted to write and she felt that the time had come, so she retired from the Air Force and became a full time mom and writer. She also has another book out that is a cozy mystery called Tressed to Kill(Southern Beauty Shop) under the pen name Lila Dare. When asked why that book was written under a pseudonym, she said that Berkley wanted rights to the name and she wanted to publish other books under her real name, so she was not about to let a publisher own her name. Both books sound fun to read. I look forward to reading her current and future books!
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| Me and Laura DiSilverio |
After a quick trip to Rice Village for an early dinner and a trip to the British Isles store, we headed back to Murder by the Book for the second author of the day, Hilary Davidson. If the name sounds familiar, she has written numerous short stories as well as a number of travel books for Frommer and numerous articles for travel magazines. Her first novel is entitled The Damage Done. Hilary was an absolute joy! Not to take away from Laura, but remember Laura is a former Air Force Lt. Col. and Laura is a travel journalist. You can't find two more different people on one day! Laura is originally from Canada and now lives in New York. As you can see from the picture below, she is just precious and has a personality to match. She does, however, have short stories that are quite disturbing according to one audience member. Her short stories can be found in such magazines as Thuglit if that tells you anything! She let us know that her sequel is written and will be to the editor shortly. She talked a little about her own writing and said that with her first novel, she did try to stick to an outline, but found herself re-writing the outline quite often so with the next novel she only stuck to the outline for about a third of the book. She said she often knows the beginning and the end, but the middle is what tends to change frequently during her edits and re-writes. If you have a chance, I strongly encourage you to go and listen to her speak, she was a lot of fun to listen to! I have put her blog link below the book, so check her out!
http://blog.hilarydavidson.com/
http://www.thuglit.com/
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| Hilary reading from her novel. |
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| Me and Hilary Davidson. |
It was a great day and now it is time to settle in for the evening to watch the Baylor take care of UT!! LOL
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