The retail book business, even though we don’t think of it as hectic, IS. Sometimes, in a single day, I find myself struggling to switch gears. Once in a while, I feel like I’m in a Twilight Zone of disorientation.
On Monday, I spent the morning driving more than 70 miles to deliver book and gift card orders to several of my school accounts.
Then I rushed back to the store to finalize the arrangements for a book signing I have coming up on May 7th. A reading & signing for the book “Buddha and the Terrorist” by Satish Kumar.

I am beyond excited to be hosting Satish in our store. I don’t expect a huge turnout because midwest USA is not a hotbed of nonviolent Buddhist thought – even in a city the size of St. Louis. I’m honored to have Professor Kumar in my store and the story of how we met is worth a blog entry of its own. Please click the link below and check out his organization.
http://www.resurgence.org/satish/index.htm
After those arrangements were complete, I turned my attention to getting a shipment ready to be delivered for a dinner event downtown that evening. I had staff members going down to set up and I would join them as soon as I could. (I still had an author event in my store before I could leave)
What was the downtown event? Oh, just a little dinner party hosted by rap star, Nelly and his charity 4Sho4Kids to celebrate the dedicated women who are foster mothers.
His keynote speaker was actress Victoria Rowell, whose wonderful book “The Women Who Raised Me” was being given as a gift to each attendee at the dinner. My job was to supply the books and assist Ms. Rowell at the signing table.
Here is a pic of Nelly introducing Victoria ….

And another of Victoria with our store’s assistant manager, Mary and me.

OK — Back to the author event I was doing before I headed downtown to the dinner…..
The most exciting new author on the scene (in my humble opinion), with a chance to fill the void left by the end of Harry Potter in the children’s fantasy genre, is Brandon Mull and his series: FABLEHAVEN. You really need to check out his website!!! http://fablehaven.com/
Fablehaven is about a magical creature preserve in the woods of Connecticut. Book one is in screenwriting at the moment, having been purchased by New Regency Pictures and producer Avi Arad (the same people known for screen adaptations of Marvel Comics). The great thing about this series. like the Potter series, has readers from 8 to 80 who have become diehard fans.
Brandon was at my store last year for book two and again this year for book three. He will be coming back in October to visit some of my area schools and then do another signing. The attendees at this event, were educators from all the schools who were all hoping to have their name drawn to win one of the free school visits we are sponsoring.

If you want to know what magic milk has to do with anything, you’ll just have to pick up a copy of Fablehaven for yourself.