Last week I talked about sharing my experience.  After this week I can add: call ahead to bookstores and prepare for the weather.  I didn’t, and paid the price.

Bottom line: Good judgment comes from experience. Unfortunately, the experience usually comes from bad judgment.

In some ways the last week has held its disappointments.  A schedule malfunction caused my presentation on Book World News to be postponed.  Then Friday I turned up at the Borders in Reagan National Airport only to learn that the general manager neglected to mention my signing to anyone else, so they didn’t have books for me to sign.

Saturday it poured all day so the Baltimore Book Festival’s author’s tent didn’t get many visitors.  Plus, we had the challenge of keeping our wares dry because we were set up on a steep hill with a river running under the tables.  The festival was scheduled to run until 7 pm but by 5:30 I and the other two remaining authors decided to call it a day. 

Sunday it was more than the rain.  The Redskins were playing the Cowboys and around Waldorf, MD that means that nobody is hanging around the mall.  Still, I signed more books than Saturday and the manager is a very pleasant lady so we had good conversation at those times when we had the store all to ourselves.

Not that it was all gloom and doom.  Last week’s high point, my presentation to the Charles Carroll Middle School in New Carrollton, MD resulted in a very nice article in the Prince George’s Gazette.  I was mentioned often, and in a very favorable light.

And I got the word that my new “Cover Story” style video for Blood and Bone was completed.  The video will be posted to the company blog and get a MySpace bulletin.  It will also be submitted to 30 social media sites, 4 mystery reader sites, half a dozen book marking sites and more than 300 bookseller sites.  Of course, there’s no guarantee that any of those places will accept the video, but I hope you will all keep an eye out for it and let me know when you see it.  Also, the video will be on the Transit TV service on buses in Los Angeles, Chicago, Orlando, Atlanta and Milwaukee.  Again, please drop me an e-mail if you see it.

Of course, it’s on my web site so you can see it now. 

I’ve already told you that I’ll wind up the weekend today signing books at the Borders Express in St Charles Town Center from 2 pm to 6 pm.

Meanwhile, it occurred to me the other day that teaching writing can be a bit like teaching driving.  I tell fiction writers that in order to create good prose they have to be living in the moment they are writing.  It’s the same kind of focus you need to drive a car - living in that moment.  And yet, you should always have some idea of the immediate next step, so that you can create tension and suspense, gently foreshadowing the future. 

The story is like a car in that even though you are driving, it is the vehicle carrying you forward.  And like driving, you should never let your vehicle take you somewhere your brain didn’t get to five minutes earlier.

I already told you that I’ll spend today at the Baltimore Book Festival in the author’s tent. 

I’ll wind up the weekend tomorrow signing books at the Borders Express in St Charles Town Center from 2 pm to 6 pm.  The Mall is at 5000 Highway 301 S Waldorf, MD.

I already told you that today I’m signing books at the Borders in Reagan National Airport from noon to 4:00 pm.

I’ll spend tomorrow at the Baltimore Book Festival in the author’s tent.  I’ll be one of the 200+ authors at the Festival, including Bishop T.D. Jakes, Walter Mosley, Michael Ian Black, Mark McEwen, Chef Martin Yan, Omar Tyree, and those lawmaking sisters, Congresswomen Loretta and Linda Sanchez.  You’ll want to check out the Radical Bookfair Pavilion, and the readings, panel discussions, and performances by members of the Baltimore Theatre Alliance on the Festival Stage.  It all happens in Mount Vernon Place, 600 & 700 blocks of North Charles Street in midtown Baltimore, MD from 11:00 am to 7:00 pm. 

Tomorrow I have a book signing at the Borders in Reagan National Airport.  I’ll greet the travelers from noon to 4:00 pm at the one airport store that people can access without going through security. 

Yesterday I told you that I’d be on the BlogTalkRadio show Book World News tonight but we’ve had to reschedule my appearance to October 15.  And in all the confusion I haven’t told you about all the fun I had last week.

How I wish I had teachers when I was in school like the people I met Friday at Charles Carroll Middle School in New Carrollton, MD.  They were so positive and upbeat, I wanted to join in on the school’s 25 book campaign. All of their students will be expected to read at least 25 books by the end of the school year.  As part of the campaign kickoff, I gave a short talk to a gym full of seventh graders, and then a cafeteria full of 8th graders.  There must have been nearly a thousand kids there, enthusiastic and questioning, yet remarkably well behaved.

After the two assemblies I joined another author for lunch with the students who had read the principal’s first selected book.  They asked plenty of good questions and we did our best to answer them.  I couldn’t stay past morning, but I’m already looking forward to a return visit when I can do some reading.

My activity Saturday was a bit more traditional.  I had a book signing at Borders Books in Largo, MD.  Folks there like supporting local authors, to the point that I sold out two of my titles.

I also got final word of the changes to my panel at Bouchercon.  You can stay up to date with the shifting schedules of all your mystery favorites, since they have a whole separate blog devoted to the Bouchercon 2008 schedule.

Check “Your Charmed To Death Programming.”

My full week starts tomorrow night when I get to be the radio star.  You already know I host a BlogTalkRadio show called Book Bridge: From Authors to Readers every Monday night.  Well Wednesday night at 8:30 Eastern time I’ll be the guest on another show - Book World News.  The ironic twist is that I’ll be there to get interviewed about Book Bridge: From Authors to Readers.  You are all invited to call in live by dialing 646-200-4071.

Hello, Blog readers!

Please excuse the shameless self promotion, but I’m asking all of you to please
 take 3 minutes of your time to vote for my podcasts – “Book Bridge: From
 Authors to Readers” - in the Podcast Awards.
 
 Just go to this website:

 http://www.podcastawards.com/

 and vote for my show in the Cultural category.  You can listen to
 archived episodes of “Book Bridge: From Authors to Readers
 at this web site:

 http://www.geocities.com/ewenprime/cospbb.html
 
 Thanks in advance!