Santa Cruz and BEA

Well the Santa Cruz Borders signing was fantastic. Lots of my friends showed up so it was kind of like having my own little personal party at a major bookstore. I also had the privilege of meeting Anne Cleven, the Bay Area director of Special Events for Borders. This woman just radiates intelligence and business savvy. She had some wonderful promotion ideas for me. She even said that the San Francisco Union Square Borders would help me capitalize on the book’s pink cover by promoting it during breast cancer awareness month in October. She suggested that I do the annual walk and then they would set up a book signing booth for me at the finish line. Some of the proceeds would go toward the cause. This is a wonderful idea on so many levels. Obviously the promotion will help me build a name for myself and my book but more importantly it will help get the word out about how women can lower their chances of getting breast cancer and how they can deal with it if they are diagnosed with it. San Francisco has more reported cases of breast cancer per capita than any other area in the nation. Coming in second is Marin County which is just two minutes outside the city. It’s a scary statistic and I’m happy to lend my name to this cause.

It’s been a while since Book Expo America but I thought I’d give you a recap anyway. This was my first year at BEA and before I arrived I had conjured up a mental image of what it would be like. I imagined lots of booths set up by the major publishing houses, authors, agents and booksellers milling about in droves, individuals schmoozing and networking, stuff like that. My mental image was pretty much on target except I hadn’t included the one detail that makes BEA such a wonderful event. Free books!!!! That’s right, the publishers are there trying to promote their current and future titles to booksellers and in order to do so they give books away to everyone and anyone who’s fortunate enough to be able to attend the event. Everywhere I looked there were people wandering around with tote bags filled with novels. Personally I felt like a kid in a candy store. I found myself pacing up and down the aisles trying to spot piles of books that were there to be taken. If I had known what to expect I would have brought along an extra suitcase.

My own signing was on the second day of the event and I was literally shocked to see how many people showed up to get a book and have me sign it for them. Red Dress Ink had around 6 boxes of books to give away and we ran out in less than an hour. What made the whole thing even better was the number of people who showed up who apparently read this blog. Although I have lots of evidence to the contrary I always assume that only 5-6 people are reading this thing and I’m always pleasantly surprised when that theory is proven wrong.

The night after the signing was party time. I went to the International Thriller Writers' soiree first which was a blast and then I went to Harlequin’s party. I gotta say, Harlequin knows how to throw a great bash. There was a red carpet, a wonderful band, an open bar and enough food to feed everyone in Time Square. I wore my favorite lavender dress and my cocktail shoes (I call them that because I need to have a cocktail in order to tolerate the pain caused by wearing them—but they’re damn sexy so their worth getting inebriated for)and hung out with the other Red Dress Ink gals.

If you click here you can see a photo of me along with several other “thriller writers” signing at BEA (just scroll down past the pictures of that Midsummer Night Swing thing) and if you click here you can get a sideways glance of me on Harlequin's red carpet. Note that a few of the thriller writers had a bottle of water next to them while signing their books. For some strange reason I’m the only one who opted to quench my thirst with a cup of Starbucks coffee.

Kyra Davis
www.kyradavis.com
Sex, Murder And A Double Latte IN STORES NOW!!!
For The Love Of A Dog--A fun online read!
Moms Of Mystery--An e-newsletter!