Last Night's John Connolly Book Signing Event

Lady K and I had a lot of fun last night at the book signing for John Connolly http://www.johnconnollybooks.com/, author of the Charlie Parker series as well as several other excellent thrillers http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/c/john-connolly/. I came loaded with two books from Mt Git'r'Read and bought more (of course) from Cynthia's stacks that she brought from her shop, High Crimes Mystery Bookshop http://www.highcrimesbooks.com/ . John was a sweetie and didn't have any kind of limit on how many books he'd sign or how long he'd visit. Good thing, too, since Lady K was pitching story ideas and enjoying chatting with the nice "He really doesn't sound Irish" guy.

We were treated to an hour of John chatting about his writing, his new book, he read from notes for his new book, stories from real life that are stranger than fiction. All in that lovely Irish accent...like I said, he could have read from the phone book and I'd have been fine. But the evening was so much better.

Lori Armstrong Book Signing Pics

This is Lori Armstrong, signing my copy of BLOOD TIES, the first in her Julie Collins thriller mystery series...this also nicely shows a good (albeit upside) view of NO MERCY, Lori's first book in her new Mercy Gunderson thriller series.
She gave a super talk about where she lives (in Rapid City, South Dakota), why she lives there (she likes it), the writing process ( she needs to be on her computer that has only a word processing, no internet distractions), the research process and how she is not a gun expert, nor a very good shot even if the family business is the firearms industry.
She also writes under the pen name of Lorelai James. She writes erotic love stories set in the Wild West. Schnikees dudettes! Go to her site if only for the hot patootie eye candy! I mean WUH-HOOF!

And hey! I got to meet one of my absolute favorite bloggers, Becky, of No More Grumpy Bookseller !! I've been following her for a while now and was so glad to see her at the book signing. Bless her, she let me babble happily along, agreed to a picture for blogger posterity, and stood outside in the chill to chat some more. It's excellent meeting a fellow bookaholic with highly similar taste in reading material.
Thank you, Cynthia of High Crimes, for hosting Lori for Wed night's fun and thank you to Oriental & Navajo Rug Company for the space for Cynthia to use for her book signings. Very much going back there with DH. He's going to love it.

Lori Armstrong Book Signing Info

Lori Armstrong is going to be up in my neck of the Colorado woods tomorrow night. She will be signing her latest book, NO MERCY, at Oriental & Navajo Rug at 927 Main Street in Longmont CO Wed 3 Feb 2010 at 7pm.

Cynthia of High Crimes Mystery Bookshop is hosting the event and going to be bringing lots of Lori's books for us to have Lori sign!!

Super Fun Saturday with Jeanne C Stein

So I had the best flippin' Saturday afternoon yesterday! DH was my very sweet driver and took us down to Denver (we live in the northwestern 'burbs) to WhoElse! Books on Broadway for their first book signing in their new digs. Their first signing was Jeanne Stein, author of the superb Anna Strong series. I have followed and chatted with Jeanne on the blog she shares with Mario Acevedo, author of the Felix Gomez series, another favorite of mine. I've won some contests from Jeanne and she sent me a signed 2009 calendar last Christmas. She just plain ol' rocks.

We arrived early since we weren't sure we'd know exactly where we needed to be. MapQuest made it easy and we were inside the store extra early. What else does one do in bookshop when one is early for a book signing? Yep, we shopped for books and I found a treasure trove (will be on my Monday Books in the House post tomorrow). Then Jeanne arrived and almost immediately came over to us, recognizing Lady K. Jeanne had a gift for Lady K, a light up duck, a box of chocolates and a pair of vampire teeth. Lady K had a pirate map and a monster picture she'd drawn for Jeanne. Lady K adores the Anna Strong book cover magnets I keep on the fridge and knows I read the books.

Jeanne read from RETRIBUTION, book 5 in the series. She answered questions from the audience, and had several raffle drawings. I won the last draw (loaded with my, Lady K's and DH's tickets as I was). My booty was a copy of RETRIBUTION, book cover magnets, a box of chocolates, a pen, and a WhoElseBooks shopping bag! Just a highly excellent time and supremely memorable. Jeanne reading from RETRIBUTION, fifth in the Anna Strong seriesJeanne answering a question from the audience

Jeanne, Lady K and moiLady K supervising the autographing of the copy of RETRIBUTION we won in the raffle

Oh yeah....Mario Acevedo was there for support and extra charm....