When Will and I sent out Deadly Fall book launch invitations to everyone we’d ever met, a surprising result was requests from people I hadn’t known well, or at all, to speak to their group.

One invite came from Fran Kimmel, a writer I met in a couple of workshops at the Alexandra Writers’ Centre Society. A former Calgary resident, Fran now lives in Lacombe, AB, and is a Friend of the Mary C. Moore Public Library in Lacombe. Fran offered to set up a workshop, followed by a reading and discussion at the Lacombe library.

We decided on the two-hour workshop topic: Creating Memorable Characters. Since Fran expected half the registrants would be memoir writers, I studied up on creating characters for memoirs as well as for fiction and found published excerpts from both genres as teaching examples. This workshop could easily be expanded to a full day session or even an 8 week course, which I’ll eventually offer to the Alexandra Writers.

Fifteen women registered for the workshop. It turned out to be a lot of fun. I hope the participants learned something. Fran and Christina, the librarian contact, said they told her they did. A number of the students stayed for the reading and discussion. They were joined by others from the public. We gathered in a lovely, window corner of the beautiful new library complex.

I read Chapter One of Deadly Fall. The discussion topic was supposed to be “Why Do We Read Mysteries?” but we never got around to talking about that. People preferred to ask questions about writing and getting published. As I’d discovered in earlier presentations, the questions were interesting and challenging. I’m getting used to answering on the fly.

At the end, people purchased books – 13 in all. The library paid for my lunch and gave me an honorarium and such a generous mileage allowance that I told them they were paying me too much. I’m not used to getting adequately compensated for what I do.

Another invitation came from the wife of Will’s former colleague. Janet belongs to a book club in Priddis, south of Calgary. Every spring, members of book clubs in that area gather at the Millarville Library to discuss the books they’ve read during the year. They had talked of having an author speaker. I got to be it.

About 30 representatives from 7 book clubs congregated in the small library connected to the Millarville community school. The session began with mingling. I discovered that the Millarville librarian went to my high school in Montreal. Her sister, who was in my grade, also lives in the region and is retired from the Calgary police. She might make a good resource for a future murder mystery novel.

For this presentation, I spoke briefly about Deadly Fall and left most of my half hour allotment for questions, which I find people tend to enjoy best. Will and I stayed for the club members’ favourite readings of the year and picked up some suggestions for our book club’s next session.

The meeting ended with book sales. Nine sold and I expect these readers will pass the book around to their fellow book club members.

I have a Calgary book club gig lined up for the fall. This came from a member of a United Church Women’s group that invited me to speak after their launch invitation. The book club has 10 members and they promise great discussion, food and wine.

Writing is a lonely task. I love my time alone absorbed in writing, but sometimes it’s great to get out and enjoy these fringe benefits.

Sunday, May 15th, I had my second book signing – at Indigo Signal Hill in Calgary. The 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM stint being longer than my three hours at Indigo TD square, I approached this signing in a more relaxed manner and dressed comfortably in capris and my “Ask me about my book” T-shirt.

I arrived early, arranged my display on the small table set up near the door and tried to catch people’s eyes as they entered. I sensed less avoidance from these Sunday shoppers than I did from the business folk in TD Square, although I wondered, at one point, if those entering were tending to steer left into the store to avoid passing by my table. Dual signings might make sense here, with one writer to right of the door, the other to the left, so no one entering can escape.

Toward noon I made my first sale. A customer got interested when I told her my protagonist is an insurance adjuster. The customer is a claims examiner, doing the job I had 30 years ago. I told her I could use an insurance adjuster contact for authenticity with future books. She said her colleague used to be a property adjuster and took my business card to pass along. We talked about the three of us meeting for coffee to discuss my future novel insurance questions.

Customer traffic picked up. Many were parents with children. Sunday shopping seems a popular family activity. A few more people bought the book. A man remarked, “I’ll take a chance” – on an unknown author, I assume he meant. Others took Deadly Fall postcards. A woman bought the novel for her father’s birthday, which was that day. She thought he’d get a kick out of the setting, being a life-long Calgary resident.

A couple arrived and said they’d driven here from Nanton because they saw a notice of my signing in the Writers Guild newsletter. The wife, a writer, had struggled with the question of going for a local or exotic setting for her novel. She’d opted for the local and was interested in seeing how I handled that in my book. I told her I was scheduled for a book signing at the Tumbleweed Coffee House in Nanton on June 16th. She said she’d drop by.

As we were exchanging business cards, a friend from my writing group came in with her daughter. They hadn’t known I was doing the signing and decided, while they were here, to get the book. The daughter wanted her own copy, so they bought two.

Another friend with daughter showed up for moral support. She liked my table display, but suggested I add something ghoulish. A toy gun? Dagger? Proabably not appropriate. Later, I noticed a store customer carrying a purse with a police tape shoulder strap. I have some yellow “caution” tape at home leftover from a driveway repair. Maybe I’ll drape some around the table at my next Calgary signing.

By 3:30, I felt drained by my day. The last purchaser was a clerk at this Indigo store. She likes myseries and was interested in the novel premise. She’s a high school student, which I hadn’t thought to be my reader demographic, but you never know who will like a book.

The total sold was 10 books, the same number as my downtown TD Square sales, but only two went to people I knew vs. 4-5 the last time. Deadly Fall now being available in paperback helped.

Even though it was a longer period of time, I liked this signing more than the first one. I still wouldn’t say I enjoy signings, but both experiences felt productive for selling books, getting the word out about Deadly Fall and, potentially, making contacts. And things happen that are kind of interesting, like the man with the European accent who heard me talking about the Calgary setting and made a bee-line to the table to tell me he hated Calgary. “They should bottle it up and throw it away.” He also hated fiction and had come to the store, on someone’s advice, to buy a non-fiction book – on anger management.

Yesterday, I caught part one of Oprah Winfrey’s interview with James Frey. This is a follow-up to her 2006 interview with the notorious author and his publisher. Oprah had chosen his memoir “A Million Little Pieces” as a book club selection and later felt betrayed when it was revealed many of the book’s details were fabrications.

After that initial interview, Oprah was blasted by a number of people for being hard on Frey. I watched the 2006 interview and agree. She picked on Frey for fabrications that didn’t strike me as that terrible. He lied about undergoing a root canal with no anesthetic. He changed an acquantance’s method of committing suicide. Frey claimed he did that protect the woman’s identity. Oprah insisted he chose a more sensational suicide method. Isn’t any suicide, by however means, awful enough?

My impression from this recent interview is that Oprah hasn’t changed her tune in the intervening years. Frey suggested that both his agent and publisher knew the memoir was borderline fiction. He’d been struggling for years to publish the book as a novel and obviously grabbed the chance to get his story published. The publisher and agent were the experts. In both interviews, Oprah skimmed past their guilt and heaped the blame on Frey.

In yesterday’s interview, Frey was contrite. He accepted full responsibility for his mistake. I wanted to see him argue back, but his approach is probably better for gaining sympathy and, perhaps, respect.

In his own defense, Frey did say that most writers of memoir fabricate. Oprah seemed startled by this remark and took it as evidence that Frey still doesn’t understand or accept that he did wrong. From my friends who write creative non-fiction, I gather that today some fabrication is acceptable and encouraged. This includes things like re-creating dialogue the writer could not have recalled literally. Some claim it’s even okay to alter facts to improve the story. I’m surprised that no one has told Oprah this is being done. Possibly they have and she still believes she’s right.

Part two is airing right now – Tuesday, 3:00 PM. I’ll watch the repeat show at 5:00.

On Wednesday, April 27th, I experienced my first author book signing. It took place at Indigo Spirit TD Square, in downtown Calgary. Most of this store’s patrons are office workers on their lunch hour, so we scheduled the signing from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm. Since we hadn’t organized the event with enough lead time for Indigo to order extra books, they asked me to bring in my own copies to sell through the store. 

My husband, Will, dropped me, a box of Deadly Falls and my supplies off at TD Square and left to find a place to park. Inside, customers milled around the store. The manager had set up at a table facing the mall entrance door. I arranged books, posters I had made and postcards featuring Deadly Fall’s cover and information into an attractive and welcoming display. 

For the next hour, I stood beside the table trying to catch the attention of people who entered the store. Most avoided me. A few I pounced on lingered to talk. One or two said they were interested, but had to dash off to a meeting. Right. Will lurked in the background, trying not to look conspicuous.  He had sent e-mails to his former colleagues and was was looking forward to catching up with any who arrived. 

Toward noon, a colleague turned up. While the three of us chatted, a woman swooped by me, picked up a copy of Deadly Fall and excitedly said she wanted buy it. Wow. The next hour was hectic. More colleagues appeared, including one who’d come in to shop and hadn’t heard about the signing. A friend dropped by to wish me well and give me a power bar to propel me into the afternoon. The sister of my sister Lynn’s colleague breezed in. She said she was 80 pages to the end of Deadly Fall and wanted to tell me how much she was enjoying it. She bought a copy for her neighbours and convinced a hesitant woman standing by the table that Deadly Fall was a great read.  The woman said she was glad to support a local writer. A man who had escaped to a meeting returned to say he’d decided to buy the novel for his wife. 

Store traffic eased after 1:00 pm. By 1:30, I felt done. In the end, we sold 10 books – 4 of them to Will’s colleagues. I also handed out about 25 postcards. Perhaps a few of those people will follow through and later buy the book. Several asked if it was available online. Yes, it is.

As we packed up the table, I felt exhuasted and moderately satisfied and not feeling I’d entirely enjoyed the experience and already talking of doing it again.

My next author signing will be at Indigo Signal Hill on May 15th, 11:00 am – 4:00 pm, a longer stint with Sunday shoppers who may be more willing to browse and chat with an author at the signing table.