Last week, I was lucky enough to be invited as a fellow author to a book signing my professor was having at a local Richmond book store, Fountain Bookstore, Inc. And last night it was finally time to see this popular bookstore for myself!
As you know, I never go downtown, so this was the first time I was able to explore Cary Street a little bit. Asking my friend to drive me, we arrived quite early to the event. Being 5 o’clock on Cary was interesting, but luckily there was a parking deck just down the street from the bookstore. Once we were parked, I filled my purse with a few copies of my book and we walked in the 20 degree weather to the store.
Seeing and smelling all of those books when I walked into the store just filled me with joy. So many things to explore! There were even a ton of books that were autographed up for sale. I took advantage of that while my friend and I waited for my professor to arrive.
I’ve been following Maggie Stiefvater on Facebook for a while now and she is extremely talented. Not only with writing but with her artistic skills as well. I’ve always dreamed of messaging her and asking her to draw me a celtic crow design, but I never built up the guts. Either way, the owner of the bookstore, Kelly, showed me her collection of Maggie’s work. She even mentioned that her books had Celtic themes thrown throughout, exciting me even more. I was thrilled to find some signed copies of The Raven Cycle series in the mix. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to buy it! Kelly even recommended her book The Scorpio Races, so needless to say, I have a lot of reading to do.
As a side note, Kelly was even willing to take a copy of my book to read. I may not be as well known or as talented as Maggie Stiefvater, but she knew I was a struggling new author who wanted to get her books out there. Although the rest of my series is only available as a Kindle book, she was happy to take Dead Dreamer: To Dream is to Die and give it a chance. She was interested to hear that my novels were New Adult Fiction which is still fairly new to the literary world. I hope in the future, all of my books will be printed by a legitimate publisher and I can sell my books at her wonderful store!
Ahh…Now I’m dreaming of HarperCollins, Scholastic, Penguin…one day…one day…but first I have to find me some representation! Dreams…never give up. Never stop writing.
After becoming completely engrossed in the selections around me, my professor, Casey Clabough, arrived with a box filled with his books. Many of his books are focused on the history of Virginia, allowing many to learn about where we came from, what people went through in the past. The book that the evening was mainly focused on was Women of War, a novel containing memoirs, poems, and fiction from Virginia women who lived through the Civil War.
Having already read the book, I was excited to hear more about it. Being that Dr. Clabough is my professor and thesis advisor, I know a lot about his work. This book took a lot of work and is fascinating to read as a Virginia woman. It was interesting to be placed in that historical mindset for a while. Many of his books were purchased and some are even up for sale at the Fountain!
We discussed his book and future work for a while and even my own for a bit. Kelly was welcoming and everything went well. I hope I’ll be able to visit the Fountain Bookstore in the future. Many, many times! I’ll just have to learn how to brave downtown RVA. One day I won’t become extremely nervous about driving downtown…one day.
Leave a Reply