Thursday, June 5, 2008

Kendra’s--and My--New Adventure

Tuesday was the official availability date of Kendra’s latest adventure, DOUBLE DOG DARE. It’s my twentieth published novel. Do you imagine that, after so many, I’d get blasé about the whole thing?

Not!

I love writing, and I love being published. Nothing brought that home more to me recently than first seeing DOUBLE DOG DARE on a bookstore shelf. Plus, I attended part of BookExpo America last weekend and loved every exciting moment of it!

I spent much of Saturday helping to staff the Mystery Writers of America booth, where I ran into quite a few other mystery writers, local and not, who were there to give away books to people in the publishing industry and, hopefully, create hype for their creations. Me, too! My wonderful mystery publisher, Berkley, sent a box of DOUBLE DOG DARE books for me to autograph and give away. I felt almost giddy when I saw a line form, mostly people who knew the series and wanted the latest one. Wow!

I had the opportunity to visit other booths, too. Did I collect autographed books for myself? You bet! Plus, I met some delightful attendees at the booths of both of my current publishers: Berkley and Harlequin. I visited the Dorchester booth several times and talked with one of the nice people I’d met years ago when I wrote time travel and fairy tale romances published by them. I popped over to the nearby Romance Writers of America booth, too, to talk to the folks there.

I’m currently working on my second Silhouette Nocturne, so I was really glad that I visited the Harlequin booth in time to see a couple of Nocturne authors. I’m already excited about the series, but they helped to spur me to even greater enthusiasm!

Among the great people I met at the booth for the Penguin Group (USA), parent company to Berkley, were some folks who are involved with paperback sales. They even wanted me to send along some bookmarks for Kendra’s books for them to distribute. Of course I did!

DOUBLE DOG DARE is my only book being published this year, and I love it. I’ll also love next year when I’ll have at least one more Kendra book out--NEVER SAY STY--plus two Nocturnes and a Nocturne Bites (an e-novella!).

From some of the commentary I read after BEA, the book industry is feeling today’s economic crunch. Attendance may have been lower than at other BEAs. But in my humble opinion, books rule, and readers, too!


--Linda

6 comments:

Betty Hechtman said...

I am so glad to hear that it is as thrilling with your 20th book (by the way congratualtions, that is quite an acheivement) as it is with your first.

Terri Thayer said...

Congrats on the release! Someday I'd like to be where you are - 20 books and counting. I've got a lot of catching up to do.

That's an amazing feat.

Monica Ferris said...

I agree, it's always a thrill to see your very own words in a published book.

I wonder if one reason fewer people came to BEA was because of the increased cost of travel?

Monica Ferris said...

I agree, it's always a thrill to see your very own words in a published book.

I wonder if one reason fewer people came to BEA was because of the increased cost of travel?

Kathryn Lilley said...

Wow, twenty! That's fabulous, Linda. Major congratulations! Kathryn

Linda O. Johnston said...

Thanks for all the good wishes. Yes, 20 is special but I'm not looking back as much as forward.
Monica, I did read that fewer people come to BEA in LA than some other venues, possibly because of travel. I'd imagine the best turnout is in NYC.
--Linda