Sunday, October 10, 2010

Fans Do the Sweetest Things and a CONTEST


October 16 is Sweetest Day, so this week we're all blogging about the sweet things in our lives. For me, that definitely includes my wonderful fans.

Sarah Andreotti wrote to tell me that her daughter Quinn (pictured above) considers Paper, Scissors, Death "her book." Quinn takes it everywhere. She even sleeps with a copy!

Last year, a bunch of fans took off work in Pittsburgh to have lunch with me. One of them even brought me a batch of stovetop cookies made from a recipe on my website. I had a blast meeting with the ladies from Pittsburgh!


In St. Louis, a mystery book club that enjoys my books talked a Barnes & Noble manager into having me as a special guest. Then the mystery book club members talked me into creating a new character in my books. Her name will be Bridget Eichen, and she's "scrubby Dutch," which means she's a German immigrant who is houseproud. Boy, will she ever be an interesting addition to Kiki Lowenstein's life.

Another fan showed up for one of my signings in Maryland and brought a small album he'd made. It folded out to show covers of all my books. I was moved to tears.

Diane Von Kresmark of the UK loves my books so much that she devoted a scrapbook page to them.


CONTEST
So here's the challenge. Do something sweet for someone. Tell me about what you did in the comments. You have all week to do this good deed. I'll choose one lucky person and send him or her a box of chocolates.


8 comments:

JournoMich said...

Ok, mine isn't quite as sweet or dedicated as these great fans of yours, but here it is...

I have been a blogging friend of Elizabeth Spann Craig/Riley Adams for about a year now. So when she came through Raleigh on a tour with fellow Harper Crime authors, I made time to attend one of her events. It was great to meet her and the other ladies.

Fast forward a month or so, and I walk into Borders to see a tall, free-standing display devoted to all of these ladies' books! I was so excited for them that I took a photo with my cell phone (not a great photo, I'll admit) and am using it in a blog post soon. I figure it's promotion for them and it must feel good to a) have your work noticed and b) see your own bookstore display!

Michele
SouthernCityMysteries

Monica Ferris said...

Sweet idea! As a member of this bloggers' group, i am disqualified, which is a good thing, as I'm trying to lose some weight. LOL

Joanna Campbell Slan said...

Michele, you are so right. We can't be everywhere, so when someone tells us they've spotted our books, it means a lot. That was a sweet thing for you to do--taking the photo!

Betty Hechtman said...

Michele, what a nice thing to do. I bet Elizabeth really appreciated it.

This isn't really a fan story , but it's sweet. When my son came to pick me up at the airport last week when I came back from Chicago, he brought along the copy that my editor had sent of You Better knot Die.

Leah said...

Today we stopped by my grandmothers on our way home from the cabin to drop off some Pumpkin Pie. She was headed out for lunch with my uncle, so we tucked it in her fridge for a special treat later. Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

signlady217 said...

I have a friend who is expecting her third child. As her baby gift I'm making a crazy-quilted Christmas stocking with his name on it; but the real surprise is I'm also making one for each family member so she has a matched set for Christmas this year! (the baby shower is this Saturday, and I'm not quite finished: they just gave me the baby's name last night!). One of the reasons I'm making these for her is she became my very first friend when I moved here 14 years ago, and her first two children are my special babies. :)

Booklady said...

I love doing things for Sweetest Day and Random Acts of Kindness week. This year, I decided to multi-task as it were. I'm sure some of your other readers also follow the Cozy Chicks/Mystery Kitchen/Killer Characters blogs and know that author Kate Collins husband passed away right before her latest book was released. Her fellow authors got together to do the promotions for her new book and one of the things they asked was that fans purchase a book for themselves and one for their local library or for another friend. Having been a librarian in my local libraries I knew that if I purchased a copy for them, they would not put it on the shelves but that it would go in the book sale room. So I decided to buy a copy for my "Mom by Choice" (she's been way closer to me than my own mom). She goes to book signings for me when I can't. And she's got the second best husband (mine being number one) and since the idea was to buy a book in honor of Kate's husband I could do that, honor my friend Sue's husband, thank Sue for always being sweet to me. And to further multi-task, I waited until today to buy the books when I could get them at my schools book fair at Barnes and Noble. And I'm hoping it will all have the added benefit of introducing my friend to the wonderful world of Cozy Mysteries.

Joanna Campbell Slan said...

All of you did such sweet things that I finally decided to let the Random Numberizer pick a winner...TA DA!....Signlady, if you'll email me at joannaslan@aol.com I'll get your box of chocolates in the mail to you.