Me and Justin Bieber

I am still making the rounds of bookstores - this time in the L.A. area. With the holiday shopping gearing up, though, I think bookstore personnel are going to be too busy helping customers to want to deal with a wandering author. So, other than a booksigning at the Barnes & Noble at the Westside Pavilion shopping center on December 12, I will probably only go in bookstores to buy books.

That’s why we went to the Barnes & Noble at the Grove Wednesday night. The Grove is the current hot spot in L.A.. It’s an outdoor shopping area built to appear to be a town square in a perfect little place somewhere. There is a mini park and a pond with dancing waters and even a trolley - though it just goes in a circle. The Grove next to CBS studios and attracts both tourist and celebrity shoppers. The show Extra tapes there and a scene in You Better Knot Die takes place there. The Barnes & Noble is three stories tall and hosts celebrity authors. The latest teen pop sensation Justin Bieber signed his book there a couple of weeks ago and there were screaming girls and their moms lined up around the block. I don’t know what his book was - a memoir perhaps? How much can there be to memoir about at 16? But that’s another story.

Even though it was late, 8:30, on the night before Thanksgiving, the store was very busy. I found the New in Fiction table in the primo spot just inside the door on the first floor. I scanned the array of books looking for mine. It wasn’t there. I know my book is supposed to be on the New in Fiction table, but sometimes it ends up on the New in Mystery shelf. I rode the escalator to the third floor where the mystery section is and went to the information desk and introduced myself to the manager and offered to sign my books. He checked his computer which apparently said the books were supposed to be on the New in Fiction table. He went all the way down to the first floor and checked the table. No You Better Knot Dies. He came back up and checked the New in Mystery section. Again, No You Better Knot Dies. He got help from another manager and they checked around some more and came up empty handed. They apologized profusely and I left them with a stack of post cards with the book cover.

I was ready to shrug it off as a whatever sort of circumstance and went down the escalator to the first floor. Just as I was about to leave the store, I noticed a table on the other side of the front door from the New in Fiction table. It had a sign saying Merry Christmas. Even though the managers had already checked it, and in all the bookstores I’ve gone to, my book has never been on the holiday table, I looked anyway. And there it was.

I went back up to the third floor and found the manager who was now becoming my friend and told him of my find. I returned to the first floor with a two manager entourage and showed them the book. They were so happy I found it and so apologetic that they’d missed it, they offered to put them on the Autographed Book ladder. Guess who else’s book is there? I hope some of Justin’s fans like crochet.

Have you ever had something that seems like a problem turn into a positive?

And the winner of the drawing for a copy of You Better Knot Die is Janet. If you send your snail mail address to Hechtmanbooks@aol.com, I will send the book off to you.