The wonderful thing about book signings, I’m discovering, is that you have the opportunity to meet all sorts of interesting readers! This weekend, signing at Word on the Street (the biggest literary festival in Canada) I met everyone from the grandfather of an international adoptee who bought the book to read himself before giving it to his grandson, to an 8 year old gifted student who told me she’d finish my book in an evening, to a librarian looking to add books to her school’s underfunded library. Readers of all ages from 8 to somewhere in their 90s! It was about so much more than signing a book – it was a chance to connect. I really hope some of those people will connect with me, once they’ve read my book. To be honest, it’s one of the strangest parts of this whole process – knowing the book is being read by so many more people than will ever make contact. In all the years of my reading life, I don’t think I’ve once contacted an author whose work I’ve found interesting. Well, now I know how much writers love to hear from their readers, that’s all about to change.
