Wednesday, July 17, 2013

A Book Launch to Remember

Last night, Joni and I attended the book launch for Meg Waite Clayton's latest, The Wednesday Daughters.  This is a sequel (sort of ) of her book from 2008, The Wednesday Sisters.  The event took place at Meg's home bookstore, Books, Inc. in Palo Alto.  There was a great crowd there, probably 75-100 people.  She was well-represented by family, friends, authors, and book club members (Joni and I are in The 4th Tuesday Book Club along with Meg and about a dozen other regulars).

Joni, who is a long-time professional event planner, said the event itself was exceptionally well-done.  There was champagne and food set up before Meg began at 7:00, and it was still there when the formal presentation was done.  Everybody mingled before and after.

A couple of minutes after 7:00, Ellen Sussman, who I have reviewed before and who is a good friend of Meg's, introduced Meg.  And what an introduction it was.  She not only talked about Meg's writing skills but also told everybody what a great friend she is and what a terrific support for other authors.  Ellen did a great job of making us all feel how special Meg is.

Then Meg took over.  The 1st thing she did, which was really cool, was introduce all of the local authors that were in attendance.  I counted 12.  And she also pulled a few of their books from the shelves and showed them to the audience during a number of the introductions.  Being a book blogger and a big fan of local authors, I loved that she did that.  After the introductions, she spoke a little bit about the background for her book and then did some reading.  When that was done, she took questions and, finally, signed books (yours truly bought her new book and had it personalized).

I have been to hundreds of author events and quite a few launches among them.  But this was definitely right near the top for the 4 E's:  Enthusiasm, Enjoyment, Excitement, and Execution (I just made those up!).  I've now read 2 of Meg's last 3 books - The Four Ms. Bradwells and The Wednesday Sisters.  I will soon be adding The Wednesday Daughters to that list.

Ellen introducing Meg


Meg signing her book

4 comments:

  1. That sounds like so much fun. I love that she shared the love during the event!

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  2. I totally agree. That really stood out at the event.

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  3. This sounds wonderful and makes me want to read her books! I went to a Thrity Umbigar signing last year and she spent the first 10 minutes singling out all the writers. Loved that.

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  4. We've got another launch this coming Tuesday night. Sheldon Siegel, who has written 7 books about 2 attorneys in San Francisco who are partners and ex-spouses, has his 1st standalone - The Terrorist Next Door. I had a chance to read it in digital form about 8-9 months ago, before Sheldon decided to have it published in print. He's a local author that I've gotten to know a little bit. I'm really looking forward to his launch too.

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