Harmonic Convergence at Flights of Fantasy

It's wonderful when marketing, family and sociability are able to harmonically converge for author events and appearances. It happens when I double up with one or more authors and when I bring one (or more) of my children.

This weekend I went to Albany, for a reading and signing event at Flights of Fantasy Books and Games on Sunday afternoon with urban fantasy author from Boston, Margaret Ronald. (We had been slated to come in late August, but Hurricane Irene had thwarted our plans. )

Do you remember as a kid, how special it was going to a hotel, and having a parent (or two) all to yourself? I brought my 9 year old son, Finn (as in Huckleberry, not Finbar) and we were both giddy. We drove to Albany late Saturday afternoon and checked into the Holiday Inn on Wolf Road, and bounced on the beds.

Dinner was at The Red Lobster, since Finn's favorite food hails from the sea, and he was willing to wait over an hour to get a table. (We played Scrabble on my I-Phone, so it was still adventurous.) We brought leftovers and key lime pie back to the hotel, and Finn was incredulous when I said that he could have dessert in bed while we stayed up extra late watching cartoons. Yay!

I won't bore you with the rest of our particulars, but suffice it to say, we had a blast. We went to the bookstore at noon where we met up with the owner, Maria, and Margaret. Maria was a wonderful host and took us out for Thai food for lunch. She has a fascinating story herself as she comes from the corporate world . . . in the Phippipines! And now she is like a den mother to all of these fantasy, science fiction and gaming enthusiasts. Margaret is delightful too - she lives in Boston, and went to Williams College in Massachusetts. Her "day" job is as an assistant to a professor at Harvard, and her husband is an organist. I can't wait to read her books!

The bookstore is aaaah-mazing - it's a place you really could spend a full day in, there are so many nooks and crannies, as well as lots of gaming tables! Margaret read from one of her steam punk short stories, (so funny!) and I read two short passages from Edges, and then we answered questions about craft.

I am grateful that my friend Hope, another writer and fabulous blogger, was able to come with her family, and that I met some cool folks who otherwise would not have been exposed to my book. Thank you to Maria and Eleanor for reading Edges and for inviting me to your home-away-from-home and for believing in the power of reading!