Monday, October 30, 2006

Louisiana Revisited

Good morning, everyone! I'm back in Dallas and happy to say, back in my own bed. My back may never be the same. Here's a brief look at my fast trip to Louisiana.

Thursday evening - drove to my parent's house in Mineola. It's about an hour and 45 minute drive. It rained bugs on the way. Why does it always rain bugs in the country????

Friday morning - got up bright and early, had breakfast with parents and we all headed out to Louisiana. Mom and I in my car - dad in his truck. He wanted to buy shrimp while we were down south, hence the need for two vehicles.

Friday 1:00 - drove 4 1/2 hours to arrive in Lousiana. Hotel room is not ready, so we decide to pay a visit to my aunt and uncle. Just when we are thinking about grabbing some lunch, my uncle (who is 75) decides it would be a fine idea to ride a bicycle and walk a dog - at the same time. Do I even have to tell you where this one is going?????? You got it - straight to the emergency room. One broken nose later, uncle was back home, me and the parents had eaten the last dregs of the Mr. Gatti's buffet and mom and I were on our way for errands. Visited Sulphur library (town I grew up in) and I donated a couple of copies of Rumble. Went by Wal-Mart - they were sold out of Rumble (Yeah!) Went to Lake Charles to mall and signed the one copy of Rumble they had in stock - had sold the rest (Yeah again!). Went by another Walmart, found four copies left out of ten, my mom bought two. She keeps remembering people she needs to send book to.

Friday night - met my best friend from elementary through college and her husband for dinner and catching up. Essentially, the same people who were snotty when we were in school are now snotty adults with snotty kids. The people who were raising hell when we were kids are still raising hell, but now without the benefits of being minors.

Saturday morning - had breakfast, met family to pick up local newspapers from when they ran feature about me and book, got ready and headed to booksigning. According to what other authors tell me about sales at booksignings, I had a pretty good event (sold 23 copies), but Good God, do you have any idea how boring it is to sit there while strangers try to figure out how to walk by your table and avoid eye contact??????

Finish booksigning and load up car, eat lunch, change into sweats and get on the road again. Arrive Mineola about 8:00 pm. Spend night with parents so I don't have to drive in dark with raining bugs. Leave early next morning and head home to Dallas where I collapse in my chair/ottoman. Made sure I did nothing - I mean absolutely nothing that remotely related to writing for the rest of the day. :)

14 comments:

Ally Carter said...

Substitute "Louisana" for "Oklahoma" and you could be describing some of my homecomings!

...except my books aren't in Wal-Mart--drats!

-Ally

Kelly (Lynn) Parra said...

Wow, what a busy time, Jana! I'm glad how well your books are selling and that signing went good!

So I've never been to Lousiana, what do you mean it rains bugs?? small ones, big ones?? ;D

Jana DeLeon said...

Hi Ally - yes, you're totally right about the substitution. I'm always laughing when I read your blog because small towns all over are so similar - especially in the south.

Hi Kelly! There are so many bugs in the country, especially when you're driving through farming country and there's fields and fields of produce, grain, etc that there are millions (maybe billions) of bugs. If it's night (and it was when I started off), you hear them hitting your windshield and at first it sounds like raindrops. Then you realize, they're not sliding off courteousy of the RainEx and that's when you know it's bugs. So it's not really raining bugs, but it sounds like it.

And it's a real mess to clean of your car. (sigh)

Anonymous said...

Welcome home! Sounds like a good trip, um, despite the raining bugs (and isn't that SO annoying--they make SUCH a mess on the windshield!) and daredevil uncle (I'm glad he wasn't hurt too badly).

Hooray for being in Wallyworld! :)

Jana DeLeon said...

Hi Tori - yes, thw windshield is a nightmare. I keep hoping my hubby will want to get it cleaned for me but he has a new job and a cold and well, I'm probably going to be looking at bugs for a while.

Wallyworld is way cool! I'm hoping I reached more readers that way who otherwise would never have seen the book because they don't live in a town big enough for a bookstore.

Kimber Li said...

Fun, fun, fun! Next book signing, try bringing cookies. Read this suggestion on Backspace, I think. Bring pizza for the bookstore employees and cookies for the patrons. Dunno about you, but I couldn't resist making eye contact (and possibly lip contact) with anyone giving out free chocolate!

Jana DeLeon said...

kimber - I thought about it, but I don't know that it would have made a difference there. I will probably do something like that in Dallas if I decide to do a signing here. That's still debatable. :)

Colleen Gleason said...

Now I can see why you were too busy to call me back on Friday! I don't know when you had the time to email me, but you did, so thanks!

Anyway, that's crazy about your uncle, but I'm glad he's home. Glad you're home, too, in your own bed.

Now get to work on UNLUCKY so I have something to read, if you please.

And...kimber, thanks for the cookie suggestion. I'm willing to do whatever it takes--bribe or no--to get people to stop by and talk to me at a signing!

Jana DeLeon said...

Colleen - I have no idea when I emailed you. :) It's all a blur.

And I promise I'm back to work on UNLUCKY today. Just as soon as I have a mind again.

Kimber Li said...

Stock up on Halloween candy while you can!

Jana DeLeon said...

Like the Halloween candy would make it till the next booksigning. Noooooooo, there would be no candy and I'd need new pants. :)

Kimber Li said...

Oh, so true! Sorry. Oh, here's an idea. Buy a bunch of Halloween candy and stick it inside a cage with a toy alligator and place it at the end of the booksigning table. Tell everybody the alligator is there for their own safety.

Jana DeLeon said...

lol kimber - that might be cute. I DO use a stuffed alligator wearing a Mardi Gras mask to decorate my table.....

Jana DeLeon said...

Hi Cari - let's just hope they're flying everywhere. :)

 
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