Author Tour Day 1

I absolutely can NOT believe that I left my camera in Tallahassee. I am going to have to depend upon the generosity of my fellow TKA sisters to supply pics, but I can tell you that day 1 of Author Tour totally rocked!

The day began when I left Tally around 10:00 in the morning. Thank God it didn't rain today. The drive through Georgia was short, sweet and uneventful. The only exception being that because I took 2 Benadryl last night to help me sleep I was incredibly thirsty. You know the sensation? Yeah, cotton mouth, that was me. And because I hate to stop more than necessary while driving, I figured I would hit a drive through at a Mickey D's and get a coke. Ha. The fates were against me. The first place I stopped was a Wendys, which apparently doesn't open till 10:30. About 30 miles down the road (we're talking rural Georgia here) I spy a McDonalds. Yes! I roll into the parking lot, and I swear, I never saw the sign to order food, so I circle back 2, yes 2 more times. Finally I spy the order sign and there is a line that had me thinking that McDonalds is now accepting food stamps. That's the only rationale I can come up with. Either that or they are giving out free food because everyone in town was there. Being the impatient sort I am, it irked me to no end. I just wanted a Coke! I finally got one about an hour later at the Chik-fil-A drive through. Coke and chick fillet nuggets. Totally worth the wait:)

So I get to Madison (town outside Atlanta where the awesome Knight Agency is located) at exactly 3:15 pm and check into my hotel. There are apparently no less than 3 weddings going on this weekend (I guess the old June bride thing is still alive and well) and my room is still not ready. Considering that I'm supposed to meet Deidre at 3:45 this is a bit of a problem. I smile as sweetly as I can and the tell the clerk that I really need my room since I am a very famous author and am about to meet my fans in little more than an hour (he he, I really didn't say that last part). The clerk apologizes and offers to walk down the halls with me and find a clean room. We score and I get a room, which was sweltering hot because they left the air off, change my clothes, put on some lipstick and run out to meet Deidre, who is picking me up in her cute little red VW bug.

We veer through Friday afternoon rush hour traffic and arrive at Borders in the Stonecrest Mall. Jia, The Knight Agency's fabulous girl Friday extraordinaire has everything in place. There's 2 big tables, lots of balloons and a fabulous poster with all our pics on it. I meet the wonderful Debby Giutsi, who is nicer than can be, and the equally awesome Shannon K Butcher, who makes me feel like I've known her all my life. Jennifer St. Giles arrives just a tad later and I don't get to officially *meet* her until we finish the signing, but she's also a total sweetheart. A bunch of ladies from the Georgia RWA chapter showed up for our Q&A, which was fun. After we sold some books, Suzanne (not sure of the spelling) from Borders, allowed us to sign stock. I have to say the Borders staff was very nice and very romance friendly.

After the signing we head over to the BugaBoo Creek to eat dinner. Eating at Bugaboo Creek is sort of like eating at the Country Bear Jamboree at Disney. There are stuffed animal heads on the wall that occasionally start talking to you. Yep. Kind of strange and awesome at the same time. The food was great and the company was even more fabulous. Since Saturday is Shannon's birthday, Jia had arranged to have a cake (all chocolate, all delicious) and the Bugaboo wait staff (moose puppets and all) came out to sing Happy Birthday. After receiving a kiss from the stuffed moose, Shannon cut her cake and we all stuffed ourselves on chocolate strawberries and cake. Very yummy!

After a quickie stop at WalMart to get bottled water and a few DVDs for Deidre (I recommended Slum Dog Millionaire- couldn't believe she hadn't seen it yet) D dropped Shannon and I off at our hotels.

Now to get a good nights sleep to prepare for Author Tour, Day 2...