First Author Appearance

Hey, I forgot I had a blog for a week or so there!  But I really didn't have anything to write home about so, yeah, I just didn't write.

But now I do. Both good news and sad news.

My aunt passed away on Tuesday. This hasn't been a good year for my mother. First her husband, then her sister. It's going to be so strange without Aunt Ruth. She lived the farthest (furthest?) away but she was the one who never missed out on sending a birthday card and always wrote a nice letter with it. It still amazes me when someone is that good about always getting out birthday cards, especially when you come from a huge family.  I never send them, and am still spotty on the whole Christmas card thing. 

Anyway, the world lost a very fine lady this week.

My mom will head out with some of her siblings on Sunday to attend the funeral in Montana. While she'll be gone, I'll have my first public appearance as an author.  The public library in Pittsburg, Kansas is starting an annual local author reception, and their first one will be next Thursday (November 15th) from 6pm to 7:30pm.  They sent out a call for any author in the area to reserve a spot at the reception. So, I contacted them. I'll have a table, where I can sign and sell some of my books. 

Every time I think about it, my stomach does all these weird twists and gurgles. So, I try not to think about it too much, because I'm all shy and awkward out in public, and I know I'll totally suck at this.  But I'm still really excited about it too (strange, I know).

I have pictures of all my book covers on my iPad, so I can set it up and run a repeating slide show at my booth. I also have an idea to put out a giveaway drawing where the winner can have any book of their choice. Do you think that would be an okay idea? Oh, and I have some freebie postcards and stuff people can take.  I wish I had pens or highlighters (as Jennifer Shirk says are really good freebies), but even if I ordered them now, they wouldn't be here in time.

Oh, well. We'll just see how it goes.

I got my new iPad this week.  And Amber Skyze was soooo right.  Lydia saw the new one and wanted to play on it instead.  But she hasn't gotten too upset when we told no.  She still has her own to play with. She and I sat on the couch last night and wasted the whole evening on them.  At one point, she lifted up her iPad to bump it with mine and said, "Cheers." I thought that was too cute.

And...that's about all I have to report today.

Oh, oh, oh! I guess I did have another thought. I've been reading a lot and I've discovered one thing I really like about some of my favorite romance stories: the amount of face time the hero and heroine have together.  It's making me worry I don't give my heroes and heroines in the stories I'm writing now enough time ALONE together to connect, and talk, and argue...and other things. I really like those scenes best where it's just the two of them sparking and creating chemistry.

What are your opinions on the subject?  Do you like a lot of background, outside characters and subplots taking away from the main romantic focus of the story? Or do you prefer most of it to be just the two of them doing their thing?