Two days after the fact, I’m still basking from the success of the inaugural book-signing for Saving Gracie. We sold books until we ran out of them — 103 books in all! I am so grateful to friends and fellow dog lovers who took time out from an absolutely gorgeous spring-like day to pick up a copy and say hello.

 

I’d made oatmeal and sugar cookies and my husband Steve helped me haul the basket of flowers he’d gotten me earlier in the week over to the B&N in Great Falls, Montana, where we live. Shortly before 2 p.m. a crowd of mostly familiar faces began to gather. My friend Pam Lemelin introduced me, I made some comments and read a short excerpt and had a quick Q and A. The door prize for having traveled the furthest goes to my former Tribune colleague, Rich Peterson and his mother, Faye, who drove all the way from Poplar, Montana — a mere jaunt of what: 350 miles? To cap things off, the local ABC affiliate, KFBB, showed up to tape a segment for that night’s newscast.

 

It was great catching fun up with old friends and meeting new ones. I was especially impressed that elementary school student MacKenzie George stood in line with her sister, Madison, to buy a book. MacKenzie was already halfway through another copy her mom, Sydne, had picked up, and didn’t seem the least bit traumatized by the subject matter.

As another friend, Georgia Steir, once said: “If you don’t like dogs, there’s something wrong with you!” and it was nice to be amongst a group of people who feel likewise.

 

I’ll be having more book-signings in the Great Falls area in coming weeks, and publicity and marketing staffers for my publisher, Wiley, are doing their part to spread the word about the book. Stay tuned! We’re just getting started.