Would you like it signed?

It was cold on Saturday but the sun shining made it seem a little more bearable. For weeks I'd been trying to get ready for the day. Scurrying around making orders, praying that the mail system is not totally wrecked and trying to think of cool new ways to keep myself from being a nervous wreck. Saturday was the day of the 5th annual author signing at my local library.

I was there back in 2009 with Cloud's Keeper. It was my first author signing ever. I had my then boyfriend sit at the table with me all day long because I was afraid the mass amount of attention and stress would cause me to go into a panic attack. I didn't. I got to sit next to David B. Coe and his adorable daughter. He was very nice and very successful. I sold two books and meet the first person I didn't personally know who'd read my book. A little white-haired lady walked up to the table picked up the book, and says, "Oh, I'm reading this now. It's very good." I almost dropped out of my chair with excitement. 2009 was a good year... I had my author signing, I got engaged and subsequently married, started my photography biz, we went to Ireland on our honeymoon and I scratched another thing off my bucket list. Yes 2009 was a good year...
2009

2012

But this is 2012. I've become a completely different person over the past 3 years, pushing myself further and further using my photography as a type of therapy to my people anxiety, quite successfully I might add. My husband won't get to sit with me again because this year he has to work. I'm okay with it, where once the idea of going alone might have spawned panic in and of itself. I've now got three books to lay out on the table: Cloud's Keeper, Legacy of Stone, and We are One. I feel alittle bit more secure sitting behind my stacks of books. My poster for the new series is taped at the front a big 'coming soon' banner splashed across its bottom. I have a fan of bookmarks laid out for people to pickup each one with a hand-made little tassel. Business cards sit in a little container, paper tents announce prices, I've got some change set aside, and a brand new pack of pens. This year I'm prepared and I know what to expect. Somehow that makes it easier. A few minutes into unpacking I'm joined at my table by a very nice lady from Shelbyville, which is just a few towns over. Her name is D.B. Henson and she's very nice and also quite successful. We pass stories back and forth during lulls in customers, about our pets, swimming with dolphins, and of course writing. She tells me a doozy about a young lady named Amanda Hocking. She's an author who self-published her paranormal romances/fantasies and got a book deal out of it. A MILLION DOLLAR bookdeal. Which was followed shortly after by a MULTI-MILLION dollar movie deal. I can't even wrap my head around the numbers especially the last one. Amanda is only two years older than me. Two years and she'll never have to worry about another thing in her life...at least money-wise. Why can't that be me?(pouty face) D.B. assures me that it could be. She tells me that she self-published too before the agent called her. Now she's on Talk of the Town, flying to New York, getting interviewed for all the local tv stations, interviewed by US Today. Wow. It definitely gets me thinking. Really two people who've self-published who've made it to the big leagues so to speak. I perk up my ears and listen. Any advice she has to offer, I file away in neat imaginary little drawers marked 'pay attention' and 'look at me soon'.

I meet a lot of people at the author signing. One of whom came out just to see me. She's the mother of a boy I was friends with in school. She remembers me and is excited for my second book. She gets both, and her excitement is catching. Later on one of my English teachers stops by. I think I surprise her when I remember the children's book she was writing back when I was in school. I think, it made her happy, which in turn makes me feel happy, but I don't know for sure. She takes home a copy of my children's book. I watch a total of 5 books leave my table. One signed for a little boy whose birthday is coming up soon. Happy Birthday, Mason! and another for a young girl who has a voracious appetite for reading, much like I did when I was young. Keep Reading, Brenna, it never gets old. I do my first t.v. interview for the Local news channel six with two brothers in camo jackets. I'm nervous. I probably messed up. But since I don't get that channel, I'll probably never see it. If you do, please let me know how it turned out? Was I total wreck? Did I look like a bunny with its leg caught in a trap? That's how I felt.

When the day is over with, the pictures taken, the books packed back up, the warm feeling of statisfaction is setting up in my chest. People are leaving the library and I settle in to say goodbye to all my library ladies. Yes, they're mine. See back in 05-07, I used to work there too. Alot of the faces have changed since then but the ones that haven't are definitely old friends. It's always a pleasure going back. It's the best place I ever worked and sometimes I wish I'd never left. Now I'm not sure I could go back. I decide that I should do these author signings more often, should find a way to make it work. They are so very satisfying when they go well.

So have you ever been to author signing? Was it by accident or did you come to specifically see someone? What did you think? Did you enjoy it? What could the author have done better, in your eyes? Come on, I really wanna know.

Hello all

Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the web. In case you just happened to stumble across this little piece of heaven and want to know a little more about who's on the other side of the screen, my name is Cindal Cooley. The biggest thing you need to know about me is that I'm a writer. What do I write, other than this blog?
Fantasy novels and so far one children's book. I've currently finished two fantasy novels both a part of a series that has been rattling about my brain for the past ten years. I've got big plans for the series, Beneath a Stone Sky, and hope to be finishing three more to establish it as a quintet. But for right now I've put that on the back burner to focus on the start of another series. One that's been quietly stewing in its imaginative juices for the past few years, since 2005, while I finished my recent book, Legacy of Stone. I'm hoping to go back and forth between the two til both the series are finished. After that I'm not sure where I will go, or where the stories will take me. Sometimes being an author is like standing in the ocean waiting for a wave big enough to take you with it.
Where can you find my books? Well at the moment its almost like a scavenger hunt. I decided when I first finished my novel that I couldn't possibly put my baby out there time and time again only for someone else to judge and reject it. Afterall it was eight years of my life and I at the time I was only twenty-one so eight years seemed like the majority of my life. So I self-published. I thought it was a brilliant move at the time. I got complete control over my artistic design, from the cover images to the formatting to the story inside. I sacrificed publicity, help from professionals, and quite honestly money. I was happy with that at the time when I thought the first novel might very well be the last. I know differently now. So... back to topic.... you can find my novels at my website www.cinderellatales.yolasite.com or at www.lulu.com or on Amazon. Oh, almost forgot my facebook page... Cinderellatales. But its highly unlikely you'll stroll into your local bookstore and violia! At least for the moment ;) girl's gotta have dreams, right?
Wanna know more about me?
Ok, but only because you asked. I live in Middle Tennesse and for those of you who are not from around here no it's not all like the bad jokes, broody country songs, and silly movies with the big hair, twangy accents, and daisy dukes. The last time I wore cowboy boots I was probably eight and desperately wanted to be Annie Oakely when I grew up. The reality of Tennessee is beautiful countryside with rolling hills that turn to flame when summer loses its grip. People who are very likely to bless you in the store when you sneeze or stop to help you change a flat-tire on the side of the road. We say please and thank-you and know the joy of sitting in a rocking chair while a spring rain gently sways the daffodils. I'm lucky the home I share with my husband and two kitty cats(you'll hear more about them later I'm sure), lies in a band of trees withing walking distance of a huge lake. A mother deer births her set of twins almost every year within 30 feet of my front door, yet at the same time I'm less than ten minutes from a Walmart, half-a-dozen fast food chains, a Rue 21, and a Big Lots. Its the best of both worlds. I earn a rather modest income as a family photographer in our small town. It's a huge pleasure to get to be a part of people's memories, to see their children grow up, or to capture their first kiss as man and wife. In addition to photography, I attempt art, crochet, and baking in addition to the everyday tasks of being a wife.
Well, do you feel like you know me a little? Do I sound like somebody you want to know. I hope so, cause I'd like to get to know some of you. Tell me a little bit about yourself, what do you do? Where do you live? What's your favorite thing to read or your favorite author?
Will this blog be exclusively about writing? Probably not, but you can bet its gonna be huge part of it, because writing is a huge part of my life.
Well that's it for now. Til next post...