J.R. and I were so happy and delighted to be hosted at the Chapters in Barrie yesterday, July 10th from 3:15 to 7:30 pm.
Arriving at Chapters Barrie. It was so windy, Blue Eyes almost flew out of our hands. J.R. Matheson with Lee Bice-Matheson
Manager Christina helped to organize us. Here is the wonderful signage they made for us and it was found around the
Chapters tweeted about us, Facebooked too and had signs found around the store and at the check-out. Very kind staff and supportive to authors! Thank you kindly Erica, Christina and Harold!
bookstore. Of course, J.R. and I had to quickly set up. And it was quite funny when we approached our table to find someone sitting in our chair reading books. I walked up to the book lover and said a big hello. And she quickly said, “Oh, I’m not the author.” And I replied, “We know, we are.” We had a big laugh and she jumped up and introduced herself while shaking my hand and then proceeded to tell us people had been asking for us, already!! She informed them, “No I’m not the author.” We felt welcomed right away.
We are ready for the book lovers of Simcoe County and GTA.
J.R. and I had been tweeting all week to Barrie book lovers inviting them to come and check out our series. We also tweeted about #Hwy400, come on cottagers and take a break from the 400.
First cottager to say, “You’re the ones tweeting take a break from #Hwy400?”
Lovely Romanian Mom and Son. They asked us lots of questions about how we began to write together and about the content of our series. She did not want lots of romance for her young daughter and I replied, “There is very little in our series. It is a coming-of-age story about Paige Maddison’s awakening to her spiritual gifts and learning about her estranged family. It is a family series.”
Well, weren’t we surprised when several families flew through the front doors and found us. They laughed and said, “You’re the ones tweeting come on in off the highway?” It was wonderful to see how social media really can effect your sales. Yes, they bought both books in the series and we shared wonderful conversations about their travels and our series
We were busy for 3 hours and had the time of our lives. The Chapters’ staff from Erica who booked us, to Christina who helped us set up, and Harold (who I had originally contacted by dropping into the Chapters bookstore and asked if we could do a book signing) were all so hospitable and friendly! Thank you so much. And yes, Harold, we’d love to come back. Thank you for suggesting it to us. We’d be delighted.
These cottagers were delighted to find us as they saw our tweets, too! Thank you kindly for coming in!! We enjoyed all of our conversations.
Another interested book lover #supernatural stories.
Then there was a man who ran in through the front doors, spied us, slowed down, and approached with sweat on his brow. He told us, “My wife sent me in here. She told me you write about wolves and I am very interested in that.” He bought our series and we gifted (as we do to all of the buyers of our series) a guardian angel to his wife. He was so happy to buy them and we had a very interesting conversation. Thank you! What you are looking for is found in the list of books mentioned at the back of Destiny’s Gate. 🙂 Thank you so much to you and your lovely wife for making us feel validated as authors.
Very enthusiastic reader of books on wolves! Spirit Wolves that is.
Looking back on this day, it was marvelous to be told readers were asking for us by name. They knew of the Paige Maddison Series and many of the people we met, came in specifically to buy Wake Me Up Inside and Destiny’s Gate. In fact, one reader left the bookstore (we hadn’t arrived yet) and returned to buy our series! She informed us that she was gifting it to her sisters…and sister-in-law. It’s a must read! We were shocked to hear this. Thank you to the C. family.
Harold, you are so right! The more bookstores we visit, the more known we’ve become. It is worth all of the hard work and effort to write stories that make people happy. Thank you so much for pointing this out!
Thank you kindly to my Twitter friend, Douglas Gardham, author of The Actor, who had just been at this Chapters the week before. He retweeted all of our tweets about Chapters Barrie. You made a world of difference to us, Douglas!
And finally, when things had settled down, J.R. and I were taking a break…in walked a sorority sister of mine, June Vey and her daughter, Rebecca. We had facebooked the night before and I asked her to come on down. I had not seen June for 26 years. I had a tear in my eyes when I saw her and the fact her daughter wanted to come was amazing!
June Vey and her daughter Rebecca took time to come and see us.
June is the first Kappa Alpha Theta sister to take time out of her very busy schedule to come and see us and to meet my family. Fantastic, June!! It was so great to see you and we shall see each other again!
This was J.R.’s third book signing with me, as he was busy at McGill University in Montreal for most of last year. It is always a pleasure to be with J.R. at the book signings. You make it so special and fun!! I am a lucky Mom to have our son
J.R. Matheson is entertaining and wonderful to work with at the book signings. One very proud and lucky Mom!
as my writing partner and all it entails. You are fantastic, J.R. This is the time of my life, with you, and your Dad.
Our book signing at Chapters Barrie was so much fun. The energy in the store is uplifting and we felt the love from the people of Barrie and the visiting cottagers. Our drive home was easy and safe, Harold. Thank you for thinking of us re: the traffic for the Pan-Am games! You are the best!!
Here is our Manager, Kevin Matheson, husband and father. He supports us at each book signing and is pictured here reading to us from Arianna Huffington’s book Thrive. Great read Arianna!!
Oh, and one last thing! Settled at home, my loving husband, Kevin, surprised me with a gift! J.R. and I were relaxing outside on our deck, and Kevin jumped up and brought me a wrapped rectangular present. I looked at him and said, “Why?” He replied, “You’ll see.” It is a wooden carving of the words, Write On! It is my favourite expression, as an author.
Write On is Lee’s expression to inspire herself to sit and write at her desk. No excuses, daily!
I had said so long ago, I’d love to have it engraved in wood for me to look at daily. Even authors need inspiration!! Thank you so much, Kevin!! I love it!! You did it again. 🙂 Thank you to all who support our writing careers from our family and friends, to the readers, the bookstore owners and their staff. We couldn’t do it without you!! Next up is Chapters/Indigo at Square One, in Mississauga, Saturday, August 15th.
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