Entourage & Mini-Signing.

Greetings! I certainly hope all is well with you. Thanks for stopping by my neck of the Internet and reading.  Me, I'm STEADY.

The title pretty much says it all for this blog.

Entourage: On 17 July 12, I was asked to do a Lunch with a Leader presentation at the Ann Arbor Peace Neighborhood. Normally I ask about what the topic that needs to be covered and figure out my angle of approach.  Usually, depending on the audience, I have certain key points I address during my time.  Well, this time, things were different.  See, this time, I brought an entourage.  Yeah, I brought an entourage.

Now normally I travel alone. I arrive at the venue with some sort of theme song playing in the Mothership, I go in, and I get down to business.  This time things were different.  Instead of traveling alone, I had my son, mother, aunt, and cousin attending. Yeah, they were my entourage.

The festivities started off with me telling about the process of  writing my book. It seems like I'd get tired of telling it, but I am proud of how I managed to get my book published.  After I spoke, the youth and adults in the room asked me prepared questions that were really deep.  Throughout me fielding questions, my mother and son were also asked questions as well.  That's what really blew my mind.

Standing on the other side of the room and listening to both of them answer questions was interesting. My son's favorite subject is writing.  That made me proud.  My mother answered questions about my upbringing and our relationship.  I could see and hear how proud she was and that made me feel great.  What a great experience.

Later that day, I went to the University of Michigan and spoke to a group of students that participated in the Bright Futures program.  Their goal was to explore themselves and find out more.  Tying my story into how I found and accepted myself as a writer worked well with where they were going.  Gathering feedback and answering questions also seemed to help us reach a deeper connection. 

On 20 July 12 I managed to organize an impromptu mini-signing of my book at a Northville Bookstore and Bistro.  While the store did not carry copies of my book on their shelves, I still felt like signing my book in a there would be a great move.  So, I arrived before the people I was scheduled to meet showed up and I ordered some breakfast.  While the staff at the store prepared my meal, the people that needed their books signed arrived and we got down to business.  Needless to say, we took over the bistro area of the store.  I could see staff members kind of wondering what was going on.  Patrons were trying not to be curious, and occasional pedestrians slowed their tempo and made a detour into the store.

I sat and signed several copies of my book and talked to the boys in a book group that had selected my book as something to read.  I was able to make connections to the two older kids and the mothers that also joined in on the event.  As they drank smoothies and ate bagels, things just seemed to flow very well and we laughed a lot.  After about an hour, we ended the festivities and I ordered three of my books from the store.  I also learned that I might be able to schedule an official book signing at their store.

So, that just about covers last week.  Stay tuned for and update on my visit to Eastern Michigan University's Bright Future program and  how Wrinkles Wallace: Knights of Night School ended up in the hands of Al Roker of the Today Show...

Thanks for reading! 

Steady,
Marquin