Blonds, Television And A Future Shopping Spree

I should never plan my blogs in advance. Every time I do something comes up that feels more important than what I planned to write.

You see this morning I thought this blog would be all about my recent book signings which really have been fabulous. So far I had the biggest attendance at The Capitola Book Café--about 100 people came, which obviously put a big smile on my face! My reading at M is For Mystery was also well attended as was my event at Marcus Books. As I noted in an earlier blog I was concerned about what kind of reception I’d get at Marcus but I needn’t have worried. Everyone at the store was wonderful. It’s a small bookstore and approximately 15 people came to see me which is considered to be a very good showing. The audience was made up of Eastern European Jews, Japanese, Chinese, Caucasians and African Americans. Furthermore there was a fairly equal representation of each group. This wouldn’t have surprised me at most San Francisco bookstores but seeing that Marcus Books is a black bookstore I kind of thought that the majority of the attendees would be…well…black. I was also surprised to note that almost half the people in the audience were men, which is fairly impressive when you consider my novel’s cover (for those of you who haven’t seen it check out my homepage and you’ll understand).

Anyway, it was a wonderfully animated and enthusiastic crowd and I ended up answering questions long after the event was scheduled to end. My friend called me the day after the reading to tease me a bit about the whole thing: “Here you are blogging about your concerns over your image within the African American community and then you have your event and three black guys sit right up front, all of them clearly captivated by you, and then when it’s all over what do you do? You take off with the blond guy in the back who was by far the whitest person there.”

For the record: the guys in front were “captivated” because they were aspiring authors and I knew “the blond guy in the back” from before. Plus we went out to Powell’s Place, a local Soul Food restaurant for dinner so, you know, cut me some slack.

Now here’s the exciting news (and there’s a lot of it):
1) I was reviewed by Savoy magazine and it was a rave!
2) I will be signing at the Barnes & Noble in Philadelphia on June 2nd and in relation to that I will:
a) be featured on four different Philadelphia radio stations
b) be a guest on three different Philadelphia television stations

This is an amazing amount of coverage for a new non-local author. Hell, let’s face it--it would be an amazing amount of coverage for an established local author. I owe it all to my publicist Susan Schwartzman. She may very well be one of the best publicists on the planet. Granted, I don’t know a lot of publicists but my agent and the people at Red Dress Ink seem to agree with me on this point. If you are a novelist looking to promote your book I strongly recommend that you obtain her services.

There’s something else in the works but I’m not sure if I’m supposed to talk about it yet. Just check back here in a few days and as soon as I have the green light I’ll give you the juicy details. For now I’ll just say that it has to do with a party, New York, television and lots of shopping.

Anyway, things are very good right now and yes, I am still pinching myself.

Kyra Davis
www.kyradavis.com
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