Books by the Banks

Jennifer Weiner - I took this one.

Barbara Bradley Hagerty and me. Yes it's blurry, but I'm depending on the kindness of strangers for photography.

Wow, what a weekend! On Saturday I attended a fantastic event called Books by the Banks, which featured more than 80 national and regional authors. For once, I attended something early and had a chance to chat it up with some wonderful authors. I walked out with more than $100 worth of autographed books and a renewed energy for getting my book published.

It was a great opportunity to practice my “elevator speech” about my book and blog and to get sage advice on getting published. Everyone was so gracious with their time, and I felt an intimate connection with several of them.  One of my happiest surprises was meeting Tom Wilson, Jr., who brings to life  the Ziggy comic strip nationally (except in his hometown – we have to do something about that!).

I’m reading his heart-warming book, Zig Zagging: Loving Madly, Losing Badly How Ziggy Saved My Life http://www.amazon.com/Zig-zagging-Loving-Madly-Losing-Badly/dp/0757307930. I always loved Ziggy growing up, so my first question was:  “How did Ziggy save your life?” He told me that he lost his beautiful wife to breast cancer in 2000 and how creating Ziggy helped him through.

I felt an immediate connection with him and could just see the kindness shining through his eyes. I brought the book to read during chemo and showed off my very own Ziggy illustration Tom put on the cover with his autograph!

Another book I purchased, Fingerprints of God: The Search for the Science of Spirituality, is written by Barbara Bradley Hagerty, NPR’s religion correspondent. Before the crowd lined up at her table, I had the opportunity to speak at length with her and get an autograph on one of the 10 copies she had there (Someone messed up and left out some zeros while ordering).

I went to her author session, which was standing-room only, where she discussed how science is discovering how faith and spirituality affect us physically and emotionally. It is truly fascinating and I can’t wait to get started on the book.

I was thrilled to meet one of my favorite authors, Jennifer Weiner. She’s Jewish like me and has a real knack for injecting humor in a culturally relevant way. I took her book, In her Shoes, on vacation with me this summer. A very fun read.

Another book I purchased was Rakesh Satyal’s Blue Boy. He is a Cincinnati native and now works in publishing in NYC. He was very sweet and encouraging and I’m looking forward to reading his funny book.

I could go on and on, but let’s just say I’m happy I attended. If any of you authors I met are reading this blog, thanks for the time you spent with me!