Sunday, November 04, 2007

Visit to Stewartville



Yesterday was a beautiful fall day in Minnesota. I'd been invited to speak at a library a few hours south of my home, and so my hubby and I made a day of it. Along the way, we stopped at the Barnes and Noble in Rochester. I was delighted to find The Restorer on the shelves, and I met some of the store staff and signed their copies, and gave them plenty of bookmarks.

Then we had lunch and continued our drive south. At the Stewartville Library, I enjoyed meeting the lovely women from the community. I spoke, answered questions, and signed books. It was great to hear their enthusiasm for Christian fiction, and just being with them lifted my spirits.

After our time there, we stopped at a large Christian bookstore in Rochester, Christian Book and Gift Shop. It's a beautiful store, and the staff were warm and enthusiastic. I was thrilled to discover that they had all four of my books in stock on their generous wall of Christian fiction titles. Again, I signed their stock, thanked the staff for all they do, and left some bookmarks. The store has enough Christian fiction to divide it by genre - so I had two titles in the contemporary fiction area and two in the fantasy/allegory area. Seeing their many categories really brought home to me how much terrific variety is now available in Christian fiction.

Writing is so often a solitary profession, so I'm grateful for these sorts of days. Nothing is quite as encouraging as meeting a reader face to face and hearing how much they enjoyed a book. It was also fun to hear them praise other Christian authors they've read recently. Many of those were friends of mine. That had me beaming!

I've been "nose to the grindstone" on some revisions recently, so this was a refreshing break.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sharon, one of my most memorable book signings was at the Christian Book and Gift Center in Rochester. A wonderful staff!

Sharon Hinck said...

Hi, Judy!
And I bet your book, God of All Comfort, was a special blessing to all the folk who come to Rochester for the Mayo clinic.