December 4, 2007

I drove back from Abilene this morning, dropped my mom off at her house and headed to the office to see patients in the afternoon. I had a lot of fun at the Hastings book store in Abilene. People were very friendly and there was a lot of interest in Endings. Some of you may be asking the question, "why Abilene?" And I would say, "Why not?" Abilene is the place where the majority of Endings takes place. I did a lot of horse showing there and my memories of Abilene are, for the most part happy ones. I had no experiences like the one I describe in the "Rider Writes" section of this website. That's not to say every single experience there was a win. Let's just say I learned a lot. Yes...learned a lot. That's what you have to say when you're totally blown away by the awesome power of humility. I learned a lot. You would prefer the prostrated position, the kicking and cussing, maybe even the awesome power of crying in front of someone. But gather the strength to come out and say "I learned a lot today." Now that's really something...

Okay, that was something very tangential, because I think I was talking about my wonderful experience in Abilene. My book signing. The people who came to buy a book were really happy to be there. They were all smiles. Many of them had read about the signing in the paper. Some were related to people I know here in Austin and it just seemed as if they were all old friends of mine! I thank them from the bottom of my heart, because here's the deal. They bought MY BOOK. That's what they did. And that's what it's all about. They bought my book. Now they're going to read it. If they like it, maybe they'll tell someone else about it. Someday, someone who has no connection to me or anyone I know might buy the book because those folks in Abilene bought my book and told someone else about it. It's incredible to think about.

So here's the next incredible thing. I was in Austin for about 15 minutes and I get this text message from my husband. Endings is number one on the BookPeople best seller list in Austin. It was in the Sunday paper. Number one! THEY'RE BUYING MY BOOKS!

And I thank them.