A Golden Skiing Trip

I struck gold with a book signing in the middle of a five-day skiing vacation this past weekend. My son's school system scheduled teacher work days last Thursday and Friday, so combined with Presidents' Day, that made for a five-day weekend. The family headed up to Breckenridge, CO (the setting for my upcoming book, To Hell in a Handbasket) and hit the slopes.

After two full days of skiing in Breckenridge and Vail, I drove down to Golden, CO on Saturday for a visit with the Mount Lookout Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. The event was their annual fundraiser tea for the Golden Pioneer Museum, and I was their speaker. The chapter members had put together quite a few lovely gift baskets for their silent auction, which was a fitting accompaniment to my talk, since my amateur sleuth is a gift basket designer. I was drooling over those baskets!

I gave a short prepared talk about A Real Basket Case and its sequel and my life as an author, then opened the floor up for questions. I prefer the informal nature of a Q&A period to a formal speech, and the women didn't disappoint me. They asked astute questions that allowed me to talk about some interesting aspects of creating characters, finding an agent, dealing with writer's block, cover art, and other topics.

Then we broke to eat, and what a spread they put out! I ate my fill of the lovely little tea sandwiches and cookies in between signing books. I had brought some of the brand-new large-print editions of A Real Basket Case and sold seven of those along with twenty-six copies of the regular hardcover edition. The chapter members were very generous not only with their purchases, but also their compliments. And everyone was gracious and welcoming. I had such a lovely time with the group. My only regret is that I was so busy signing and selling books that I didn't have a chance to put in a winning bid on some of those lovely gift baskets. Darn!

The weekend was capped off with another day of skiing and a morning of snowshoeing before packing up and heading home. A golden skiing trip!