Reading went well last night. Even though they called me to read first – I usually like to be at least halfway in so I can enjoy the anticipation – and it took a while to find the tea on the refreshment table.

I’ll backtrack a little. My friends, Michele and Melva and I arrived together, and went to register. While we all jockeyed for position at the registration table, one of the women behind it said I didn’t have to sign in; she’d done that already when she saw me arrive. Woohoo, celebrity perk. In the small sense of the word, but made me happy, as did the coffee-themed photographs displayed on the wall. I can’t stand the taste of coffee, but I like the smell (plus I do like to coffee-dye papers) and it looks great on film. The arrangement reminded me a lot of what I might see in the Mt Kisco, NY library (oh home of my heart) so that was a lovely plus.

Got up, did my thing – the prequel from Orphans in the Storm, wherein our heroine, Jonnet, is brought to the Isle of Man as an infant, and a lonely old woman does not kill herself. Plus there’s a war going on. (English Civil, to be exact.) Of course I have to notice the one about seven year old boy in the room. Sorry, kiddo. I can’t imagine it was terribly interesting to him, and of course I had to fixate on whoever was intermittently coughing. One does tend to notice these things when behind a microphone in front of a captive audience.

The whole thing went very well. Much applause not only when I said that I’d sold something I’d previously read from at other such functions, but after the reading as well. Had some inquiries as to if I’d read from the book that’s coming out (no, this one is in progress, but the other is similar in tone) and if that one is historical, too (yes.) A couple of friends who I hadn’t thought could make it did, which was another lovely surprise.

Good variety of readers/performers, and of course Melva and Michele were great. I am now poopled, so will yabber more in the morning.