Our Story So Far…
Guest blog from Black Bear, with contributions from Mirkat and forthewords!
Once upon a time back in July, it occurred to me that it might be fun to harness the power of Robin’s website and forum to drum up a little extra excitement and fun around the release date of Pegasus. I spent rather a lot of time thinking about how this might work; I then spent rather more time emailing back and forth with interested parties (Robin, Robin’s agent, Robin’s publisher, my fellow moderators) to see how THEY thought this might work… and suddenly it was October, and Pegasus loomed close. So the idea of the Pegasus Release Celebration was launched on the blog, a scant week before the book came out, and before I knew it we had multiple threads in the forum and even more people emailing directly to say they were ready, willing, and eager to host. And bake cookies. And make tea sandwiches, and… and… Seriously. You people are amazing.
So I thought I’d give you all a little taste (heh!) of our first PRC’s from last weekend, and give Robin the night off from blogging, because she deserves it.
Our very first PRC was held this past weekend at a Books-a-Million in Arundel Mills, Maryland. Mirkat was our organizer, and–well, I’ll let her tell you about it.
The gathering was a delight. Having just moved here a few weeks ago, my social circle is a bit small :) And, the only reason I suggested the venue I did was because it was the only place I knew how to get to! I baked over 200 cookies (Eggnog and my “Mouthwatering Mouthfuls” from the Sunshine contest) in a half-way unpacked kitchen and managed to get my printer up and running to print out raffle tickets. However, I forgot to bring platters to put said cookies on, my partners-in-crime ran late, the manager was so swamped she didn’t have a chance to make us balloons, and my prize package didn’t make it in time!* Fortunately, things soon looked up when my new friends showed up, added more food to the table, and brought a riotous good mood with them.
We did sell a few books (at least two were purchased by our motley crew…….) and introduced a few people to this fantastic author. Actually, that was how we got the most use out of the raffle tickets – extras were handed to people with Robin’s name on the back for people to look up at their libraries or to find her books online. Upon leaving, we all agreed we should get together more often and are chomping at the bit to throw a PEGII Release Celebration!
Meanwhile, on the other coast…. forthewords and our crowd of McKinleyphiles from Seattle were getting ready to host their own shindig. The Seattle folks on the forum are old hands at this, having organized cake-and-book parties via the forum on their own recognizance in recent months. So no surprise it came off without a hitch!
Baked goods and books–how could it NOT be a success?
The cookies, I’m told, were almond, iced chocolate, and brownies. Forthewords provided additional raffle prizes, courtesy of the local used bookstore, and gave those away along with the copy of Pegasus and the posters. A good time was had by all!
So! More PRCs next weekend–Knoxville TN, Lowell MA, and Vancouver, BC! I can’t wait to hear how they go. Below is an updated list of what’s going on. To get these posts a little shorter/tighter, I’m condensing down the proposed section–but all the links should still work. THANK YOU to all our wonderful organizers and attendees!
* And Black Bear sez–sorry about that. We had a tight timeline for the ones this week…
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