My Chocolate Brings All the Librarians to the Yard

You can lead all the librarians to the chocolate, but you can’t make them by your book. ***smiling and gritting my teeth***

Before I rushed from New Port Richey to Orlando to the FLA (Florida Library Association) conference, which is about a two hour drive, I stopped off at my local Publix for two bottles of water and a couple of protein bars. On my way back to my car, one of my liter bottles plopped out of my bag and rolled under my car.

The Voice spoke as I got on my hands and knees to find that the bottle had rolled under the car parked next to mine. “Today isn’t going to go as you planned.”

“Okay. Fine,” I said to myself. “I bought a space at this event and I paid Create Space for a bunch of books. I refuse to give up. I will persevere.”

So I did. Once I hit I-4 the rain clouds rolled in and eventually let loose.

One of my bright spots was picking up the author of The Metamorphosis of a Muslim, Lena Winfrey, on the way there.

After I picked her up, we headed for Panera Bread on Sand Lake Road. While we had a wonderful talk (she’s got lots of novels inside her) and ate our lunch, the rain did more than pour out of the sky. When we got back into my car, I read my Google Map instructions on how to get to the Orland Hilton, and thank God, Lena came armed with a GPS tracker.

But…we followed the Google instructions first, which had us on the totally wrong road. So we went to Lena’s GPS tracker for help, which she learned on the fly in my car. This was definitely an adventure of a lifetime-being lost in the rain in a busy city.We barely made it to the Hilton.

Once we arrived to the front of the Hilton, we were told to take three rights to get to the back where we were to unload. I had a suitcase and a couple of boxes of books to carry up an escalator and then another one…we opted for the elevators.

Check-in didn’t go so smoothly either. One hand didn’t seem to know what the other hand was doing. Although, a very nice lady…we’ll name her Ms. R (we got separated though and she had some of my stuff with her) and an employee of the Hilton graciously helped us out with a dolly to tote the box of books to where they needed to go.

Well, we totally lost Ms. R and my paper said we were to go to the Orange Ballroom. I went to an empty room.

Thankfully, my stuff had been left in the giant room across the way. But once we got to the door, despite my name tag, the people at the door were reluctant to let me in. I thought I would never make it into that room.

Once there, I got my things set up. But the crowds seemed to herd together toward the back of the room where the refreshments were. None of the vendors there seemed to have any more action than I did.

So I brought out my big box of chocolate. Lena grabbed a stack of my cards and walked through the room schmoozing and planting seeds. With a little persuasion, people came to the table but no one bought my books or any books from the vendors beside me. ***shrugs***

It was a seed planting day and I met few more authors.

The picture above is of Sybil Nelson, author and public speaker. She writes YA and middle grade novels. I’ll be in contact with her since she’s an Indie, too, and has been doing this a lot longer than me.

I thought I had other pictures to share, but knowing how my day went, I more than likely pressed the wrong button.

But its all good! Friday is another day to work on my marketing plan and figure out what doesn’t work. Although, my chocolate did bring the librarians to my yard.

Hugs and chocolate,

Shelly