Deli book signing

My sister's friends own my favorite place to eat in Evanston- Main Street Deli. YUM! Becky set up a book signing for me there. It went so well--and mostly due to my sister. It's such a testament to how many people know and love Becky. The majority came because of her! But we've gotten some good feed back of the book afterwards. :) It was a really fun signing. I loved spending the day with my sister and selling books is a bonus!

Jeff and Amelia

Jeff's been reading my book. It's a fun thing to watch... :) He'll read and then he'll give me all kinds of theories he has. I love it. And he's been pretty insightful! I love him.

Momma's girl

"You sign this book. Say for Sydney Belle Atkinson..."

Dad

My dad.
He's so cute.
So, when LIKE HOME came out he ended up buying ten copies. He gave 9 away, was so sweet and so proud. Then every now and then he would open the book and read whatever page he'd opened to.
Knowing Amelia, I gave to him, I figured it was the least I could do. I was super surprised at the Rip's signing when he told me he was more than half way through it and he was really really liking it. A few days later I called him and he was exdcited to tell me he'd finished and he loved it. He said the ending surprised him and he was so impressed with my writing and he knew it would be successful. He's so sweet, he said, it's a great story and people will talk and get it around. :)
I hope he's right.
I'm so glad he read it and he liked it.

Rip's Book Signing

I am so thankful for supportive family and friends. Becky and Dad came to my Rip's signing. Beck stayed and helped and I sold twice as many books with her telling her friends and people that came in about them.

Love this sweet friend of mine. She's always so kind and so supportive.

One of my families oldest friends, Carol Holmes. She's such a sweet gal and I have so many fond memories growing up of her.

KA Book Launch

Becky and Heidi came to help me with my book launch again this year. And I'm so grateful. I just put them right to work and they are so sweet and so happy to do it. And it makes it so much better. So glad I'm not alone in this!

Kristol, I met her at a book club I spoke at. It was so fun to have her come!

My kids were so cute. The little boys and Syd had bookmarks and they were passing them out to people outside asking: You wanna buy a book?

Our sweet Kari. She's been through more than a couple battles with cancer and this time the battle isn't going to be beaten. But she's won. She is amazing. So loving and so positive and so beautiful. I'm so thankful she worked with Tim and Syd for speech and that I get to call her my friend.

Crystal. This sweet lady I didn't really know and then I met her a year ago when she was taking Hazel's 1 year pics. Her husband is currently the high councilman over primary. And she is so kind and really truly a fan of my work!

The Phillips family have come to both of my book signings. So kind of them. This year, I signed the book for their daughter Lia whose full name is Amelia. :)

A couple gals that I work with through stake primary came. :)

My dear friend Stacey!

My Hisers and my Cutlers both came. Kim had already bought 2 books--the first Amazon sale again! Love them!

Richard

This is the graphic design guy from my publishing house. I was fairly certain I had offended him by telling him his fonts super sucked... maybe not. He called me a couple months ago about launch parties and then last week he sent me this really nice email. I'm glad to know I haven't offended Richard and I think it will make me even more comfortable just going right to him about cover issues. ...Yeah, hopefully Richard will still like me by the time Am I 30 Yet? is done. Still, fun email to receive!

Hi, Jen,

I just finished formatting your book to ebooks. It takes me about 10 hour to covert a 300+ page from the InDesign files to the Word.doc format required for submission. I don’t usually go into the story. Knowing Amelia took me four days. Why?  While I scanned the pages for any formatting errors, I began reading.  I wound up so engrossed in the dual story line I just had to read the whole thing. What an amazing story you tell. By the end of the book I had tears in my eyes and I was sorry to reach the final line. I could believe your characters were real. Amelia’s situation was real and though I got annoyed with Liv trying to make sure Logan was sure of what he wanted. I love the book A great read, A page turner for sure.

 

Richard R Draude

Amelia

I have some of the greatest supporters! Ginny and I have been friends for more than a decade. We used to see each other weekly and now we see each other maybe twice a year--sad. But she is right there loving a supporting me. And I am so grateful!!

Together

Oh happy dance. :)

Mom take my picture!!

I had this great plan to give Heidi a gift, my book, the day they came, before anyone else had seen them or read one... But then my books took forever to come and a dozen people or more had a book before me! But she's so good to me, so helpful and giving of her time to edit and reedit and never making fun of me for my misplaced commas or misspelled words...
Anyway, while we were there, Syd decided to become a little gymnast, all the while shouting "Mom, take my picture!!"

May 23rd is a good day!!

It was a good day to get married.
It was a fun day to launch a debut novel.
And it's the day my long awaited books came! Yay for book #2!