Saturday was a big day—my first ever book signing!

I was sort of nervous—what if no one wanted it, what if I just sat there like an idiot?—but that evaporated pretty quickly. The signing began during the breakfast break, so right after Mass ended I was at the Ave Maria Press table with fellow Ave Author Elizabeth Tomlin. We joked that the conference could have been sponsored by Ave Maria Press, since almost all of the speakers (4/5!) were Ave authors, and thus there were book signings all day! The Ave table was huge.

Even before Mass, I was prowling around the table, checking on my babies, which the AMP ladies had so nicely displayed….

(No, the book is not $12—that’s the conference price. :) It’s $13.95.)

I really loved the Ave ladies—they were so fun and so encouraging!

I have no idea how many books I signed, but I loved meeting people and talking about my book. Since this is my “home” conference I saw a lot of people I knew , which made it even better.

And I got to see the materials the fabulous Ave art department had made for me: now I have book marks and prayer cards!

You can sort of see them in this picture—this was taken from my vantage point behind the AMP table. I’ll take better photos and share them later because they are great. I also have bookplates! So if you bought a copy of the book and want my signature in it, I can send you a signed book plate! Just email me and we’ll get that done. You can also contact me for signed books!

I managed to do my conference shopping before the day really began—an advantage to getting up at 5:15 and getting to the center at 6:15!—and I’ll share with you the great shops I found in another post. But here’s one of the things I just loved:

My Dominican loving heart was overjoyed by this great sticker!

I also managed to steal away to have some time in the adoration chapel (vital!) and listen to some of the day’s great speakers. It was a long but great day!