ICRS Monday

Captain's Log, Stardate 07.10.2007

I overslept this morning and didn’t make it to the CAN breakfast meeting, but I did get up just in the nick of time to get to Sharon Hinck’s booksigning of The Restorer. She had a great signing—lots of people in line. I met up with Meredith Efken and Tracy Higley, and we “seeded” the line for a little while until it became apparent the line would propagate itself.

I also got to meet Tosca Lee in person (she’d commented on my blog a couple days ago, I think) and get a copy of Kimberly Stuart’s Bottom Line to give away.



Siri Mitchell saw me and came up to graciously give me a copy of Moon Over Tokyo, since she was signing at the Personality Party and non-exhibitors couldn’t get in. Isn’t that nice of her?

I also saw Jenn Doucette, Laura Christianson, and Jennifer Schuchmann while walking the floor. I also saw Marilynn Griffith briefly.



We went to Harry Kraus’s signing and I got All I’ll Ever Need. Then we went to WaterBrook Multnomah, but were too late to get copies of books. However, I met Mark Mynheir and I chatted with Tamara Leigh, and I’ll be doing a giveaway and interview with Tamara at some point.



Then we went to Steeple Hill and got Death Benefits from Hannah Alexander. I then went and stood in Tamera Alexander’s big honkin’ long line to get a copy of Remembered and a picture with Tammy.



Meredith and I went to see Maureen Lang at her signing, but then we went to my hotel room to get the chopsticks and bookmarks I needed for my booksigning.

At the Zondervan booth, I met Barbara Scott, the senior editor for Zonderkidz. I’m having dinner with her, Wendy Lawton, Janet Grant, and maybe Sue Brower tomorrow night.

I saw Joyce Ondersma working like crazy and gave her some ribbon bookmarks to give to the Z booth staff. The previous booksigning was of the new Faithgirlz line, with books by Nancy Rue, Melody Carson, and Dandi Daley Mackall, so I waited until they were done. I was able to say hi to Melody again.

I was so nervous, I thought I was going to puke.

It ended up going really well. There was a HUGE line wrapping around the corner because Brandilyn was signing with me. The first couple people got a copy of Brandilyn’s book and then took off without getting one of mine! Bozos.

But then people started coming to me to get a free chopstick and a book. I discovered I can be energetic and nice to perfect strangers. I also discovered I sign very briefly. No Bible verse or long message. I am very spare in my signing. As a result, my hand never got sore or crampy.

Zondervan (I think it was Karwyn Bursma) had also made up fortune cookies with special fortunes promoting my book, and they gave them to people waiting in line. My favorite fortune was: “Camy Tang is neither lingerie nor an astronaut drink.” Isn’t that a hoot? I wonder who came up with that one?!

Tyler Kingsbury (Karen Kingsbury’s son) stood in line for my book! Isn’t he just a darling? So did Sarah Long, Dave Long’s wife. I also saw Krista Stroever (Steeple Hill), looking radiant. I also saw Patty and Wendy (the ladies from the shuttle ride to the hotel), and bestselling author Wanda Brunstetter stood in line, too! I felt so loved and honored that all these people would come by to say hi and get my book.

I was standing and signing because I prefer that to sitting and signing, and I didn’t even realize how long I’d been doing it. Finally, I signed the last book and someone said I’d been signing for two hours and fifteen minutes!!!! I actually felt fine, not tired. My feet started hurting when I started walking, but they hadn’t hurt when I had been standing. Zondervan and I had given away all 250 copies of my book!!!! Yay!

As I was packing up, Karen Kingsbury’s son Tyler wandered by and we chatted. We headed to Tyndale to see if Karen was still signing (she wasn’t) or to see if she had any secret copies she could give me (she didn’t), and I ended up chatting with Andy Meisenheimer, who was hanging around the booth and talking with Karen K. and Karen Ball (B&H Publishing).

Andy and I talked for a while about his newly adopted son, who’s adorable. I also saw Kelsey Kingsbury (being run ragged by her slave-driver mom ;), and then Andy and I headed to Baker (Bethany) to get a copy of Robin Parrish’s new book Fearless. It has an awesome cover! We chatted with Dave Long and his wife Sarah, who’s also an editor at Bethany House.

I went to Steak and Ale restaurant that night for dinner with the ACFW members who were at ICRS. It was fun, although I ate too much. We got a little punchy.


Tricia Goyer


Sarah Sumpolec


(heads from left to right): Pat Rushford, Brandilyn Collins, Cassandra Woods


Me and Sarah Sumpolec


Me and Cassandra Woods


Me, Tamela Hancock Murray, Julie Dearyan

Continued: ICRS Tuesday