I had a fantastically fun time at my first book signing last night at the TriFitness Store in White Bear Lake. As usual with adventures in life, it seems I got a lot more out of the event than I was expecting.

My goals were to have a great time, make sure my family was included, and be around some great people. Anything outside of this was just icing on the cake. All three objectives were met by the way.

Our oldest child, Maggie (age 12) went with me to the signing. I wanted her to be around an environment of positive people and to have the opportunity to participate in the signing with me (she signed the page with her “Don’t Quet” quote). My wonderful neighbor Laura bravely volunteered to have ALL three boys come over to play.  Things were set in my neat little world.

Off Maggie and I went to rush to the signing after getting the kids fed after work, the dogs out, dinner made, and then the boys over to Laura’s house to play until Bob got home 2 hours later.

There was another author that was scheduled to be there at the ladies night event, but quite honestly, I was concentrating on making the night work around our family schedules after working all day and didn’t pay attention to who it was.

When we arrived, a table was set up for us to sign at. The other author hadn’t arrived. I plunked her stuff down and selfishly thought, okay, “my stuff” goes here and the other person can go over there – mentally, a line had been drawn to split the table in half.

When the author arrived, she was this vibrant woman who was had a positive sense around her. Nice I thought, however, the I still vividly saw the line.  She was extremely gracious and smiled as she asked if she could put a table cloth down. Sure I said, mentally noting her hot pink table cloth matched her book entitled Hot Sweaty Mamas and See Mom Run.

Maggie and I went about her business of setting up when I happened to glance over and see the third book she put out….it made me stop in my tracks. I couldn’t believe my eyes. She put down one of my most favorite triathlon books I had used during my Ironman training journey – it was entitled Becoming An Ironman. Besides my great training book, it was the only other book that I read over and over throughout my yearlong journey. It was FULL of inspiration and gave me the hope to keep going on my journey as it told of people’s experiences of doing their first Ironman triathlon.

Here she was. My mouth dropped. “Are you THAT author?” I accusingly asked as I pointed at that wonderful book with the name Kara Douglass  - her married name was now Kara Thom.  She admitted she was. I went on to gush on and on like an avid fan about how much her book had meant to me. Then, I told her that she was the ONLY author I had ever emailed before as I wanted my finance book of inspirational stories modeled EXACTLY after her Ironman book.  She looked a little embarrassed and asked if she replied back. I said no, but I hadn’t expected her too. I just wanted her to know how much her book had meant to me. She seemed horrified as she said she had a computer crash and that she lost a lot of information and my email was probably in with the crashed items.

To make it a wilder story….her book is the only other book that I currently had in my  computer bag that travels around with me. I want to use it as a template and enjoy having it with me – each worn page reminds me of how I want people to feel when they read our stories of doing extraordinary things in life.

Here she was in person. She said she looked me up and was anxious to read my book – I was secretly embarrassed that I hadn’t thought to go outside my neat little world to extend the same courtesy.

So, the line that was so evident before the evening began was totally invisible to me now.

I gushed to anyone who approached the table that they HAD to reach her book – it was just awesome. Kara in turn graciously said the book was written before her children were born and that my book was the one to read for women with kids as my journey had taken place with three small kids.

Maggie and I both had fun getting to meet such wonderful people and I learned a lot from watching my favorite triathlon author of inspirational triathlon stories interact with people.

The lesson learned was life isn’t always full of harsh lines…sometimes it is a joy when you “let your lines fade”. By doing so, we just may enrich our lives all the more.

Many blessings and thanks for reading. Please consider signing up for our blog to automatically receive posts.

Live Beyond Awesome.

Jen

Motivational Storyteller & Author of Living Beyond Awesome

Websites:

www.livingbeyondawesome.com