This past Saturday, I joined 7 other authors for a “Books and Brunch” event at the Logan County Library in Bellefontaine, OH. First of all, I want to say THANK YOU to Stephanie Lamb, Nikki Johnson, and their team from Logan County libraries for hosting a wonderful event. You made the day enjoyable for the authors and the event patrons. Well done!
I had one of the best days I’ve had in a very long time. I couldn’t wait to get home and tell my husband all about it!
I was excited as I started telling him the story, but as I did, I realized the great day was riddled with things that a year or even a few months ago would have caused me to view it as a horrible day.
Things started so well though…
I had everything packed up and ready to go the night before, and though my husband normally travels with me to events, we had several things at the house that needed his attention. It made more sense for him to stay home to get done what he needed to do. I sincerely expected to have a pretty laid back experience.
I have done several other library events, and had very little traffic. It has generally been my experience that people don’t come to a library intending to buy books. In the past, I’ve had one or two sales at these kinds of events. I was certain I could handle that much!
And, because I didn’t expect many sales, I wasn’t concerned when the shipment of books I had ordered to replenish my stock was delayed. I had several copies of each title which should have been plenty.
He also usually plans the route, schedules any stops for fuel or food, and does all the driving and navigation to and from the venue. I looked up the route, and even with a quick detour to drop something off to a friend, the route was pretty much a straight line for an hour and a half.
Well, you know what they say about the best laid plans going astray? Guess what happens when your plans aren’t the best?
I started telling my husband about the great day of sales I had, and we ended up laughing about all the things that went wrong.
I made a quick stop in Fairborn to drop something off for a friend and noticed that I was right around the corner from one of my favorite local coffee roasters. I told him I was ahead of schedule, and made what I thought was going to be a quick stop for a cup of coffee. What I forgot, was that this particular location was the Roastery itself, not a coffee shop. They are open to the public for tours and coffee samples, but they don’t have the equipment or staff to make lattes or other specialty drinks. I was already inside when I realized my mistake. The owner hadn’t even brewed the sample pot of coffee for tours yet. 30 minutes later, I was back on the road with just enough time to make it to the venue to set up.
I made it to what I thought was the long, straight stretch of the journey and decided to call my mom to chat with her along the way. Turns out, I had one more large intersection to navigate and because I was on the phone to mom, the GPS stopped giving verbal commands. I did my best to read the map on the screen, talk to my mom, and watch traffic. But – I zigged when I should have zagged, turned right when I should have gone straight, then got completely off course when I made a U-turn and still ended up on the wrong road. I hung up with my mom long enough to figure out where in tarnation the GPS wanted me to be, then called her back once it was confirmed I had 15 miles of straight road ahead of me.
I arrived at the venue, got all set up, said hello to the other authors, and settled in for the event. Each of the authors shared a little about their journey and their books, then the floor was open for the patrons to come chat with us.
I told him how surprised I was that I sold as many books as I did.
The first three people who approached the table wanted to purchase copies of my books. Great! I was so excited, and pulled out my credit card reader – only to discover it refused to connect to my phone. I laughed, set it aside, and keyed in the sales by hand. When I had a moment, I looked for the reader to try to get it to connect, but it was GONE. I made two more sales that I only half remember because I was convinced someone stole my reader! Nope. It fell off the table into a spare pocket of my bag I never use.
By this time, I realized I was running out of books! The shipment was probably on my porch, doing me no good.
The day ended when I sold the last copies of three of my titles to the library.
I met some amazing people and came home with a beautiful dragon print to add to my book dragon collection.
It wasn’t until I got home and started to tell the story of the day that I realized how much I’ve grown. There was a time when a day like that, with all its minor mishaps, would have ended with me coming home to complain about all that had gone wrong.
Instead, my first thoughts were: “What a fun day!” “I am glad I went!” “Library events are great places to sell books!”
My perspective has changed drastically over the last year, because I have learned to enjoy the process and focus on the positive. I have successfully LEARNED, by consistently and intentionally retraining my mind, to look for the good instead of letting the ‘bad’ or inconvenient things stress me out.
After months of taking the negative thoughts captive before they ruined my day, I’ve gotten to the point where I can honestly say, “You tried your best, bad day, but today is NOT your day.”
My goal is to be able to say with confidence, “Let the devil know, not today. Not now. Not ever again.”