Working Author

 
Every year in February my alma mater has its "Homecoming", which includes all sorts of things I don't bother with (I didn't attend the basketball games when I went to school there; why would I go now?). But on the Saturday of homecoming week, the various departments have alumni receptions. Because some of my professors are still there (hard to believe since I graduated in 1991), every few years I make a point of driving the 3-4 miles over to campus (because, yes, I still live here) and be sociable. So that's what I did yesterday.
 
To show that I've been keeping busy, I took a copy of both The Girl Who Ran With Horses and Gunwitch: A Tale of the King's Coven. Horse Girl I took because it's YA, and Gunwitch because it's recent. Both of them because they have great covers. (I did not take The Summoning Fire, even though it has a great cover, because I didn't want to scare anyone.) I also took a handy copy of The Journal 5 on CDROM, because I was a Computer Science major, after all. Gotta represent at the CS/Math reception (even if it has now been folded with the Engineering department reception).
 
Really, I was just taking 'em to show off.
 
What happened, though, is that I ended up signing and selling both books. Gunwitch to a former professor (I learned COBOL in his class) for this granddaughter who was going on vacation soon and read a lot of fantasy, and Horse Girl to a fellow alumnus who said his daughter liked books about horses. I would've just given them the books, but they insisted on paying–though they did accept discounts off the cover price.
 
So that was cool.
 
I almost wish I had taken more copies. Except, if I had, I would've been a self-promoting whore instead of just a show-off alumnus. And no one likes a self-promoting whore. Not even other self-promoting whores. EspecIially not other self-promoting whores.
 
I'm just happy I came away from the reception with a bit more cash, and a couple more sales, than I had when I arrived. And, hopefully, no one thinks I'm a self-promoting whore. Just a working author.
 
-David
 
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