Archive for year: 2019

From Marcia at facebook.com/theauthorswife:

Being an author means a lot more than “just” writing books…Promoting the books is a big part of Brian’s job. And while social media and the internet have given us new ways to connect with readers, nothing beats book events as a way to meet readers in person and sign their books for them. In fact, over the years, Brian has traveled thousands of miles and appeared at hundreds of different venues to meet fans and sign their books…! (Just out of curiosity, I asked Brian if he has any idea of how many books he’s signed over the years. Of course, he has no idea but we know that the number is in the multiple thousands range.)

As we prepare for several upcoming events (many of which had to be rescheduled from earlier this year due to the snowy Minnesota winter we’ve had), we’ve been talking about how the way we travel has changed over the years. Getting to and from event venues has always been a challenge…from “red-eye” flights to long drives, Brian’s done ‘em all. Luckily, I’ve been able to accompany him on a lot of the various trips over the years. And although airline travel is often the only way to get to some areas, we actually prefer when we can drive. In the early days, before the advent of GPS, we used to plan our routes with an atlas, or by using some of the online websites (like Mapquest) and printing out the directions in order to reach our destination. Of course, those sites weren’t always accurately up-to-date and even the GPS navigational devices weren’t always correct, either, so there were a number of times when we’d need to make our own best guess of which direction to go. (Yes, a number of years ago in Vero Beach, our GPS insisted that we go straight—which would have sent us right into the middle of a rushing river bed. Needless to say, we didn’t follow those directions.)

These days, though, our smartphones do a remarkably good job at getting us places…we just pack up the car, plug in our destination and we’re off. But we do still love following the various roadsigns along the way…like this one…!