The Lump of Coal Signing - RECAP

Brought to you by Brigitte. With comments by Lorena in Red, Erika in Blue, and Julie in green.

I am saddened to say that Lemony Snicket did not come to Books & Books but instead sent a representative, Daniel Handler, that just so happened to be dressed like him, as tall as him and look exactly like him. We suspect foul play.

I arrived after an open house at a high school just before Erika did and I found Emily and we talked a little until Erika came...

I arrived and found Julie with Emily. We stood out in the front and talked. Emily then told us that we should get our books signed now, so we bought them (since Julie forgot hers at home...), which is when we saw Lorena and Brigitte arrive...

When we arrived, Erika and Julie before us for once, (No, we got there before you once remember that time and we were at Books & Books and there was that author...) Lorena and I ran into Emily along with a huge crowd of Handler fans. Putting our stuff down behind the counter we headed off to the back room to meet Handler... except that he wasn't there. The first author to wander on his own, which is great, but we never knew where he was. We found him in the west wing, where his event was going to take place, and we talked with him and his representative for a while. We headed to the back room when people started to come in and he signed our books.

A requirement for each and every event is the passing out of YAthenaeum bookmarks to the sometimes unwilling multitude. We split up, Lorena and I took the children's section which was bursting with kids and parents. Small children get frightening in the masses. After a while, Erika and Julie appeared and told us that we were going to take the picture before the event instead of during/after. (This was after going around the store not knowing where they were and found them drowning in kids.) (So many little kids!!!) The hunt for Handler began. Much confusion ensued with comments like "I think he went to the bathroom." and "I think he went this way.". We ended up not finding him, he found us. We took the pictures. We couldn't take it outside the backroom, due to the um...crowd, and the backroom, despite the amazing scenery it would set for the picture, didn't seem adequate. So we ended up going to the parking lot to take the picture. Which seemed to fit the mood of the signing... We were lumps of coal, hence the black/burglar look.

Then started on the enjoyable task of post-it duty. -cue happy music-. The fans were separated into groups by letters so we did A first. (To get a head start for later) (Which was a VERY good and helpful idea)

Handler entertained everyone, even though there were lots of different age groups, with his sarcasm and getting people to leave so that Group A could get there books signed and talk to him was hard. Some of his remarks included how he looked like Lemony, we were the first bookstore to grade readers, and how unfortunate it was to all be cramped into a room by people dressed in black. I wouldn't have willingly left, honestly. We then went through and finished the A's we had missed and I went around with the embosser and embossed every book... Every time someone was taking a picture of him signing a book for one of the kids, he would ask who it was taking the picture and if they were a good mom or dad. Then, he would say "I know your lying". Though he had a few other hilarious comments that he would say as well. We were all starving so we sat down and ordered something at the Cafe, but we had to get up while waiting/eating to complete post-it duty to the other groups. I went every time to emboss the books, which somehow my hand didn't hurt even after all of the embossing. This went on for a while of; "ok you leave, no I'll go, ok you go, I'll protect your food", and arguing over who ate the banana cake. After we finished eating, we hung out with Handler and the last of the fans waiting in line. He topped off his signing with a few snazzy remarks and went off to eat lunch, leaving us to comb through the children's section. Our parents were already there, so we left, but then my mom heard he had written a book called The Latke that Wouldn't Stop Screaming, so Julie and I had to go, buy it, and then interrupted their lunch and had Daniel sign it.