Sue caught me online yesterday morning and demanded DETAILS about Wym, Jenn (Jenn4Cubs), & me (Frolic1313) meeting our Nora at Bay Books on Coronado Island this Wednesday.

Bear with me as I try to do justice to the occasion. I'm repeating the mantra details, details, details as I type... :^)

Bay Books is a great independent book store, larger than it appears outside, with a snazzy green awning over the windows, and an impressive stock of Nora's books within. Thrilled to have The Queen come to their store, the staff loaded the windows with copies of Homeport and displayed a Homeport poster announcing Nora's visit.

She arrived at 6PM, looking more fabulous in a classy beige pantsuit than any woman has a right to, and made my day by calling me Jenn! The last time I was mistaken for a twenty-five-year-old was when I was one!!! LOL We presented Nora with Diet Pepsi, M&Ms;, and Jenn's orgasmically-good-chocolate-chip cookies which Nora defended with a slap-on-the-hand to a gentleman who attempted to move them to take her picture! Nora popped open her Pepsi and started answering questions about her books, her method of writing, and a detailed response to a question about that-nameless-plagiarizer-person. Nora also talked about whether or not any more of her books will be made into movies. Not -- and to poor Wym's horror, the powers-that-be are toying with the idea of making a TV series based on the IN DEATH books.

After the signing, Nora's escort took her back the beautifully refurbished turn-of-the-century US GRANT hotel in downtown San Diego where Wym, Jenn, and I had the pleasure of eating, drinking, and talking to Nora about everything under the sun. We also presented Nora with a goodie-bag of stress relievers for her trip, consisting of Godiva chocolates, hand-washing gel, cooling foot gel (which Nora oh'ed over) and a mini-wooden-massager to ease the kinks out of her neck after hours of book signing. All too soon, the pace of the tour finally took its toll, and we had to call a halt before Nora dozed off at the table. We shared shared hugs all around, and parted company with at least three people wishing we could start the evening all over again.

 ---from JJ