I think most authors harbor a secret fear that they will do a signing event, and no one will WANT the book. Such was certainly the case for me--I pictured myself sitting at a table with a giant stack of books, looking forlornly at a sea of people waiting in line for the latest "Lemony Snicket" book. (I, myself, would have liked to wait in line for the next "Lemony Snicket" book. But there are only so many things you can do--too many books, too many booths, too many people, and not nearly enough time.)

The good news: I signed 150-ish books. Yeah, 150 books. Part of that was due to the fact that Linda and Tim, fine folks from the Bethany House team, were old pros at the book signing thing. They put up a poster, they handed out sticky notes for people to spell their names on and give to me, they handed me books opened to the title page for signing. As I said, they had it down to a fine science. (I even found out, after comments from a few people in line, that Bethany House had run an ad for the book in that day's "Publisher's Weekly," highlighting my signing.) Met a lot of nice library folks, a lot of nice bookstore folks, and a lot of just plain nice folks in general. One woman admitted she always reads the last page of any mystery book first. Blasphemy! In my inscription, I told her she couldn't read the last page of the book first; she seemed to think it was funny.

So, the signing was great. But so was the whole day. I stood in a few autographing lines myself, waiting for books by Christopher Moore and Joyce Carol Oates. I told Christopher Moore my name was "Ozymandias" when he asked how to inscribe the book, and he didn't bat an eye. Of course, he also waited for me to give him my real name. Joyce Carol Oates, while signing my book, asked if I was from Michigan (she'd looked at my badge, which listed Michigan--location of my publishing house--on it). I told her I was actually from Montana. "Ah, Montana," she said as finished signing a book and handed it to me. And that was it.

I'm not sure if she liked Montana or not.

Early afternoon, I met Steve Wozniak, who was at a booth promoting his forthcoming memoir "I, Woz." I found his name in the program too late, and rushed to the booth five minutes past his allotted time. He was chatting with one person, so I waited patiently for a few moments. When he was free, I told him I just wanted to shake his hand, and that I was sorry I'd missed out on getting a signed ARC from him. "Oh, I'm sure we have a copy of the book left around here someplace, don't we?" He turned to his publicist. Then he turned back to me. "Just kidding--we didn't bring any books. We're just here for a meet and greet."

Quite the jokester, that Woz.

I told him I've been a big fan of Apple, and a Mac Evangelist, since the very beginning. "Well, then, you'll have to read my book to find out what made the Apples so special." Good one. "And," he added, "I didn't say anything bad about Steve Jobs at all."

"Yeah, I'll bet," I said. He responded with a hearty laugh.

You gotta love this guy.

While waiting to start my signing at 4:30, I sat in the "Green Room" for a few minutes. F. Paul Wilson, author of the Repairman Jack series (and other books), walked in shortly after me. I went over, introduced myself, told him I was signing at the same time as he was, and asked if I might be able to get a signed copy of his new RJ novel immediately after the signing. He invited me to sit down, and so I was able to visit with him and his publicist (who was very kind) for about 10 minutes. We chatted about the show, Montana, Christopher Paolini, whiskey, the World Horror Convention in SF, and International Thriller Writers. While we chatted, Newt Gingrich walked into the Green Room and sat down at the table next to us. Kinda surreal, being seated between FPW and Newt Gingrich. I'm happy to say, however, that I got my personalized copy of the new RJ book.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to seek out Dennis Lehane; to tell the truth, I'm not even sure if he was there or not. Seemed like a fair amount of schedule changes and flip-flops happened throughout the conference.

As I said, I missed a lot of things I wanted to see/attend. At the top of that list was a signing event from International Thriller Writers, for their new "Thriller" anthology edited by James Patterson, and featuring stories from a bazillion ITW writers. I probably SHOULD have been at that event (being an ITW member), but I was instead standing in line to get a copy of "Fairest," the newest book from Gail Carson Levine, for my lovely young daughter. (And I'm quite glad I did--my daughter will love the book.)

I spent a fair amount of the day with author Bob Liparulo, an old pro at these trade shows, who shared a lot of advice, information and tips he's learned from promoting his first book. And I listened because, after all, he's under contract for nine more. I think I owe Bob a big steak dinner.

In the evening, I had a great dinner with Linda and Tim from Bethany House; we found a nice Chinese restaurant in, oddly enough, Chinatown.

All in all, it had a good beat, and you could dance to it. I give BEA an 87.