First, off, I'm back from my travels. Kinda sorta. Still playing catch up, but then, I've been doing that all my life. Fun stuff happening on lots of fronts, so I will have some news to share via this blog in the upcoming days. My big project is finishing book #2 for the fine folks at Bethany House Publishers, so I will at least have an excuse for light blog posts in the next month or so.

Today, though, I wanted to talk about something that came to me in the latest edition of the "Publisher's Marketplace" newsletter: a link to a NY Times story about George Pelecanos. Pelecanos, if you've not discovered him, is (in my mind), one of our three or four greatest living crime novelists. He's received critical praise from the press and from his peers, and anyone who reads him seems to become an instant fan. So imagine my surprise when I came to this section of the article:

So far, that critical acclaim has failed to translate into the kind of sales that Mr. Pelecanos’s publisher, Little, Brown, believes he deserves. According to Nielsen BookScan, none of his last five books have sold more than 13,000 copies in hardcover; Little, Brown contends that the figures range from 17,000 to 21,000 copies.

So the books of George Pelecanos only sell something in the high teens? What's wrong with this world? His writing is brilliant and incisive, his plots are filled with numerous interesting strands, his characters are real; he's got the writing chops. Plus, he's received plenty of media attention, critical praise, and the endorsements of heavy hitters in the crime fiction community (Dennis Lehane, for one). Why, why, why aren't more people buying his books?

This is something that helps put the whole biz in perspective: even when you do everything right, sales success isn't guaranteed. It reminds me to be thankful for each and every sale.

It also reminds me I need to pre-order Pelecanos's newest book, "The Night Gardener."

So I feel as if I should get a tee shirt that reads: "I went to my first CBA show and lived to tell about it."

The CBA show, for those of you unfamiliar with it, really isn't the CBA show. It's the ICRS. "CBA" stood for "Christian Booksellers Association," which wasn't inclusive enough, I think, so it switched to "International Christian Retail Show," which prompted everyone to call it, "The CBA Show, or whatever they want us to call it now."

I wrote before about the Christy Awards, so let's pick up on Sunday, which started for me at 7:00 am and ended at 11:00 pm. And you know what? It was an absolute blast. Every second of it. No need to tell you every little thing, but highlights of the day included meeting folks and signing books at a special Munce store brunch, seeing Eugene Peterson (and meeting lots of folks) at the famous Tattered Cover LoDo Bookstore, and attending the Baker Publishing Group author dinner.

At the author dinner, I was seated at a table with Dave and Neta Jackson, Donna Carpenter, Sharon Hinck, Camy Tang, Robin Parrish and his lovely wife Karen Parrish. What a wonderful group of folks. We talked and laughed throughout the entire dinner, in which I inadvertently made everyone think I have an overwhelming fixation with death. (Um, I know that doesn't really sound like it goes with the "talking and laughing" part, but you had to be there.)

Monday brought an ACFW breakfast and a chance to share a meal with some wonderful folks such as Nancy Jo Jenkins, Kim Vogel Sawyer and her daughter Kaitlyn, Margie Vawter, Eileen Key, andn Paula Moldenhauer. Then it was off to a couple of interviews and meetings, time spent wandering the show floor, and a final wrapup dinner with a whole slew of Bethany House friends and family: editors Dave Long, Sara Long and Charlene Patterson with her father Randy, authors Deeanne Gist with her husband Greg, Patti Hill with her husband Dennis, Sharon Hinck, and Robin Parrish with his wife Karen. Again, what a wonderful time. And I feel as if each and every person there has been (and will be) a lifelong friend.

Yesterday was the big signing at the Bethany House booth for Robin and I, and it went smashingly well; in fact, we ran out of books before the hour ended, so it was all good. And, so many people coming through the line had heard about the books--my own WAKING LAZARUS (perhaps you've heard me mention it a time or two) and Robin's RELENTLESS--and were eager to get them. I also briefly met Ted Dekker (Oh, okay, I ran up to him and accosted him right after he finished his lunch, introducing myself and babbling for a few minutes.) I'm sure he was wondering if I was about to attack him, but he was very gracious.

The absolute best thing about the show, though, hands-down, was meeting people. Some people I've corresponded with online, some I've never met before, but all of them were people I wish I'd met before. How did I go all these years without having these wonderful folks as friends. Robin Parrish and his lovely wife Karen, of course. (Robin blogged about his own ICRS impressions, in which he says I'm a natural schmoozer. Me? Schmooze? Nevah. Well. Okay, maybe. A little. Well. Okay, a lot.) I can't say how thrilled I am to be sharing shelf space with Robin. All of the wonderful Bethany House/Baker Publishing Group folks. Fellow writers such as Kim Vogel Sawyer, Brandilyn Collins, Robin Lee Hatcher, Claudia Mair Burney, Sharon Hinck, Mark Andrew Olsen, Tracie Peterston, Karen Hancock, Athol Dickson, Dale Cramer, Camy Tang...my gravy, that list goes on and on.

The book's finally hitting shelves everywhere. And yet, the funnest part of the journey is just beginning.

Today, I'll be heading back home to good ol' Big Sky Country, and will be there all of two hours before a big road trip with my family. So: I'll be out through July 21. I may have somewhat limited internet access in that time--I'm sure I'll be able to pop online once or twice, catching random coffee houses on the road--but I won't be the obsessive online netizen I usually am.

I'm already experiencing withdrawals.

So please feel free to leave me a message or comment; just be aware it may take a few days for you to hear from me. In the meantime, here's an idea: go buy WAKING LAZARUS and read it.

Made it to Denver late afternoon yesterday, jumped in a rental car, and zipped right to the Marriott for the Christy Awards. Lots of fun--this show's off to a great start for me. I was able to meet a lot of cyber-friends in meatspace for the first time, including Brandilyn Collins, Tracie Peterson, Camy Tang, Claudia Mair Burney, Tamera Alexander, Randy Ingermanson, and others. I was also thrilled to meet and talk with authors such as Athol Dickson (I brought my copy of "River Rising" and asked him to sign it), Dale Cramer, Karen Hancock, James Scott Bell, Patti Hill, Joel Rosenberg, Beverly Lewis, and others. For that matter, last night was the first time I met Deeanne Gist. Which leads me to the real point of this post: Christy Award winners. Drumroll, please.

• Contemporary/Stand Alone - Levi's Will by Dale Cramer (Bethany House)
• Contemporary/Sequels, Series & Novellas - The Road to Home by Vanessa Del Fabbro (Steeple Hill>
• Historical - Whence Came A Prince by Liz Curtis Higgs (Waterbrook Press)
• Romance - A Bride Most Begrudging by Deeanne Gist (Bethany House)
• Suspense/Mystery - River Rising by Athol Dickson (Bethany House)
• Visionary - Shadow Over Kiriath by Karen Hancock (Bethany House)
• First Novel - This Heavy Silence by Nicole Mazzarella (Paraclete Press)

A very good night for Bethany House, a company near and dear to my own heart. And congrats to all the authors who won--all of them were incredibly gracious and humble as they accepted their awards, and it was easy to sense the camaraderie among the folks assembled.

Bret Lott gave a speech, and a call to arms, that I'm sure will generate some commentary and discussion. I'm hoping to post some of my own thoughts on what he said soon, but am still working through all that; I'm guessing Dave Long may have a few things to say about Bret's speech as well. Dave, by the way, has to be considered Editor of the Year for Christian Fiction; both River Rising and A Bride Most Begrudging, acquired by Dave, won their respective categories. And, since he also acquired a book called Waking Lazarus (maybe you've heard of it), I think he's utterly brilliant.

More to come.

Today, I will be flying to Denver to attend the ICRS show through Wednesday morning. Don't know what ICRS is? I'm not much of an expert myself, since it's my first one. But it's basically a giant retail trade show for the Christian retail industry. While there, I'll be able to meet a number of folks I've come to know fairly well online, but have never met in person: Brandilyn Collins, Robin Parrish, Deeanne Gist, Claudia Mair Burney, and many others. Even better, I'll be able to meet a lot of new people within CBA publishing and retailing. Hey, I like to make new friends. I'll also be attending the Christy Awards this evening, and rooting for fellow Bethany House authors, as well as friends such as Bob Liparulo, to do well. (In fact, I think I'll bring along my copy of "River Rising" in hopes that I can get Athol Dickson to sign it.)

Now then. If you're in Denver, or if you'll be at the ICRS show specifically, do drop me an email and we'll have coffee. We'll chat. No big whoop. If you are at ICRS, I'll be signing copies of WAKING LAZARUS at the Baker/Bethany House booth (#3423, if I remember correctly) on Tuesday afternoon from 1:30 to 2:00.

I'm hoping to log in a couple times and post updates on what's happening--maybe even do an interview or two with folks at the conference. Stay tuned.

Admittedly, it ain't the typical path to publication. But my journey, which included more than 150 rejections form literary agents before a publishing contract actually found me (in the form of Dave Long) will, I hope, give other writers out there a bit of hope and inspiration. Even when you do everything you can, it really is a matter of timing in some instances.

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