Booksellers, librarians, and publishing professionals queued up to get copies of current and upcoming books signed by the authors appearing at last week's BookExpo America in downtown Los Angeles.
Here's a short list of those exciting encounters:
William Shatner, aka Capt. Kirk, caused one of the largest lines to form for the hardback of his new autobiography, Up Till Now. The publisher reportedly brought along 260 copies, which only took 26 minutes to pass out; leaving some fans toward the end of the line empty-handed. Gena Showalter, the paranormal, young adult and romance-writing Oklahoman, couldn't be nicer as a multitude of fans waited to get signed copy of any number of her HQN titles, including The Darkest Night. Here she is with the head of her publishing house, Donna Hays, as they stopped to chat with co-founder of Shelfari.com, Josh Hug (see picture).
Andrew Davidson, a handsome young Canadian first-time author, charmingly handed out miniature green gargoyle charms with each signed galley of one of this fall's most-anticipated novels, The Gargoyle.
Rory Freedman was a popular author to get an advance copy from, as she adds to her Skinny Bitch series with her third book, Skinny Bitch Bun in the Oven, due out in September.
Dr. Ruth, that little sex doctor dynamo (today is her 80th birthday), comes every year. As usual, she will sign anything, but this time it was just her handbook edition of Sex for Dummies. Speaking of Sex...
Evan Handler, SEX AND THE CITY cast member, was on the show floor signing his memoir, It's Only Temporary: The Good News and the Bad News of Being Alive. His book chronicles his journey from being a young actor diagnosed with leukemia to joining the cast of SATC. I didn't see him signing books, but as I passed by he was signing napkins for a few of his fans.
Richard Engel, earnest and admirable war correspondent for NBC News, signed his book after speaking at Saturday's political lunch. At the lunch he recounted some of the heartbreaking stories from War Journal: My Five Years in Iraq.
Mario Lopez, TV personality and fitness writer was signing copies of Knockout Fitness. I didn't see him on the show floor, but was informed of his appearance by Cathy Hoey of Library Journal. She said, "Even if I had no idea what he’s written, I'd stand in line because he's a perfect package!"
While I don't think the artist known as Prince attended the BEA during show hours, for his forthcoming book 21 Nights, he gave a concert in the backyard of his rented Hollywood home. It was an elite invite list which included Dr. Phil, P Diddy, Babyface and Dave Navarro. I’m guessing they didn't have to get up on Sunday to attend the last day of the show since Prince didn't begin to perform until after 3am.
David Nudo
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