Thanks to some enthusiastic women from Utah, the first day of my book tour in Nova Scotia was a success. I did a signing at a bookstore called Carrefour Atlantique at Pier 22 in Halifax. There were three cruise ships in the harbour that day with a total of 9000 cruise ship passengers wandering the port area, so the odds were pretty good I’d sell a few books. With hope in my heart, I sat smiling at tourists for three hours. For the first two hours, I sold four books and the store manager thought that was pretty good. Then suddenly there was a swirl of people all around me, and one woman, who read the back of the book jacket and asked me a few questions, held up the book to her friends and did her own little marketing push. The next thing I knew I had signed and sold five copies. It was a good way to end the day. Later when I told my husband about it, I mentioned that the women were all from Utah. He reminded me that they were probably Mormons, and therefore very interested in genealogy, which is probably why A Garden in the Wilderness appealed to them. Maybe I should go to Utah to sell my book!
Thanks also to the lovely old English woman who bought a copy for her daughter. I thought at first that she was a little dotty. She looked at my book and then at me and said, “Mine is a mess. My daughter keeps putting things in it.” I was at a loss to know what she was on about, but I remained patiently polite and answered her questions, and slowly it dawned on me that she had been talking about her garden!
