Notes from Dona's Book Tour (so far!)

Hello friends!

Yes, you read that right, I am on a book-tour in my home state of Michigan for a week and a half before returning to Seattle for the launch party of my latest release SHRINK TO FIT! I know I've been MIA for a while getting ready for the tour, but now I'm back!

The schedule looks something like this:

Michigan Events

9/25/08
9 am
Parkview Elementary School in Novi
Meet the author!

9/25/08
4 pm
Detroit Public Library: Redford
Book-discussion and signing of HOW TO SALSA IN A SARI

(both of these are done! More details below!)

9/29/08
11 am
Detroit Public Library: Duffield
Book-discussion and signing of HOW TO SALSA IN A SARI

9/29/08
7 pm
Ann Arbor Downtown Borders
Book-reading, discussion and signing of SHRINK TO FIT

9/30/08
11 am
Detroit Public Library: Knapp
Book-discussion and signing of HOW TO SALSA IN A SARI


Seattle Events

10/4/08
7 pm
Kirkland Parkplace Books
Launch party of SHRINK TO FIT with fun, food and gifts followed by a book-reading and signing.

10/12/2008
Emerald City Writers Conference
Workshop: Breaking into YA: Finding Your Niche


If you happen to be in the area, stop by! I would love to meet you guys!

So, as far as the school and library visits go, here is what happened:

Elementary School Visit
My little 4th grader cousin told her classmates and teacher about me and how I'm an author and the teacher asked me to come in and speak to the class (even though my book is QUITE out of their age range.)

So I went. The teachers were so cute and the kids were excited to see an author, especially one that had graduated from that school district.

I just gave the basic story of how I've always loved reading and made up stories of my own once the books ended. It was amazing to see the kids totally engaged in listening and asking so many questions!

Some of the questions were so sweet…..“Have you met Dr Seuss? Are you famous? How much money do you make?”

I gave bookmarks to all the kids and signed all their writing journals and they gave me big hugs.
The principal came by and asked if I could come back in March for a school-district wide event.

So, all in all, I think my first school visit experience was a success! I am definitely NOT funny (like Simone!) nor is my story that interesting (like Heather!), but the kids made it all worthwhile!

Library visit (Pictures coming soon!)
This one was for an older audience, the members of the community of the Redford Library. The librarian had ordered 50 copies of HOW TO SALSA IN A SARI which I signed, one for each family.

I then talked about my journey to becoming a writer, how everything I write involves the heroine being an outcast, since that's how I felt after leaving Detroit, as well as the wonderful things about being an author (having friends like the Buzz Girls, being able to write books I would have wanted to read as a kid, etc.)

Some quotes the librarians gave me were, "You were wonderful! Please come back soon!" and
"You are truly one in a million!"

So, I was pretty happy :)

So that's how the book-tour is going so far!
Have you guys been to any author events that you've really enjoyed? Who? And what did you like about it?
---------------------------------------------------
Dona Sarkar-Mishra
http://donasarkarmishra.com
HOW TO SALSA IN A SARI
SHRINK TO FIT
both out now!