Some days I feel like the luckiest writer in the world, and I've recently had a run of those days. Fall is the season for the American Booksellers' Association (ABA)'s regional chapters to gather for their annual tradeshows, and this year I got to attend two of them. SIBA (run by the Southern Independent Booksellers Association) was in Savannah, and the Heartland Fall Forum (a joint event for the Midwestern Booksellers Association and the Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association) was in Minneapolis.

Two very different places and two very different shows, but both amazing and wonderful, and great places to meet or reunite with the people who put my books directly in the hands of readers from Alabama to Wisconsin. (Not to mention a couple dozen of my author friends, who I rarely see in person. Lots of shrieking ("Pam! Amy! Marie!") and lots of hugs.)

I signed a boatload of ARCs at both events, so Kate's out there in the world, making more friends by the day. And at Heartland I even brought props -- before or after getting their copies signed, readers could take a "#selfieindisguise" with paper mustaches, hats, glasses and more.

Could I resist getting in on the fun myself? (Especially when we ran out of books?) Of course I couldn't.