Joss Ware/Colleen Gleason Booksigning

My regular, monthly booksigning column won’t appear here for a couple weeks, but I wanted to post now about an interesting booksigning that I went to this past weekend. The signing was for Joss Ware’s latest book, Night Betrayed, the fourth in her post-apocalyptic Envy series.

If you don’t know, Joss Ware is a pseudonym of Colleen Gleason, the author of the popular Gardella vampire series set in Regency England. I’ve read the Gardella series, but had never read any of the Envy series, so decided to check out this event.

The signing was at a bookstore about 25 miles from where I live. With snow predicted throughout the day, I decided to leave extra early to make certain I got there in time. I actually arrived at the bookstore about 30 minutes early, while the bookstore employees were still setting up the area for the event.

Rather than sitting by myself in the book signing area, I picked up the first in the Envy series – Beyond the Night — and settled in at the cafe with a chai tea latte. Before I knew it, I had almost missed the start of the signing; the book grabbed my attention that quickly.

While this was technically a Joss Ware signing, it was clear that some of the people were also there for updates on her new Colleen Gleason, Regency Draculia series due out this spring. Thanks to the weather, there wasn’t a huge crowd, but everyone seemed really excited about the event.

The event was set up in the middle of the bookstore. There was a small table with piles of all of the Joss Ware books on top, and a huge poster for Night Betrayed in front of the table.

Once Ms. Gleason arrived (and I’m going to call her that, because she introduced herself as Colleen Gleason rather than Joss Ware) she looked around the crowd and chatted with a few of the people in attendance, and indicated that she knew many of the people there. It was quickly clear that this was a loyal, local following of the “local” author.

After passing out Envy bookmarks (and I love bookmarks), Ms. Gleason began by giving a brief synopsis of Night Betrayed. She noted that she’s always wanted to write a book with a geek as hero, and described Theo — the hero of this one — as a buff geek. Ms. Gleason said that someone had recently told her that they thought the image of Theo on the cover looked like Nathan Fillion, and revealed that she’s a huge Castle fan. Theo’s heroine serves as a sort of hospice doctor in this post-apocalyptic world. Ms. Gleason also told us that we’ll learn more about the zombies in this book.

When asked about her writing schedule, Ms. Gleason said that she’s recently finished the 5th Envy book, and will be starting on the 6th this week. She took a short break recently from writing, and did some pleasure reading, after a heavy 2010 writing schedule in which she wrote five books. Despite this writing schedule, Ms. Gleason described herself as a horrible procrastinator on Facebook.

Ms. Gleason then gave us a bit of a sneak peek into her upcoming Regency Draculia series. While set in approximately the same time period as the Gardella series (about 15 years earlier), they’re not related. However, she noted that a character from the Gardella series will show up (no idea who, as she wasn’t giving anything away). Ms. Gleason also commented that the mythology of vampires will be completely different in this series.

Ms. Gleason passed out a second set of bookmarks, this time for the Regency Draculia series, and then announced that the person who had the bookmark with her signature on it had just won an ARC of the first Regency Draculia book! Sadly, it wasn’t me.

After that, we all lined up as Ms. Gleason began signing books. Rather than simply signing a book, Ms. Gleason actually asked questions of readers (including whether or not each of us had an e-reader), introduced herself to everyone, and really took extra time to answer any questions readers had. It was truly an enjoyable event, and if you get the chance to go to one of her signings, I can highly recommend them.

Check back later this month for an updated list of booksignings for the next few months. And in the meantime, if you learn of any book signings we haven’t yet posted, please comment here, or send an email to aarbooksign  AT gmail.com.

– LinnieGayl AAR