The Mutt & the Mustang picture books arrive

So excited to have my children's picture book, The Mutt & the Mustang finally arrive ---
They arrived at 1:00 and by 3:00 that same day I had delivered them to several  stores in Estes Park! - In shops as diverse as the famous Stanley Hotel gift shop, to Gateway - a beautiful store at the Fall River entrance of Rocky Mountain National Park, MacDonalds Book Shop, Colorado Homestead, Estes Park Historial Museum gift shop, and two dude ranches.  How exciting to finally have my picture book in stores.

Tonight had my first book signing at the Loveland Museum Gallery opening of a horse art exhibit. Pat, the Mutt book illustrator went with me --- The street in front of the museum was closed so live horses and a trick roper could perform along with three artists - and us, two old broads selling picture books. As you can imagine, most kids ignored us for the horses and the trick roper.

Those folks who stopped at our booth loved the book -- highlight of the night - Jillian, a seven year old girl who after talking her grandmother into buying a copy chose to ignore the trick roper and live horses to sit on a chair and read The Mutt & the Mustang from cover to cover. When I asked her how she liked it, she hugged the book and said, "I love it."

Other highlights - a 16 year old boy buying a copy of The Mutt & the Mustang with his own money -who would have thought a teenager would buy a picture book? and a man in his 70s buying a copy for himself.  All in all, tho we didn't sell many books we had fun and loved the positive reaction to the book.

Got home to find two new Mutt books chewed up!  There went tonight's profits.  I had the books in a canvas tote on a high table - Skye, my Siamese mix loves to push things off the table - so she and the dogs must have been in cahoots --- she pushed the books to the floor where the dogs chewed them up ---I suspect Kody - tho both dogs are old for such puppy antics- Kody turned 11 this month and Cheyenne is 5 -  what got into them?
Oh well, I'm just happy Kody is still spry enough to act like a puppy and ride a horse.  Today, Kody got two rides - one in the arena and another one from the house to the barn. I'll know he is an old dog when the time comes (if ever) that he no longer wants to ride "his" horse. Maybe he was mad at me for not taking him to the signing of the Mutt book - as after all, he is the star.  Wearing his scarf and cowboy hat, Kody would probably have brought a lot more kids to our booth!