How Hip-Hop Saved Me at My First Bookstore Appearance.

On Friday, I was in Athens, Ga. at Avid Bookshop talking about my books. The bookshop is adorable. The right combination of quirky and cool. It was my first in-store book appearance and although I'm pretty terrible in front of small groups, I have to say that I wasn't even nervous. All because of hip-hop.

Yep, I used to rap. I used to do shows, open-mics... the whole thing. I'd always be super-extra nervous beforehand though, because as weird as it sounds, I hate for people to actively look at me. Seriously. I get fidgety and my armpits get itchy. Too much? Okay. Basically, I just feel weird. I generally prefer to fade into the background and just check out the scene. I guess that's the writer in me. But if you want to be an artist, you have to do shows. So I did. And years later, I have to say that experience has helped me out a lot in the time that I've been publishing books. Who knew.

Anyway. It was a cool experience and I'm grateful to the owners of Avid Bookshop who allowed me to come by and share my books. If you're in the Athens area, you can stop by and purchase the books there now too.

---