If you are a self-published author, you’ll know that having a book signing lined up at a local bookstore is huge. And if it’s one of the better-known independent bookstores in the country, owned by a best-selling author, it is even more huge.

Except you’ll be a nervous wreck leading up to it, because somehow you need to produce some decent numbers of people who’ll buy your books so you can sign them, or the whole thing might turn out to be an embarrassment. Not only will you have to convince all your friends to show up, you’ll also have to convince them to buy your book a second time, because of course with them being your friends they already bought their first copy long ago.

I’m hoping the promise of a glass of wine (or two, or three!) will be enough of a lure, if nothing else.

In any case, here is the announcement for my upcoming book signing event at Parnassus Books (owned by Ann Patchett). If you live in Nashville, please show up. Consider it your contribution to the writing profession.

Join local author Eva Melusine Thieme for refreshments and the signing of her travel memoir, Kilimanjaro Diaries, at Parnassus Books in Nashville on Tuesday, September 23, 2014 at 6:30 pm.

Follow expat blogger and mother of four Eva Melusine Thieme as she climbs Mount Kilimanjaro together with a group of hilarious South African friends and her teenage son.

It may sound to her like a dream vacation – no cooking, no fighting kids, and an army of porters to carry everything – but she soon learns that scaling the highest free-standing mountain in the world is no easy feat, and it ultimately poses one of the biggest challenges she has ever faced.

Part guide book, part travel memoir, part history lesson, this story has something for everyone: the seasoned mountaineer, the aspiring Kilimanjaro trekker, the armchair traveler, the parent. You will find yourself smile and at times laugh out loud as Thieme takes you on her journey from planning the trip to shopping for supplies to trudging up the slopes of Kilimanjaro wishing with all her heart for an ice cold sip of water untainted by chlorination tablets. You will gain a new perspective on the comforts of home and how to tackle the challenges in your life one step at a time.

WHO:
Eva Melusine (Sine) Thieme

WHERE:
Parnassus Books 
3900 Hillsboro Pike
Nashville
615-953-2243

WHEN:
Tuesday, September 23, 2014, 6:30PM

About the Author: Eva Melusine Thieme is the author of the popular blog Joburg Expat, where she has been chronicling her family’s adventures while living in South Africa. Before that she was a freelance writer for Kansas City Parent Magazine. She currently resides in Brentwood, Tennessee, with her husband and four children, where she is working on her next book about a road trip through Namibia with six people in a five-person car.

If you are planning to attend, please leave a comment. If you can’t attend because you live a thousand miles away, but have done a book signing of your own, I’d love to hear your tips. If you live a thousand miles away and are just curious, stay tuned and I’ll let you know how it went.

Please excuse me while I now set to the task of telling my agent to send out a press release, order a carton of books, and plan the refreshments.

(Ha – in reality I’m heading to the kitchen to scrub some pans, then to my son’s room to remind him for the 357th time to get started on his college essay, then to my bed to fall into an exhausted sleep, but not without stopping at the cat litter box which needs scooping and the washing machine which needs running – in short, the glamorous life of a self-published writer!)