The Nashville Chapter!
So, here's the story of me going to Nashville to attend a meeting of a book club that had selected MY book to read!!
Did you just read that? A book club in Nashville selected MY book to read!!!
How cool is that!?!
How did it happen?
Well, I could tell you that it was just luck and make myself seem more "famous" than I really am (which is, um, not at all)...
But that wouldn't be very authentic and would also discount the work and the effort that goes into spreading the word.
Plus, we know that luck is just when opportunity and preparation (or tenacity) collide.
So, back in November I met this super pretty blonde named Tina at my friend Rajiv's Friendsgiving. We friended each other and followed each other, but she moved to Nashville soon after, and that was that.
Until... back in July, she posted on Instagram that her book club @thenashvillechapter was going to be reading a book by one of my favorite authors, Emily Giffin (who I even mention in my own book!).
So what did I do? Um, of course I messaged Tina immediately and asked her if her book club would consider reading my book!
And then a week or so later this happened!
Um, AMAZING!
(Maybe that was a little lucky!)
I told Tina, "Let me know when you guys will be discussing my book and I WILL BE THERE!!"
So, on Tuesday, I was supposed to go to Nashville....
For those of you who missed my Instagram stories... here is what happened...
Here I am on my way to the airport. I was so excited!
As I stood in line for the bus that was going to take us to the plane, Bill, who I had given one of my flyers to, started introducing me to everyone and promoting my book for me! That was awesome! Especially when people started asking me for my autograph!!!
When we got to the plane, they wouldn't let us off the bus since the pilot wasn't there yet (???).
We sat there for a really long time. But still.. good vibes only, talking to Bill and other passengers about my book.
They finally let us board...
There was bad weather all over the east coast that day so we just sat there...
Meanwhile:
Was the pilot going to arrive? Were we going to take off?? Would I get there in time?
You know me, I didn't stress... But I did keep looking at the time.
I was supposed to fly out at 5:00 DC time, arrive at 6:00 Nashville time, go to the book club at 7:00 and then fly back out at 6:00 am the next morning!
If I wasn't going to get there in time for the book club, there was no point in me going...
And then...
Despite not knowing if I was going to take off or miss the book club, I was still having a GREAT time. How could I not be?
However, the clock kept ticking and it looked like I wasn't not going to make it in time. I had told the really cute stewardess Brooke that if I wasn't going to get there by 7:45 that I wanted to get off the plane.
I hate flying so I definitely did not want to fly there in a tiny plane in bad weather for nothing. Brooke said she'd let me off by my deadline, but then we pulled away... just to sit on the tarmac for another hour.
My frownie face was for effect, I really still was having the best time... because...
Meanwhile:
And then the plane started to sway while still on the runway from the WIND!
At this point, they had kept us on the plane for so long that they had to take us back to the gate... which meant I would be able to get off the plane.
Of course, we still had to sit there for awhile longer...
But, they did finally let me off the plane...
It really was fun talking to Bill and Louis and the other passengers and selling two books! I had the best vibes!
As I sat on the little shuttle they had sent to take me back to the airport, they cancelled the flight. Because of all the weather issues, there were tons of cancelled flights and I knew that the airport was going to be a mad house.
But, I also knew that I was going to get back to the airport before the plane load of people who were going to have to wait for a bigger bus to take them...
$291 + $30 Uber to the airport - my cut of the two books I sold ($10.98) = oh well, what can you do?
Well, you can at least ASK if they can change your flight, right?
So, as I stood in line with my awesome vibes from my super fun trip to nowhere, I asked an American Airlines representative if it was possible to change my trip to a totally different date and you know what this guy did?
HE PULLED ME OUT OF THE LINE AND TOOK ME TO A DIFFERENT COUNTER AND ASKED ME WHEN I WANTED TO GO, AS IF IT WERE ALL JUST UP TO ME!
AND IT WAS!!
I was so excited and so happy!
Can you tell??
I got to meet cool people, sell two books, hand out some flyers, have a GREAT customer service experience and tell another great story.
See, this is what I mean by choosing your narrative: I could have written a blog post about how I stressed about missing the book club, how disappointed I was that my plan didn't work out, how inconvenienced I was, and how it just ruined my time - but that kind of story wouldn't be a fun one to tell, now would it?
Telling stories like that also probably wouldn't get me many blog readers.
Instead, I put out great vibes and everything worked out even better than it was supposed to because now I get to go to Nashville for a weekend and I will have ANOTHER story to tell!
But that isn't the end of this story...
This story ends with me getting home, on cloud 9, and then looking for my old phone (I carry around two now) and gosh darn it if I didn't leave it at the airport at the charging station.
I really didn't want to lose that phone because I didn't transfer my texts from it to my new phone (and you know how I hate to lose any historical data) and also, that is the phone on the cover of my book.
But, again, I wasn't going to stress about it. I just waited till morning to call lost and found.
And guess what?!?!
Yep, they had my phone!!
So, I went back to the airport the next day, recovered my phone and...
Sold another book to this handsome green-eyed fellow!
(He's holding my flyer)
Now, that's the end of the story.
Thank you to Tina and The Nashville Chapter for reading my book. I hope you enjoyed those cupcakes!!
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Best trip to nowhere ever huh? Thanks for the positive vibes
ReplyDeleteGood vibes only Daniel Adams... or at least I aim for that!
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