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Laurie Ann Thompson

signing

Indies First 2014, this Saturday!

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Indie's first logo
 
For the hol­i­day 2014 sea­son, best­selling author Neil Gaiman and musi­cian-author Aman­da Palmer called upon their fel­low authors to get behind Indies First and “vol­un­teer” at book­stores on Small Busi­ness Sat­ur­day (Nov. 29).
I could­n’t choose just one inde­pen­dent book­store to hang out in (we’re lucky to have so many to choose from where I live!), so I’ll be doing two shifts:

I’ll be sign­ing copies of BE A CHANGEMAKER and rec­om­mend­ing a few of my oth­er favorites, and I’ll be in great com­pa­ny with many oth­er local authors and illus­tra­tors. So, if you’re in the area, please stop by and say, “Hi!”
If you’re not in the area, be sure to check out the inter­ac­tive Indies First map to find a par­tic­i­pat­ing store near you!
 

Author event: the Stratos Oktoberfest open house

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A few weeks ago I had the plea­sure of being the spe­cial guest at an incred­i­ble event, Stratos Prod­uct Devel­op­ment’s annu­al com­pa­ny open house. The com­pa­ny is men­tioned on page 138 of my book Be a Change­mak­er, because they were one of the orig­i­nal fun­ders of Edward Jiang’s Stu­den­tRND ven­ture, which I pro­filed in chap­ter 12.
Stratos Oktoberfest banner
As you can see, this year’s theme was Okto­ber­fest, and they went all out with dec­o­ra­tions, food, bev­er­ages, and even a pol­ka band!
polka band
It’s too bad I did­n’t get a chance to dance, but I was hav­ing too much fun talk­ing with Stratos employ­ees and guests.
photo of author talking with attendee
I was warm­ly wel­comed, and folks seemed pret­ty excit­ed about Be a Change­mak­er, too.
attendees with Be a Changemaker
At one point, a storm picked up and we had to (quick­ly!) move every­thing inside, but that just made it eas­i­er to mingle.
mingling with attendees inside
And as atten­dees left for the evening, there were piles and piles of books for them to take home, all of which I signed and, if desired, per­son­al­ized (yes, my hand was tired!).
stacks of Be a Changemaker books
What a won­der­ful evening! I left feel­ing thor­ough­ly impressed with every­one I had talked to–and with the com­pa­ny itself for bring­ing them all together.
I’m ever so grate­ful to Stratos Prod­uct Devel­op­ment for includ­ing me. They’re the per­fect exam­ple of a for-prof­it busi­ness that is com­mit­ted to doing good in the world, and it was such an hon­or to participate.
Click here to check out all of the great pho­tos from the event, and here to see what this total­ly awe­some com­pa­ny is all about.

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