Kristy Nicolle Book Signing- Seymour Indiana

Indiana Signing

4th June 2022

 On the 4th of June I was up bright and early in Seymour Indiana getting ready to attend my very first US signing, and what a signing it was. Donning my star spangled and crystal studded headband, I made my way down to the 1852 café, and I was absolutely bowled over to see the turnout when I arrived. My arms were totally full, but not as full as my heart ended up being as I walked through those doors.

So many readers turned out, and as a UK author with more US readers than those in her own country, I was overwhelmed to say the least. It’s hard to articulate that moment, that feeling when you walk into a room and you know most of the people there, know they’ve walked inside your mind, inside the worlds you’ve so lovingly crafted, and yet have never shared the same physical space with. These people have met those characters that came to me in dreams, have walked through lands I crafted, and followed my journey from afar.

That journey, whether I anticipated it or not when I began being an author, is lonely sometimes. Or it seems that way.

I get up, make a cup of coffee, and sit down to write in my little apartment, nobody any the wiser that I’m awake and building worlds despite having to fight tooth and nail to even get into the desk chair through numerous dislocations. I’m writing this post because it became obvious to me that I’ve been living my life blinkered for the last six years, and when it felt like nobody was listening, felt like I was struggling and writing for nobody, I couldn’t have been further from the truth.

To the readers who attended the signing, it meant more to me than you can possibly imagine. The fact you came from all over the US, some of you driving upwards of eighteen hours, some of you fighting crippling agoraphobia, social anxiety, chronic conditions of your own, some of you getting on planes, or making difficult solo journeys that were made no easier by overturned trucks that added 2 hours onto your journey… I was awed. When I sat down to write this blog post, I was sure I was going to do a run down of the day’s events, but as I sit here typing this I realised that what I really wanted to do was not tell you what happened, you were either there or can easily imagine what a book signing looks like, but what it meant to me, to meet my people after six long fucking years of seemingly endless hard work and fighting pain day in and day out.

It meant everything.

I sat in Jenna’s car after the meal that evening and I just sobbed. She looked me in the eye and she said to me:

“You see, Kristy. For all your doubt, and your pain, and your struggle, you inspired those people, you gave them something real, something that meant enough for them to come all this way, to want to meet you in person…”

I signed continuously for almost four hours, and it wasn’t because it was the busiest signing in history, but because almost every single person had a stack of books for me to sign the height of a modest great Dane.

I also want to point out the generosity of my readers, I got so many gifts, so many handmade and personal presents that had been thought about so carefully. I actually ended up with so much stuff I’ve had to ship it back from the states separately because there was no way it was fitting in my suitcase.

One of my readers also took me to lunch. As in, came back to the store after the signing especially and invited me to lunch with her because she wanted to talk more about my books… The restaurant she took me to was somewhere she used to work, and her colleagues were continuously coming to the table, either having read my books or having heard her gush about them. It was surreal.

I’m no Colleen Hoover, no J.K. Rowling. But my readers made me feel like a million bucks, and I honestly had my eyes opened to what I’ve been building, what I’ve been doing without even my own knowledge for the past six years.

Pizza at the Brooklyn Pizza Company was also amazing, and I was so glad we did a dinner afterwards so I got to know everyone a little more and spend further time with everyone. I did also almost have a heart attack caused by the unknowing but none the less iconic Bernie Sanders… but that’s a story for another day. The staff at the 1852 café and at The Magic of Books Bookstore were also incredible, and- hint- if you’re looking for signed copies of any of my books, I might have left a few behind at The Magic of Books for some lucky reader to stumble upon… if you can consider reading my characters and then getting them dramatically ripped away from you lucky, I guess…

If you know… you know…

Anyway… I just… I wanted to tell you about the signing.

I went, I signed books. I ate pizza. I drank FAR too much wine.

That’s the surface level of what happened that day. But beneath it all was the real treasure. I met the people who I’ve been writing for. I met the people I’ve impacted, and I had my eyes open to the fact I’m not alone, I’m not working away for nothing, that I am making a difference. I was filled with so much love, so much awe that day, and it’s something I will remember for the rest of my life.

Enough sentimental rambling from me, but I want to seriously extend my thanks to every single person who made this signing happen. To Jenna, Ava, and Millie who organised everything, to Jason who fed me (you can most definitely do that any time), to Leeah who got me to Indiana… and to all the readers who made the epic journey to meet me after so long.

You made me grateful I have this job, and you made me certain that I can do this, even if I have to fight chronic pain every day to make it happen. You became my strength, and my greatest achievement so far has been giving all your wonderful people the means to escape the numbing reality of everyday.

You deserve all the magic in the world.

Thank you so much for choosing mine.

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