Book Launch Party Jambalaya Justice

After months of trying to plan a book launch, I finally settled on tonight to officially launch Jambalaya Justice. I'm having the book launch party at our bar, the Last Stand, at 424 Destrehan, in Harvey, LA, at 7:30 p.m. if anyone happens to be in the New Orleans area. (We're across the river from downtown New Orleans, about a 10 minute drive.)

We're doing a jambalaya cook off, with the winner getting to name a character in the third book, Chocolate City Justice. We did the same for Gumbo Justice, so if you read Jambalaya Justice, the character Christie Bouvier was named by the gumbo cook off winner last year. (One of the strippers in the book was also named by a contest winner in an auction on ebay to benefit the First Amendment Project.)

I think it's going to be slow, because there are a lot of Christmas parties in the area, but I didn't want to put it off any longer. If nothing else, it'll be a nice chance to get out and relax for once, even if I don't make a lot of book sales.

I did sell a few books at the Holiday Bazaar last Saturday at my youngest daughter's school. Vendors paid $30 (it was a Pre-K fundraiser) for a spot in the school yard. It had a nice turnout considering the weather was a little cold for here and sort of dreary. Most vendors had to provide their own tables but I was working our co-op table (equivalent to PTO or PTA), because I am president and didn't have enough volunteers, so at least I didn't have to bring or set up my own table.

My only regret was that I have been operating on such a schizophrenic level lately between the co-op, my "job-job", my article writing job, working on my third book, Chocolate City Justice, and general family duties (two kids, husband, dog, deaf cat, fish), not to mention Christmas, that I forgot to order copies of my first book in time to have them for the event. A lot of the people who bought Jambalaya Justice wanted to buy a copy of Gumbo Justice, the first book, but I only had one to sell and my first customer bought it.

The only negative to this particular venue is that the sheriff sends a tax collector deputy with forms to pay our parish sales tax within 20 days, and she checks our name off a list to prove she gave us the form. So we do have to pay the sales tax relatively quickly.

My advice if you are planning an event--make a list of what you might need and don't assume you've got everything covered just because you've done it before. Especially around the holidays or other hectic times where something you might ordinarily remember may slip your mind.

This brain only holds so much, and I'm pretty sure it's full to capacity at the moment.