I’ve never been accused of being cool about writing successes, whether it was awards for journalism or publication of pop culture pieces at CrimeReads or elsewhere or short stories at several sites or in anthologies.
One thing I’ve not been able to experience is seeing my work in a bookstore. Indie authors who self-publish, as I did with THAT OCTOBER, can see their works for sale at a million online sites like Amazon or Barnes & Noble, but seeing an indie book in a bookstore is a very rare thing. I’ve been turned down twice when I’ve taken formal steps to see THAT OCTOBER on shelves.
That’s why it was such a thrill to see my 1984-set high school crime novel in the bookstore at Bouchercon in New Orleans earlier this month.
There’s a picture of the book above, nestled in with other books on the long tables of books available for sale.
By Sunday morning, the final day of Bouchercon, two copies remained of the several they stocked.
A huge shoutout to the Bouchercon 2025 NOLA books team and the wonderful people at Garden District Book Shop, 2727 Prytania Street, New Orleans, LA, 70130. I told them several times how grateful I was that they went to the trouble of getting copies of THAT OCTOBER.
Here’s a link to Garden District:
keithroysdon 