{"id":2658,"date":"2017-08-30T09:54:56","date_gmt":"2017-08-30T13:54:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.graymanwrites.com\/blog\/?p=2658"},"modified":"2017-08-30T09:54:56","modified_gmt":"2017-08-30T13:54:56","slug":"celebrating-my-debut-novel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grayrinehart.com\/blog\/celebrating-my-debut-novel\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating My Debut Novel!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This past Sunday, I threw a party to celebrate the only debut novel I&#8217;ll ever have. (If you just happened onto this blog, it&#8217;s called <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Walking-Sea-Clouds-Gray-Rinehart\/dp\/1614755213\/\">Walking on the Sea of Clouds<\/a><\/em>, and I&#8217;d be much obliged if you would check it out. Folks have compared it to <em>The Martian<\/em>, if you&#8217;re into that sort of thing.) Anyway, we had a pretty good turnout even with a few cancellations &#8212; not a packed house, but I think we would have overflowed the room we were originally supposed to be in.<\/p>\n<p>Some pictures made it onto Facebook on Sunday, but I thought I&#8217;d hang a few more here on the blog. First up, anyone who&#8217;s seen me speak or give any sort of presentation knows that I tend to gesticulate, and that day was no exception:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.graymanwrites.com\/pix\/blog\/2017\/SeaOfCloudsLaunch01.jpg\" alt=\" \" \/><br \/>\n<span class=\"imagecaption\" style=\"font-size: 50%;\"><em>Making a point during the introductions.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>While folks continued to trickle in &#8230;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.graymanwrites.com\/pix\/blog\/2017\/SeaOfCloudsLaunch03.jpg\" alt=\" \" \/><br \/>\n<span class=\"imagecaption\" style=\"font-size: 50%;\"><em>What are we here for, again?<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8230; local &#8220;Wizard Rock&#8221; band <a href=\"http:\/\/blibberinghumdingers.com\">The Blibbering Humdingers<\/a> provided musical entertainment:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.graymanwrites.com\/pix\/blog\/2017\/SeaOfCloudsLaunch02.jpg\" alt=\" \" \/><br \/>\n<span class=\"imagecaption\" style=\"font-size: 50%;\"><em>The Blibbering Humdingers! &#8212; L-R, Eddie Mowery, Kirsten Vaughan, Scott Vaughan, Chuck Parker.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>And because I can&#8217;t be satisfied with just talking or reading &#8212; oh, no! &#8212; I had to play some music, too &#8230;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.graymanwrites.com\/pix\/blog\/2017\/SeaOfCloudsLaunch04.jpg\" alt=\" \" \/><br \/>\n<span class=\"imagecaption\" style=\"font-size: 50%;\"><em>Playing &#8220;Tauntauns to Glory&#8221; for the folks.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8230; which folks tolerated pretty well.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.graymanwrites.com\/pix\/blog\/2017\/SeaOfCloudsLaunch06.jpg\" alt=\" \" \/><br \/>\n<span class=\"imagecaption\" style=\"font-size: 50%;\"><em>They didn&#8217;t leave!<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>And then came the big moment:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.graymanwrites.com\/pix\/blog\/2017\/SeaOfCloudsLaunch05.jpg\" alt=\" \" \/><br \/>\n<span class=\"imagecaption\" style=\"font-size: 50%;\"><em>Reading from<\/em> Walking on the Sea of Clouds <em>&#8212; first time ever reading from the actual book.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>After reading a bit, we ate &#8230;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.graymanwrites.com\/pix\/blog\/2017\/SeaOfCloudsLaunch07.jpg\" alt=\" \" \/><br \/>\n<span class=\"imagecaption\" style=\"font-size: 50%;\"><em>The real reason people stayed!<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8230; and ate &#8230;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.graymanwrites.com\/pix\/blog\/2017\/SeaOfCloudsLaunch08.jpg\" alt=\" \" \/><br \/>\n<span class=\"imagecaption\" style=\"font-size: 50%;\"><em>Fantastic desserts from <a href=\"http:\/\/bluemoonbakery.com\/shop\/\">Once in a Blue Moon Bakery<\/a>.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8230; and we actually ran out of barbeque, because more people came than had RSVPed! So it was okay that we had some cancellations, or I would&#8217;ve had to order some pizzas or something.<\/p>\n<p>While the Humdingers played a final set, we ended by signing books &#8230;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.graymanwrites.com\/pix\/blog\/2017\/SeaOfCloudsLaunch09.jpg\" alt=\" \" \/><br \/>\n<span class=\"imagecaption\" style=\"font-size: 50%;\"><em>Some folks even bought books!<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8230; and saying goodbye to folks who had come out &#8230;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.graymanwrites.com\/pix\/blog\/2017\/SeaOfCloudsLaunch10.jpg\" alt=\" \" \/><br \/>\n<span class=\"imagecaption\" style=\"font-size: 50%;\"><em>My Aunt Frances (on the left) won the prize for traveling the farthest to the event &#8212; all the way from Florida!<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8230; and gathering for commemorative pics:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.graymanwrites.com\/pix\/blog\/2017\/SeaOfCloudsLaunch11.jpg\" alt=\" \" \/><br \/>\n<span class=\"imagecaption\" style=\"font-size: 50%;\"><em>With the family.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>I thought the event went pretty well, and folks seemed to have a good time. I appreciate everyone who came out to help me celebrate, and especially everyone who helped put the party together!<\/p>\n<p>___<br \/>\n<em>Once again, that&#8217;s<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Walking-Sea-Clouds-Gray-Rinehart\/dp\/1614755213\/\">Walking on the Sea of Clouds<\/a>, <em>a near-future novel of survival and sacrifice, love and loss, in the early days of the first commercial lunar colony. Ask for it at your favorite bookstore!<\/em><\/p>\n<a class=\"synved-social-button synved-social-button-share synved-social-size-24 synved-social-resolution-single synved-social-provider-facebook nolightbox\" data-provider=\"facebook\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"Share on Facebook\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.grayrinehart.com%2Fblog%2Fwp-json%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fposts%2F2658&#038;t=Celebrating%20My%20Debut%20Novel%21&#038;s=100&#038;p&#091;url&#093;=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.grayrinehart.com%2Fblog%2Fwp-json%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fposts%2F2658&#038;p&#091;images&#093;&#091;0&#093;=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.graymanwrites.com%2Fpix%2Fblog%2F2017%2FSeaOfCloudsLaunch01.jpg&#038;p&#091;title&#093;=Celebrating%20My%20Debut%20Novel%21\" style=\"font-size: 0px;width:24px;height:24px;margin:0;margin-bottom:5px;margin-right:5px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Facebook\" title=\"Share on Facebook\" class=\"synved-share-image synved-social-image 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inline;width:24px;height:24px;margin: 0;padding: 0;border: none;box-shadow: none\" src=\"https:\/\/www.grayrinehart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/image\/social\/regular\/48x48\/mail.png\" \/><\/a><a class=\"synved-social-credit\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"WordPress Social Media Feather\" href=\"http:\/\/synved.com\/wordpress-social-media-feather\/\" style=\"color:#444;text-decoration:none;font-size:8px;margin-left:5px;vertical-align:10px;white-space:nowrap\"><span>by <\/span><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: inline;margin:0;padding:0;width:16px;height:16px\" width=\"16\" height=\"16\" alt=\"feather\" src=\"https:\/\/www.grayrinehart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/image\/icon.png\" \/><\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This past Sunday, I threw a party to celebrate the only debut novel I&#8217;ll ever have. (If you just happened onto this blog, it&#8217;s called Walking on the Sea of Clouds, and I&#8217;d be much obliged if you would check it out. Folks have compared it to The Martian, if \u2026 <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.grayrinehart.com\/blog\/celebrating-my-debut-novel\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[225,15,21,386,32,387],"class_list":["post-2658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science-fiction","category-writing","tag-book","tag-moon","tag-music","tag-science-fiction-2","tag-story","tag-writing-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grayrinehart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grayrinehart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grayrinehart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grayrinehart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grayrinehart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2658"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.grayrinehart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2659,"href":"https:\/\/www.grayrinehart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2658\/revisions\/2659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grayrinehart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grayrinehart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grayrinehart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}