Tina and I had a Great Time... At the 16th Birthday Party for independent book store 'Mysterious Galaxy' on Saturday, May 9th 2009 in San Diego, California!

  As Tina, (pictured at left), had never been to this bookstore before, we did some quick browsing before the noon special program that I had wanted to attend got started.  We met Maryelizabeth Hart, Jeff Mariotte, and Terry Louchheim Gilman, all co-owners of the bookstore, before I bought one of the few remaining copies of the 'Desperadoes Omnibus' for Jeff to sign after he spoke.

  Next door to the bookstore, in a temporary event room, Maryelizabeth Hart, (far left in photo), introduced the noon speakers.  Jeffrey Mariotte was there introducing his newest novel 'Cold Black Hearts' which is the last book in his trilogy.  Alice Henderson discussed 'Voracious', her first novel. Maryelizabeth asked some questions while sitting in the audience after the speakers were finished with their opening remarks.  Others like Tina and myself followed up and asked additional questions.  I was one of a few that were there for Jeff's comic works instead of his novels.  That was one of the questions I asked him, about how much x-over there was between his prose novel fans and his comic / graphic novel fans. 

 Jeff then mentioned his comic book works, of which he is holding up a sample page from his next project which is not yet released. 

 It turned out that Jeff and Alice have known each other for a while, and Jeff showed the audience a couple of scenes where both he and Alice were drawn as characters in his graphic novel 'Zombie Cop'!  Jeff passed the graphic novel to the audience so that all could see the scenes up close for themselves.

  After the presentation was over, those interested in obtaining signatures went back to the bookstore and stood in line for the authors to sign.  To the left is a photo of Jeff holding my signed copy of his trade paper back 'Desperadoes Omnibus' while Tina took a photo of both of us together.

  Before writing her first novel, Alice Henderson (pictured here with me) produced Star Wars video game material.  She has also authored original fiction for the Buffy the Vampire Slayer novel series.  At last year's Comic Con she was presented with  a Scribe Award.

 After we had the signatures, we realized that the 1:00 PM presentation was already starting!   We went back to the presentation room, but the above photo tells it all... Standing Room Only, and outside of the actual room itself!  And it was a good sized room!

  The reason for the SRO crowd was that Jim Butcher and his wife Shannon Butcher were there!  Jim is well known for his Harry Dresden novels... right, that 'Harry Dresden', the basis for the 'Dresden Files' on TV!   Tina took a shot or two from the doorway, and then using her skills from being an 'East Coaster' for most of her life, she elbowed her way in for a few more shots from inside.

 Here are Jim Butcher (left), Shannon Butcher (middle), and Maryelizabeth Hart (right), as seen at the 1:00 PM presentation.   

 The cake cutting ceremony and games were not scheduled till 2:30 PM, but there was plenty of food including scones, snickerdoodles, and veggie trays until then.  We want to thank the hosts and the very helpful staff at Mysterious Galaxy for throwing such a great party!

  Before leaving we made one more round to say goodby to everyone that we met while standing in line for signatures, as well as the owners. While we were doing that, Tina just had to show me a book that she found there that really jumped out at her.  She loves Jane Austen books, and the book she is holding is one she had never seen.  It is titled 'Pride and Prejudice and Zombies'!   Which took Jane's book and 'updated' it with Zombies?!  I don't know if Tina will be blogging on that book, but I'm looking forward to reading all 5 series of the Desperadoes that are in the Omnibus I bought here!

Again, a Great Time was had by all that showed up... So if you don't live in the San Diego area already, but are coming out for the San Diego Comic Con International in July, you might want to make an additional stop here to check out their unusual book items!  They stock a wide range of mystery genres, sci-fi and supernatural titles as well as a few books on comics and writing. The store is located at:

Mysterious Galaxy   (mystgalaxy.com)
7051 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
Suite #302
San Diego, CA 92111
(858) 268-4747 

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