On December 2, Willa’s Bible Book Store in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, hosted a booksigning for me, featuring my December book, Love Finds You in Valentine, Nebraska. I have lived in this part of WV all of my life and taught History and French at the Point Pleasant Junior High School for 23 years. I have a wide readership in the local area, and many of my faithful readers, as well as several new readers, attended the booksigning. As a thank you to my fans, I donated a monetary gift for each book sold during the event to a local charity for indigent citizens, Good Samaritan Fund. This amount was matched by store owner, Julia Messick, who is one of my former 9th grade students.
Carol Browning watches as I sign a copy of the book.
Alice Giles, Gallipolis, Ohio, buys books for herself and a sister.
Alma Stauffer, (also of Ohio) left, has recently discovered my books, and she brought her pastor, Catherine Loxley, with her to the booksigning.
Angela Meuser
Andrea Boeshaar
Anita Higman
booksbyjanice
Cerella Sechrist
Debby Mayne
Gwen Ford Faulkenberry
Lisa Harris
Lauralee Bliss
Lena Nelson Dooley
Elizabeth Ludwig
Loree Lough
Miralee Ferrell
Rachel Meisel, Editorial Director
Sandie Bricker
Serena
Tamela Hancock Murray
traceycross
Summerside Press 
I’ve always enjoyed your books, Irene! Congrats on such a successful signing!
I’ve enjoyed another memorable book signing for the VALENTINE book which I’d like to share with you. Early in January, I received an invitation from the owner of the Plains Trading Company in Valentine, NE to come to the annual Bull Bash Day, 2/14, to sign copies of Love Finds You in VALENTINE, Nebraska.
It’s a “fur” piece from where we live in WV to Valentine, and there isn’t a good way to get there from here, as both our home and our destination are off the beaten path when it comes to air travel. However, we decided to go. We arranged a flight from Columbus, Ohio (125 miles away) to Omaha, NE (300+ mies from Valentine). We picked up a rental car in Omaha.
Although theire were snow storms in Nebraska that weekend, there wasn’t any snow in Valentine. When we needed to drive the roads were passable. Bull Bash day is a time when ranchers bring their prize, purebred livestock for display (behind barriers) on Valentine’s Main Street. It’s the biggest celebration of the year, with many visitors. In my book, I took my characters to Bull Bash Day, and the heroine bought a bull for the hero as a wedding gift. He was a rancher. The bulls aren’t auctioned, but sales are made.
We spent two days in Valentine. On Friday night I taught a creative writing class at the town library. Twenty or so people attended and were quite interested in current writing methods and publishing. We were in session more than two hours.
On Saturday a large number of people attended the book signing. I don’t know how many books were sold, but the owner asked me to sign all the books left for sale later. I thoroughly enjoyed being there and appreciated the hospitality of the townspeople to my husband and me. After we left Valentine we visited relatives in southeastern Nebraska before we returned home on the 6th day.