When I go on tour, I travel with a tour specific bag.  It used to be black and white and made out of cloth but now that one has been replaced by a lovely new leather bag that is brown and white.  My daughter-in-law disapproved of the black and white one because, she said, it wasn’t classy enough.  She took it upon herself fix the problem by giving me the brown and white one on Mother’s Day.  (My DIL is also my web mistress.  She disapproves when I say nice things about her in public, but it’s my blog so I get to write what I want!)

For you men out there, I’ll give you a brief lesson on the differences between a purse and a bag.  The real differences are determined by what’s inside.  A purse generally contains only the essentials–a driver’s license, credit cards, car keys, lipstick, powder and at least one pen.  The bag, especially a tour bag, is big enough to contain a whole collection of pens, packages of tissues, magazines to use on airplanes when iPads aren’t allowed, a laptop computer, an iPad, power cords for all electronics, a carton of book marks, and, when Bella’s along, her leash, vest, and water dish.  In other words, purses are smaller; bags are bigger.  And, as far as my husband is concerned they are all OFF LIMITS.  He does NOT go there!  For any reason!!

When we came home from Arizona last week, there was a big box sitting in the office, a carton larger than the standard book shipping box that holds twenty hardbacks.  The box was bigger than a carton of books and it was also heavier than a carton of books.  It contained 1,350 title pages for the next Ali Reynolds book, Moving Target.

And why did they send me 1,350 title pages?  These are known in the trade as “tip-in sheets.  They are sent to authors to be autographed BEFORE the book is printed.  Usually those “special print-run” books end up with two title pages–the autographed one and the regular one.  Please do not ask me how you can get one of the pre-autographed books because I don’t know.  If I find out sometime between now and February 18, I will certainly spill the beans.

So yesterday, I had the box hauled out of the office and into the dining room where I set up a signing station on the dining room table.  I sat down and started signing at 9:30 AM.  With the exception of one ten minute coffee break, I worked steadily until 6:30 PM.  That’s how long it takes to sign JAJance 1,350 times.  Yesterday was one of those days when I was tremendously grateful for that long ago marketing director at Avon Books who declared, “Men won’t read a police procedural written by someone named Judy.  We want to use you initials.”  Believe me, writing JAJance takes FAR less time than writing Judith A. Jance, and far less red ink as well.

I use medium Uniball pens with red ink.  They’re hard to find on the ground here in Seattle, because I’ve looked.  I usually have to buy them at Sarnoff Artist Supply on Campbell in Tucson.  Even there, however, I don’t buy more than a dozen or so at a time.  Uniballs can be tricky, especially if you take them on and off airplanes which happens a lot on book tours.  I have learned to check the tip before I start using a new one.  If there’s a bubble of red ink showing, I know that pen is a goner.  A pen with a bubble showing can cover you and your clothing in a layer of red ink in no time at all.  And once you use them, I find that red Uniballs that are nearing the end of the road start skipping. Rather than coming out red, the ink comes out a scratchy shade of wretched pink.

So yesterday morning, I started by dredging the single red ink pen out of my purse.  (Guys, that’s the bag that has only one pen at a time.)  By the end of the day, I had removed all five of the remaining pens from the bottom of the brown and white bag.  I used every one of them them until the ink went pink on me, and then I moved on to the next one.

The pens weren’t all brand new when I picked them up, but they were dead, dead, dead by the time I put the still smoking remains in the trash can in the kitchen at the end of the day.

The paper on the title pages was heavier duty than regular book stock, so it may have been a little rougher on the pens than regular paper would have been.  Clearly, though, I’ll need another set of pens from Sarnoff’s before the next tour starts.

As for me?  I can tell you, my shoulder hurts and so does my arm.  Last night at dinner, my hand was mad at me and didn’t want to hold the fork.  If it weren’t for the callous on my signing finger, I’d have a blister today.

So that’s what I did yesterday.  It wasn’t actually writing, but signing tip-in sheets is definitely part of being a writer.  Bet most of you didn’t know that.