The Lightning Queen Book Party Recap!

 

Hello everyone!

I had so much fun celebrating the release of The Lightning Queen with friends here in Fort Collins!

 

Lil Dude was the Master of Ceremonies, and did a great job introducing me, doing magic tricks, interviewing me, drawing names for prizes, playing his White Stripes song on his guitar, and generally ad-libbing jokes throughout.... He loves being onstage and has been looking forward to this for a long time.

Beautiful dancers were there doing beautiful dances!

 

(photo from Gloria)

My good friends Gloria Garcia Diaz and Julie Lee performed some gorgeous traditional Mexican dances with their troupe, Quetzalcoatl....



They were fantastic...



Gloria's rainbow dress was a thing of wonder!



And there were all ages in the troupe, which was really cool...





We're so grateful to everyone who showed up to celebrate-- what an amazing bunch of people!



There was a free-for-all dance on stage, too, and all who participated got to choose a bell as a prize.  (The bells had been in a box in our garage for thirteen years, and I figured it was time to let them go ring freely with new owners...)

 

And there was book-signing... (Thanks to Old Firehouse Books for doing such a great job with the book-selling!)


 

 photo from Gloria

Alma (right) was one of the girls who interviewed me *in Spanish* about The Queen of Water for the local Bookends TV show.  She came with her awesome friend Ivan, who's also a fan of The Queen of Water, and her sweet cousin Karen.

My heart still feels full from all the neighbors and friends-- old and new-- who came to celebrate with us!

 Dear writer friends Todd Mitchell and Teresa Funke

Longtime super-creative friend, Julie Lee 

 Fun-spirited artist neighbor Diane Findley and her wonderful husband Tommy 

 

Close friend, Spanish writing partner, talented writer and translator, and dancer 

Gloria Garcia Diaz with her adorable daughter

 My vivacious and big-hearted 6th-grade neighbor, who's the most avid reader I know!

 More awesome neighbors-- Beth and Dan!  (We are SO lucky to live where we do.)

 And Julie with her lovely family

Afterward, there was the clean-up, which Ian did, oh-so-graciously.  ;-) (And my generous writer group friends, Laura Pritchett and Kayre Cattrell were life-savers helping me set up, but somehow they escaped being photographed!)



Thank you to all of you who were there in body and spirit!

Lots of love,
Laura

 photo from Gloria