Gift Store Extraordinaire!

2nd Annual Book Signing at Ma Maison

Friday, NOVEMBER 27th

10 AM – 1 PM

Near Starbucks at the corner of McBean Parkway and Valencia Boulevard.

Day after Thanksgiving on Black Friday (but there is nothing Black about Ma Maison!, possibly one of the cheeriest and brightest gift shops in the entire Santa Clarita Valley).

Ede and the ladies make this a very special event indeed.  They also bring in a selection of holiday cookies and healthy drinks for the kids.  See you there!

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Greenthumb before the SNOW!

A Second 2009 Book Signing at Greenthumb Intl. – Newhall

Friday, NOVEMBER 27th

2 – 5 PM

After signing at Ma Maison, I’ll be jumping in a sleigh to quickly fly across town to Newhall, back to a magical nursery that really transforms into Santa’s SoCal workshop away from the North Pole!  Thanks to Bryan and Kirki for having me back a second time this year.  With more cookies and cider than you could possibly partake in, come and enjoy a wonderful sampling of the Christmas Season.  Signing here is really fun, so come and join us all!

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Even the Palm Fronds folded up for this Christmas event!

Four Book Fair Signings at the B&N – Valencia Location:

DECEMBER 4th (Friday)

DECEMBER 8th (Tuesday)

DECEMBER 9th (Wednesday)

DECEMBER 14th (Monday)

DECEMBER 23rd (Wednesday) – Added Date

Evenings, 5 – 8 PM

My special “Thanks” to Lori Christian for including me this year.

I’ll be happy to Personalize and Emboss all books for that special someone’s Christmas gift.  Hope to see you there.

Semper Ferians! (Always Keeping Holidays)

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The Great Mrs. Claus at

THE GREAT INDOORS

A unique book signing with author Chris A. Shoemaker and a SPECIAL APPEARANCE by Mrs. Claus herself!

Sunday, DECEMBER 6th

1 – 3 PM in the afternoon

Don’t miss this unique opportunity to meet the author and get your (and your children’s) photo with the incomparable and very delightful Mrs. Claus.

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An inviting view of this charming tea house. A great place to escape to and indulge the tastebuds!

2nd Annual Book Signing and a Special Appearance by none other than

The Great *Mrs. Claus herself!

THE TEA GARDENS

Friday, DECEMBER 20th

3 PM until Closing

Bring your camera and family for this fun event.

We had such a marvelous time last year, I just had to return.  Elda and her family run a first-rate tea house, and they have a fantastic menu that makes The Tea Gardens much more than a place for a spot of tea and a scone.

*NOTE:  This is the real Mrs. Claus that inspired the book!  You won’t want to miss her.

Mrs. Claus takes a Trolly ride in Beverly Hills. She gets around too!

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At the heart of The Valencia Town Center

The Great Mrs. Claus Book Signing at

Valencia – Borders Book Store

Saturday, DECEMBER 19th

Time:  11 AM

We are planning that I’ll read an excerpt from my book and do a signing afterwards.

The poem in the book will be fun to share with the kids.  I’ve blown up the illustrations that relate to the poem on big boards.  It’ll be my first public sharing of that.  Hope to see you soon.

Ma Maison co-owner Katie LaKamp and Chris Shoemaker

Black Friday was ushered in on what felt like a tropical breeze in Valencia, California this year.  The temperature must have hit a high of nearly 80º F!  Who could believe it was nearly December already?

Our book signing was a success with many stopping by to see what the activity was all about.   Katie and Claire set up a table outside the store (their unique way to promote anti-doorbusting I’d like to believe!) to take advantage of the beautiful weather and attention grabbing location as folks scrambled around to take advantage of the Black Friday Sales.  I met several people who attended last year’s signing and stopped to chat about the how their young ones were doing with the seek and find games in the book.

My thanks to Katie, Ede and Claire once more for setting up the signing at their expertly appointed store.  I’ll hope to swing by and perhaps do one more signing at Ma Maison if they’ll have me.

Rich Samuels, a Freshi Films colleague, joined me for a time and kept me chuckling between signings!

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I moved my book boxes across town and finished out this shopper’s day of frenzy at the Greenthumb International Nursery.  Kirki and crew were on the ball as usual, and we had a stellar day that just got busier and busier as the day wore on.  I was especially surprised by a woman who came in with 8 purchased books to sign for her friend who was out of town and could not attend the signing.  The Christmas trees have arrived but are still packed in a shipping container awaiting pricing and organizing.

We switched over to an artificial tree a few years ago due to allergies, or we’d be first in line at the start of next week to get our Norfolk pine for our entryway.  This was my second signing at Greenthumb this year – a palpable joy for the Christmas spirit lives in this store, and just as with Ma Maison, I truly love these hometown stores for their care of its local customers and the time the merchants take to visit and chat with all the shoppers throughout the day.  I truly love to shop at boutique and personable stores – it is the people and their special touch that make it such a wonderful time of the year.

Some of the exquisite Egyptian Art Glass that Greenthumb offers. By the way, the gold is real on these pieces. These two are now part of my collection.

I’m not sure how Bryan, Kirki and their wonderful staff keep doing it, but they make this open house event more colorful and festive each year.  This store is noted for their all out Christmas decorating and tree dressing, but this year they added a bookend walk in Christmas display near the front of the store that really boosted the store’s holiday charm.

They had a wonderful signing station set up for me, and with live music, cookies, cider and multiple giveaways of Christmas themed gifts, it was a splendid open house to kick off the season just right. I saw return visitors from last year that purchased a book who even picked up another copy for new friends and family this year.  Lots of children dropped by too – a few tried the game and even found a few of the hidden clues on the fly!

I really enjoy signing at the store, and hope to see you out there soon.  We are working out a follow up date for this season, and I’ll post it to this blog as soon as it’s firm.  I buy many of my Christmas ornaments at Greenthumb and have for years.  Maybe I’ll bump into you around the ornament section.  Cheers.

So much more than a first - rate nursery, it's becomes an enchanting Christmas must stop!

The Great Mrs. Claus Book Signing

November 14th, 2009

Saturday, 9 am – 1:30 pm

Cookies and Warm Cider will help get you in the mood.  I’ll be signing and sharing stories about the book, so please stop by.

By the way, Bryan, Kirki and all the rest of the Green Thumb Staff are exceptional at helping you find what you need.  This nursery is a fantastic place to get to know year-round.  Looking forward to seeing you soon.

]]> http://thegreatmrsclaus.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=195 0 http://thegreatmrsclaus.com/blog/?p=136 http://thegreatmrsclaus.com/blog/?p=136#comments Fri, 05 Dec 2008 14:07:08 +0000 Chris http://thegreatmrsclaus.com/blog/?p=136 The last day of November couldn’t have ended better. Ma Maison, a wonderful gift store I’ve been collecting glass ornaments from for years, hosted a book signing this past Sunday (Nov. 30th). Katie, Ede, Claire and her husband Gilles made the day extra special – they set the mood with aromatic candles, spirited Christmas music, fanciful decorations, scones, brownies and cookies. To top it off, they even provided chilled chocolate milk for the kids to wash down the crumbs – Katie’s child-rearing experience showed!

The weather was postcard perfect – sunny, warm and unbelievable for a late November day. Just the kind of weather people move to Southern California for!

My thanks go out to all of you who came – several folks purchased a book weeks earlier and came back for an inscription – I’m touched and grateful for your support. A special thanks to Sophia and Brandon, who sat with us for some time and searched the North Pole maps over and over to find all the hidden clues. They may still be looking for a few, but then that’s what it’s all about.

The Great Mrs. Claus will be sold at Ma Maison throughout December, so please stop by and check out this unique and personable store. Katie, Ede, Claire and their staff are fantastic to visit with and informative about their products.

(l. to r.) Katie, Claire & Chris resisting the cookies!

A fantastic holiday setting for signing The Great Mrs. Claus book

I know I look a bit “dazed and confused” here, but rest assured the mood was awake and perky at the Sheridan Gardens Nursery on 11-21-08! Many thanks to Arlene, Chris (shopkeeper) and her husband Bill for hosting me that evening. There were many visitors and well-wishers at the event, and the evening’s mood was greatly enhanced with the smell of brewing apple cider being offered up to all visitors and the light sounds of Christmas instrumental music gently playing in the background.

I was surprised by the number of kids out this evening too! It was the community’s Holiday in the Park and “open house” night. People were encouraged to stop in the local stores, browse, shop and get their “stamp book” stamped by all participating stores. The idea was to fill the book and redeem it for a prize. It was also Friday night, so with no school in the morning, folks were more ready to keep the kids out late. I signed until 9 pm, and lots of kids enjoyed poring through the North Pole maps and searching for the clues hidden in the book.

Sheridan Gardens Nursery (formerly a liquor store back in the 1950’s and no I didn’t locate the private stock!) is located in a designated area called Magnolia Park, not far off the corner of Hollywood Way and Magnolia and an area of Burbank that has enjoyed a renaissance of sorts over the past 5 years. The Magnolia Park District has become a great concentration of restaurants, theaters, antiques, clothing, thrift and curios shops that are easy to breeze into one after the other, so more and more people are discovering the area. I used to have my Acts of Creation entertainment office literally on that corner some 9 odd years ago, so it definitely felt like being in the old neighborhood with friends.

Sheridan Gardens looks warm and inviting from the outside! The Great Mrs. Claus book is sold here daily until Christmas.

If you pore over books and have never visited Vroman’s, take a break and fall in love with this book lover’s haven.

Today marks a very important day around here at our humble and independent publishing house. I received a call today from Vroman’s Bookstore – Pasadena. I proposed and they agreed to sell The Great Mrs. Claus “on consignment.” What a thrill! In the pantheon of bookstores, Vroman’s is certainly one of the most respected and venerable booksellers in the country. They won Publisher’s Weekly “Bookseller of the Year 2008″ to prove it!

I am especially honored to be included on their shelves because of the fierce competition in the marketplace for holiday books this year. As I cannot resist, bookstore hopping and sleuthing is a favorite pastime of mine, and several weeks ago when I dropped off a review copy of my book at their store (sometime shortly after Halloween), it was clear their front-of-the-store table was replete with Christmas books. Then I went upstairs near their community room where authors perform readings and offer Q&A’s about their new books, and there was another wall and a half fully stacked with even more holiday books – including those on Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and many other holiday traditions – it felt like one more holiday book in the store would tip and wreck Santa’s sleigh! I wondered if the world needed one more book, and well… I figured it did! (ha)

For me, I truly enjoy the store with its professional attitude, eclectic clientele and superior atmosphere geared at giving visitors a unique book-centric experience. Anyway, it may be a bit of a stretch to hope for a reading there, but Suzanne says she’s up to performing Mrs. Claus if they’ll have us. A live show and a reading of the story (the poem within the story would be an appropriate length) would be great fun – fingers are crossed, but just having the opportunity to sell there is sweet enough!

Though I doubt I’ll free the time, I’d love to hang out for awhile near the store’s cashiers and watch someone actually peruse, pick up and purchase The Great Mrs. Claus book from it’s perch.

cs

Sheridan looks like “Santa’s Workshop” in the evening. The lighted trees and ornaments are mesmerizing. See you there!

I’m looking forward to working with Arlene and her courteous staff at this open house event. The city of Burbank creates a wonderful atmosphere for shoppers to breeze in and out of shops in this Magnolia area of Burbank just a few blocks north of Warner Bros. studio lot. Sheridan Gardens has done a fantastic job with the decorating this year. I hope to meet you and make your “The Great Mrs. Claus” a heartfelt keepsake book for years to come. cs

I’m very excited to have my first book signing there on Saturday. After so many years of crafting, designing, and perfecting, the moment of sharing it with the public has finally arrived! I feel it will make a wonderful keepsake Christmas gift for a young child and family. I can’t wait!! Hope to see you there.

I’m working on some other signing dates in the SoCal region. Boy… if I could only borrow Santa’s sleigh this year for some quick lifts abroad!?! I really appreciate all the support I’ve received from friends, family and business associates about the book. It has inspired me to begin on the next in the series. I’ll share more about that later. I invite you to visit us at www.clausdiaries.com to learn more. Cheers for now. Semper Ferians (always keeping Holidays!).

cs

Greetings! Mark your calendars. Saturday, November 8th at 9 am till 5 pm.

Please join me at Green Thumb International – Newhall, CA just 25 miles north of Los Angeles for some fun, refreshments and good cheer. Green Thumb is a nursery, but not just your garden variety type. It has awesome decorations, a gaggle of decorated trees, and one of the most complete and beautifully displayed Dept. 56 villages I’ve ever seen. Thousands of moving parts with enchanting Christmas music playing throughout the store.

If you like the smell of pine and freshly baking cookies (for real!), come out to see and smell the sights!

Here’s a pic of the book. The first shipment just arrived yesterday! They are all shrunk-wrapped and ready for a home. Cheers and I look forward to seeing you this weekend!