Going to a Book Signing with no #Books to Sign! What's an #author to do?

I received an invitation Wednesday night to attend another author's book signing Thursday evening, along with an offer to sign my books, too. (Yes, the other author is a generous gal.) There's only one problem: I have no books to sign.

Head. Desk.

Bad Gae-Lynn. Very bad.

But I'm not one to surrender easily, and in this instance, PowerPoint and sugar are my friends. Here's what I pulled together Thursday morning:

• Bowls of hard candy and chocolate. Everybody loves sugar. Right?

• A PowerPoint slideshow promoting my new book, A CASE OF SOUR GRAPES, due out this month. I set the slideshow to cycle for 15 seconds on the first slide and 45 seconds on the second slide. I folded my keyboard back and set my computer up vertically, creating an automated poster from the slides. Small, but effective.

• I used PowerPoint again to whip up some bookmarks...

• ...and an email sign up sheet.

• I packed up the two hard copy books I have (one of THE DEVIL OF LIGHT and one of AVENGERS OF BLOOD), a bottle of water, pens, and a pad of paper in my nifty Union Jack bag, and headed off.

The result? Thunderstorms and flood warnings aside, all in all, it was a great evening. I spent a few hours with my wonderful niece and toured the historic Rusk County Library in downtown Henderson, Texas; met local author Vivra Beene (an absolute hoot and a joy to talk to) and purchased a copy of her book (click on Vivra's name above to go to Amazon and check out her short story collection); met several new readers; gave away a few bookmarks and picked up new names for my email list; saw THE DEVIL OF LIGHT on its first library shelf; and took an order for ten more books for the Rusk County libraries.

Not a bad evening at all. The good news? (Once I order books,) I'm ready for the next book signing!

Now please, tell me I'm not the only one. Do you have any advice for the unprepared author?