Craig Johnson on Tour! (The Longmire Defense)
Mr. Craig Johnson with Deb, owner of the Mechanicsburg Mystery Bookshop
When September rolls around, our readers know what that means...Craig Johnson is coming to town! The latest installment in the Longmire series, The Longmire Defense, had hit shelves at the beginning of the month and Mr. Johnson was on tour since the first day it was released. It is always a wonderful delight to hear him speak about the inspirations behind the stories in his novels, and this time was no exception.
The night started out with a few hiccups in the road, however, we were soon back on track and had the place rearing to go for the readers waiting to come through the doors. Some of our readers chose to pre-order their book online through our website, and picked up their orders at the designated table before waiting to have Mr. Johnson sign their copy for them. Others purchased their copies there at the event, as we had the previous novels also available for purchasing.
Once it was time to begin Mr. Johnson's talk, signing was paused until afterwards and the owner of the bookshop, Deb, introduced the man of the hour. With an interesting story from Mr. Johnson, involving a chainsaw, himself, and an almost tragic accident, it was certainly a hook that captured our audience's attention from the beginning. Leading into the research and interesting true life story that inspired his latest novel, Mr. Johnson gave a fascinating talk before reading a section from The Longmire Defense.
Time for questions and answers came next, and our readers really enjoyed, not only the talk and reading, but also getting to ask very thoughtful questions. (We can tell, because there were a lot of them!) So many in fact, that our event ran a little later than planned because of the fun everyone was having. And...we were given a little teaser for the next story, coming out in May/June of 2024.
We were very excited to see all of Mr. Johnson's fans who attended from near and far. Some came from up the street in our own hometown while others traveled hundreds of miles from Massachusetts and California in order to see him in person. Without our loyal customers, we could not do what we do.
Not everyone who wanted a book could be make it on a Tuesday evening, and we understand that, given that it was in the middle of a work week. So, for those folks, we offered to have Mr. Johnson sign and/or personalize a copy for them and then for us to ship it out to whichever state and/or country they live in. (We even send a copy overseas each year!) Many orders came in online and over-the-phone, overflowing our outgoing mailbox after the event! It was a great evening, and please feel free to scroll below to see additional images taken from the event.
We are thrilled to have the venue that we do for our off-site events and the large space they have to host so many awesome fans and volunteers!
From the book that started it all, The Cold Dish, to the 19th book that was just released, The Longmire Defense.
Mr. Johnson was very busy that night with signing so many books for both our in-person orders and our
online ones as well.
Our staff thanks Mr. Johnson for stopping by our shop during his Fall book tour and we cannot thank our readers enough for helping us to keep events like these possible. If you were not able to make it to see Mr. Johnson this year, we do have copies of all of his books stocked in our shop year-round. Check out our online shop, or stop on in during our regular business hours, to get caught up on all things Longmire. Until next time....Boy Howdy!
A special thanks goes to Sarah I. for taking these images of the event and for the volunteer who snapped the above image of Mr. Johnson and the staff from the bookshop. Without our volunteers, it would make what we do a lot harder. #books #mysteries #longmire #waltlongmire #craigjohnson #booktour #authorevent #author #booksigning #authorlife #bookshop #pennsylvania
