Off to Nashville...Who Will We Meet?

Whew! What a weekend away….we are still trying to recover from a lack of sleep-but it was well worth the trip. We left Saturday afternoon drove to the west side of St. Louis stayed at a hotel, and drove the rest of the way to Nashville on Sunday-a grand total of 12 hours driving time, but what feels like much more after sitting in a car for that long. As soon as we arrived we literally hit the ground running with events.

Operation Christmas Child

After checking into our room and into the conference, we each grabbed a bag or suitcase to collect books in at the Author Meet & Greet. There were two rooms full of authors with their new books to sign and distribute! Many of the authors are brand new authors, who are writing for the first or second time. At one point, I literally found the suitcase to drop off one bag full of books-it was too heavy to carry! I have selected several books to read and review and provide at least one book review a month just from the show. Immediately following the meet and greet was dinner at the banquet-but entering the banquet hall even five minutes late, it was over half empty as many retailers and authors had missed the dinner memo! Never fear, they didn’t starve, they began eating as they filtered in. We concluded the evening by listening to a young adult who had received a Operation Christmas Child shoebox as a child and the impact it made on him (watch for a blog about that later), attended worship with Pastor and Author,  Charles Stanley and Singer Kathy Troccoli. Needless to say, by this point we were all tired and ready to return to our room, to relax and rest. Click the link below to see a video of the event-and Carolyn is in the video!!!  Video from the Author Meet & Greet by CPE

Candace Payne (Chewbacca Mom)

  Monday is devoted to meetings and the Sales Floor where retailers are able to meet with various companies.  As Carolyn is the buyer for the store, she went to the Sales Floor to meet with our Sales Representatives from the companies we sell from. In addition, Carolyn was able to meet with several new companies that were at the show and able to see their product for the first time. Over the next month or two we will begin receiving the orders placed at the show-so be sure to stop in and see the brand new items!!!

Monday evening the banquet started promptly at 6:30pm and the room was full of retailers, distributors, authors, and event hosts. It is always fun to sit with other store owners, distributors, and authors sharing about ourselves and our career ventures. At the banquet we got to hear from two incredibly wonderful speakers. First, Candace Payne (aka Chewbacca Mom) gave us her brief story which led to the writing of her new book, Laugh It Up. Candace Payne is a comedian and kept us all on edge waiting for the next piece of the story.

Jimmy Wayne

Jimmy Wayne sang one of his songs for us, then shared his heartbreaking story of his childhood to being in the foster care system to being a teenager living on the streets and the home he found with an elderly couple. He is an advocate for the kids in the foster care system and wrote his story in “A Walk to Beautiful” and a new book for kids called Ruby the Foster Dog (click on the title for a book review!). 

Colton and Annie Dixon

And then to our surprise we got to meet the authors and have their books signed before the movie! We also got a group picture with each…..and with Colton Dixon and his wife, Annie who were in line to meet the authors too!

When we thought our hearts could not be pulled at any more, we made our way to the movie, picking up pop and popcorn on the way to our seats. The movie we saw is “I Can Only Imagine.” If the title sounds familiar it is the story of how MercyMe’s Bart Millard wrote their hit song “I Can Only Imagine.” I will admit, this is not one of my favorite Christian songs. Many would scoff at me saying that but here’s why-it was so heavily played on the radio that as a young teen, I grew tired of hearing the song. I still battle this issue with radio today. But I can also recognize the importance this song had as it crossed over between Christian radio and secular radio stations. Here’s my review: this movie is important and worth seeing. Whether you are a fan of the song or not, if you don’t see the movie, you’ll regret it. The movie releases in theaters March 2018 with the book releasing in February. Here’s the YouTube video of the trailer:

Tuesday wrapped up the conference and ended at noon with a giveaway on the Sales Floor. Unfortunately we didn’t win the giveaway-but we did become tourists in Nashville. Check back soon to see our tourist escapades! If you'd like to hear more please comment below or come talk to us in-store. Also we have autographed books for sale in the store!