Has anyone ever walked into your life and left good footprints on your soul? I don’t mean spirits, I mean a real person, someone whose smile, whose encouragement makes a difference? Someone, who when you see this person, makes that moment so much better? I smile when I remember Shawna, I want to cry knowing I will never see her again. Last week, I lost one of my angels.
Shawna Springer, whose beautiful spirit imprinted on my life, died way too young.
I met Shawna when she reached out to me, asking me to do a book signing at a book club meeting. Shawna always wore such a big love-you smile. And all you book lovers out there would have loved her, too. She was . . . the biggest book geek I’ve ever known.
She worked at Barnes and Noble in Pasadena, Texas. She loved to read. She knew my characters almost as well as I did. She was one of those booksellers who seriously had a passion for the written word. She’d order cases of my books for book signings and would have me sign them all before I left. I asked her once if she wasn’t going to send them back.
“Heck no,” she’d say. “They’re going on my recommend shelf. I’ll sell them.”
And she did. She’d hand sell books in the store all the time. Not just my books either. When she loved an author she was a fan like no other. She had a way of making authors feel special. Her bubbly glee over my books energized me as an author. And I know I wasn’t alone. She did that for so many authors.
She also loved doing crafts. She made me a Shadow Falls dream catcher that hangs in my office. She made This Heart of Mine charms that I put on bracelets. When I’d pay her for her crafts, I would also pay her more than she charged. I told her, “You don’t charge enough.”
She’d reply, “Yeah, but it’s about books and you know how I feel about your books.”
I wish I could pick up the phone and tell her one more time how much I appreciated her. Oh, I told her many times, but maybe not enough.
I wish she was still here. But she’s not. So I encourage you that if you have someone who makes a difference in your life, pick up the phone or better yet go to them, hug them, and tell them what they mean to you.
I hope Shawna is in the hereafter, and I sure as heck hope they have a library, because I know wherever she is, she’ll be happier if surrounded by books.
Today in honor of Shawna I’m giving away a hard cover of This Heart of Mine and one of the bracelets with the charms she made. To enter just leave a post telling me about someone who makes your world better. (Sorry, but this giveaway is for U.S. residents only If you’re reading this on Goodreads, you must go to my Website to enter.)
Winner!!
The winner of last week’s giveaway, an ecopy of Carrie Pulkinen’s Werewolves Only is Gigi Hicks. Congratulations, Gigi! Please email me at Christie@christie-craig.com and tell me if you prefer the Nook or Kindle version.