Stacie's Last Day.

Jim Higgins wrote a lovely article in the Journal Sentinel about Stacie's bookselling career in Milwaukee. Starting in 2005, when she went to work at Schwartz, and continuing over eight years at both Schwartz and Boswell (with some breaks for summer camp counseling), Stacie's been putting books in people's hands, both one at a time, and on a grand scale with her event marketing.

Today is Stacie's last day before moving to New York, though she'll be back in town to ferry around Jen Percy, author of Demon Camp, on Friday, January 24, 7 pm.  She'll be appearing with John Liebert in an event sponsored by Veterans for Peace. Hey, I have to get some sort of plug in here.

Here is my mini exit questionnaire.

First big thrill:
Getting a signed first-edition hardcover of Water for Elephants after reading the book early, sending in a recommendation, and writing about it on her then blog.

Biggest regret:
Passing up an offer from the author escort to ride with Jonathan Safran Foer to Chicago.

Best oddball hand sell:
What's Eating You: People and Parasites, by Eugene Kaplan, from Princeton. The book never went into paperback and is now net priced, but we sold it quite well.

Most memorable event:
Introducing Paul Rusesabegina, author of An Ordinary Man, whose story was the basis for the documentary, "Hotel Rwanda." "I teared up during the introduction, which was shown over and over on Milwaukee Public Television."

Best display ever:
Definitely the pirate ship (at left).

On Monday she starts at HarperCollins in the sales department in New York, but later in the month we'll meet up again in Seattle at Winter Institute the annual meeting for independent booksellers.

She's already championing books from the spring and summer lists of the various HarperCollins imprints, such as Harper, William Morrow, and Ecco Press.  I suspect she might also convince a bookseller or two to read Simon Van Booy's The Illusion of Separateness in paperback. Tag-teamed with Sharon, they sold more than 100 copies in hardcover.

Bon Voyage, or should I say ahoy?