Tour Day 4 - 9-8-12

Tour Day 4 was a pretty easy day for us, and we were thankful for that because we didn't get in to our lodging until about 1 in the morning!


We stayed with my dad's friend from high school and his wife.   They're very nice and we've obviously known them for a long time.


They had this pretty fountain and garden out front that I thought picture worthy.

We just sort of chilled for a while at their house before going to the Baker Book House in Grand Rapids.  They had a very nice set up for us.

Don't mind my dad - he's just texting.  Don't worry, no customers were there at that point.

The store had these cool figurines made in Kenya. There was this lion and an elephant, ostrich, and Giraffe. They were made out of soda cans and telephone wire.

A fan who came out to see us. It was good to meet you, Jessi.

After we finished at our book signing we raced to the post office, packed up all our books and shipped them out to Washington state. We were going into Canada the next day and we can't take our books across the border without paying import taxes - so we shipped our books ahead of us to our next US destination - to a friend's house.  There they will stay until we arrive.


We barely made it to the post office in time, too. The post office closed at 3 and we arrived at 2:30 with about 12 boxes to ship. The postal workers weren't pleased, but they did their job quickly and efficiently, and the last box was paid for and labeled at 3:01!


Then we went back to our friend's house and hung out with them for a while.  A good day.

Tour Day 3 - 09-7-12

We left our hotel at 7:30 to get to the Miami Christian Academy for Dad and Amanda’s next talk.


 Since most of the audience was little kids, the authors performed their sword duel for the amusement of the small folk. They all loved it. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any photos of that, but I’ll be sure to try and remember in the future.


After their talk, Dad and Amanda signed books, one boy with a broken arm even asked Dad to sign his cast. (He did, of course.) I should have gotten a picture of that. I will be more vigilant with the camera.

 

Dad signing books for a girl. She bought all of those books on the table next to him.

Amanda signing books and talking to kids

The teacher lined up the kids of the class that were not buying books and sat them against the wall

Book marks are always cool too. They must be signed.

Miles Drive Day 3 - 458

Tour Day 2 - 9-6-12

I'm a bit behind and inexperience with this sort of thing, but I've got a whole month for experience building.


This morning we left our hotel at 8:30 am for our first and only event of the day. Dad and Amanda spoke at to a homeschooling group for about two hours. Afterwards we drove to Cincinnati. 

 Dad talking about rejection notices

 Amanda talking about her books

We had a pretty good crowd. The young man at the left was a sign language interpreter, which I found fascinating to watch. (That's not why I look so zoned out, though)

As always, the boys love the sword.

Miles Drive Day 2 - 140

Tour Day 1 - 9-5-12

And we're off!


 We got off to a late start - not leaving home until about 11AM, but since we had only a seven hour drive ahead of us, so we weren't too worried.

It was a nice and easy trip and we had no events scheduled.

My mom worked on an editing job and Hannah did some school work and reading.

And just chillin.

Hannah took a turn driving, too, and my dad did the rest.


 And as for me? I wrote. And wrote.  And then I slept.  And wrote some more. Unfortunately, my laptop went haywire after I wrote 1,200 words, otherwise I would have updated this blog last night.    But after hours of agonizing over the laptop and stumping the Geek Squad at Best Buy with my problems, I was finally able to get it working again with a lot of prayer and help from google searching.

More updates in a little while about Tour Day 2!

Miles Drive Day 1 - 372

Fall 2012 Tour Begins Soon

We are gearing up for a new tour! This year's version begins September 6, 2012. We will leave home on September 5 and travel to Danville, Kentucky for our first event. Then we will cruise through Ohio for events in Cincinnati and Columbus, then to Grand Rapids, Michigan, before heading into Canada.

We will stay the next two weeks in Ontario for several events, including author talks, writing workshops, and bookstore signings, then take a long trek to central Canada on our way to the western part of the country. We will have events in Steinbach, Manitoba; Calgary, Alberta; and Abbotsford, British Columbia. From there, we will come back to the U.S. for engagements in the Seattle area.

After that? We don't know yet. We hope to schedule more events between Seattle and home (western Tennessee), so if you have a school or homeschool group that would like a visit, and you are located somewhere between Seattle and western Tennessee, and you would like us to come in early October, let me know by email - bryan (at) daviscrossing (dot) com. I also have some openings for Ontario in mid September.

This time Amanda and I will be traveling with my wife Susie and our youngest daughter, Hannah. Hannah will be in charge of updating this blog, including posting photos and video clips. She will also attempt to live stream events where Internet access is available, so watch for announcements for live-streamed events.

As with the previous tour, we hope to have a contest, so be sure to check for the latest tour updates.

One more item: Because of high gas prices, this will be an expensive tour. We don't have as many events scheduled as usual, so it will be very difficult to sell enough books to meet expenses. I won't mention this again on this blog, but if you would like to make a contribution toward our expenses, I would appreciate it greatly. Please see the donation link on the left side of the blog page.

Feel free to ask questions or make comments.

Final Thoughts on the Tour

Now that the Davis Crossing Tour is over, we have had some time to reflect on it, both the blessings and the difficulties. Promotional tours are always exhausting, and scheduling them is nightmarish. Still, the benefits outweigh the problems, so we will likely continue touring, though perhaps not with a tour as long as this one.

Those of you who have followed the blog have heard about the difficulties, from car troubles to bad weather to endless hours and miles of driving. Sometimes disappointment knocks on the door when we work hard all day and sell only a few books. Of course, we hope to promote our books and sell as many as possible, because we want to further God's kingdom by spreading stories that draw readers closer to Him, so after driving hundreds of miles and speaking for hours produces only a few sales, we might be tempted to wonder if our efforts were worthwhile. That's when we have to remind ourselves that even a few seeds can reproduce into thousands, and even if one soul is blessed by our words, the eternal consequences far outweigh a day of toil.

Some days were overwhelmingly fruitful with many testimonies and many sales. We received huge blessings from families who traveled long distances to come and see us. Several reported traveling two, three, even four hours to come to an event. Amazing! Such love for our work and testimony is so encouraging!

We have never taken for granted the enormous blessing it is to be an author. The idea that people actually want to read what we write is a daily encourager, and the thought that our words might have a profound effect on the hearts and minds of so many readers to the point of altering their spiritual lives in eternal ways is nearly overwhelming. We hope you will pray with us that God will continue to use us powerfully as we continue trying to live up to this magnificent privilege and responsibility.

Thank you for following our tour. If you will continue to support us by telling others about our books, we will be grateful. May God bless you all as you seek to serve Him.


If you would like to stay up to date with happenings in our lives you can check out our blogs and facebook pages.


Bryan Davis and Amanda L. Davis




Contact Amanda:
Blog
Website
Facebook Page


Contact Bryan:
Blog
Website
Facebook

Grand Prize Winner

The grand prize winner for the tour contest is John Flood. He chose the Nook as his prize.

The secret phrase came from eleven words in the videos, as follows:

Excellent
Diviner
Abdomen
Convergent
Chancellor
Investor
Galvanize
Galactic
Hibachi
Microfiche
Clandestine



The solving algorithm produced the following eleven letters: temgevlgihi

Unscrambling the letters revealed the secret phrase - Give me light



Eight contestants got it right, which gave them ten additional entries in the final drawing.