How does this happen??! I'm never this lucky.

For those who aren't in the midwest and don't know what Pamida is, think Walmart sans perishables, only smaller and more depressing.

I ran in over a month ago to get some cartoon character underoos and bright green sugar drink and saw it on the rack. I've been working my way through the RJ series (I'm just about to start The Haunted Air) so I knew when I saw By The Sword (hardcover, even, how lucky am I??) that it was to be mine. I mean, I never buy books from there because their selection is so limited, and suddenly there's a FPW:RJ that I hadn't read yet? It was department store destiny.

I noticed the signature within five minutes of purchasing, but I thought that some random guy had come into Pamida and signed his name in the thing. I'm never lucky and the signature looked like it said "Doyle" or "Dougie" or something. What DOES that say anyway? I can't see "F", "Paul", or "Wilson" anywhere in there.

So I was going through my stacks today and on a whim I decided to look up ol' F Paul's autograph just to make sure, and.. lo and behold, it was a perfect match.

Any idea how an autographed hardcover released three years ago ends up in Podunk Iowa?

The Will of God!

Ah, old "2 Paul Olie" strikes again!

Best not to ask, just enjoy :nod:

Years ago, at a Barnes & Noble in Manhattan (probably the one in Union Square), I found a hardcover copy of RED DRAGON (the reissue from 2000) autographed by Thomas Harris. I've always thought that Harris had a reputation for being reclusive, so I was quite shocked to find it (and I quickly purchased it).

This whole thing has brought to mind the tales I heard about Stephen King going into bookstores with a sharpie and autographing all of his books and putting them back up on the shelves.

I seriously doubt that the good Doctor Wilson has ever had any reason to travel through my particular stretch of the boonies though. Although Gia's back story includes Iowa, so maybe he has ties to the state somehow.


Now I want to frame it instead of reading it.

I've heard that Bill Watterson (Calvin & Hobbes creator) would go to a local independent bookstore and sign his collections but stopped doing that when people would sell them online for outrageous prices.

Also:

Sometimes my publisher would fly me around to book distributors' warehouses where I'd sign all their stock, which would then spread out over a number of states.