As mentioned in an earlier post, I had the pleasure of meeting T. A. Barron two weeks ago.  At the time, he was concerned that I had the first and third books in his Great Tree of Avalon trilogy, but not the second, and he asked for my mailing address so that he could send me the second book.  And lo and behold, last Wednesday I received a package from T. A. with a signed hardcover copy of that book, Shadows on the Stars, along with a nice note. 

The thoughtfulness alone is enough to impress, but what really impresses me is that the note is written on a piece of stationery that says “With Compliments of T. A. Barron”; if he has had that stationery printed up, then he must regularly send gifts of books to his fans.  That’s a good, generous person.

And I’ll say, too, that this is a wise marketing decision – I’ve been so impressed by T. A.’s generosity that I’ve made a display of the books that he signed for the library, and have been hand-selling those books to library patrons, telling each of those patrons that T. A. is a great guy as well as a great author…and that he grew up in town, to boot.  Legions of new fans are being born, fans who might not otherwise have found his books.  Which is a good thing.