Punita Rice

Book Signing at Barnes & Noble Columbia Recap

This past Saturday was my book signing at Barnes & Noble Columbia Mall for The River’s Daughter and The River Goddess. This event also marked the official release of The River Goddess: A Prequel. A huge, huge thank you to everyone who picked up a copy or grabbed both books together.

To everyone who came out, bought copies of the books, brought friends, came to support local writing, or even just stopped by to say hello, THANK YOU so much!! It ended up being such a genuinely fun and laughter-filled afternoon and made the day so memorable.

A few of my favorite moments from the book signing:

  • A reader who loved The River’s Daughter and came to get The River Goddess, plus a copy of The River’s Daughter for her own mom for Mother’s Day 🖤
  • Getting to talk to amazing and fun readers who already read The River’s Daughter and wanted to talk about it!!
  • Meeting a new reader who heard about the book, and shared that she specifically loves reading books written in cultural contexts like this one (she is Iranian) and came specifically for this book, and to support local writing
  • Signing copies for family and friends!!
  • Hearing from readers what parts of desi culture they felt they saw reflected in The River’s Daughter, and hearing how they felt seen ❤️
  • Having my own kids and friends’ kids with us (Happy Mother’s Day weekend!!)

📹 If you’d like to see some video footage from that day, you can view below.

The signing wouldn’t have been possible without Carl, Alex, Matt, and the team at Barnes & Noble at the Mall in Columbia. Thank you for hosting me, supporting indie authors and local writing, and for creating a home on your shelves for The River’s Daughter and The River Goddess.

And… here’s a short video of all the mayhem behind the scenes from the book signing.

Behind the scenes from my Barnes & Noble Columbia signing

And to everyone who came out, THANK YOU AGAIN.

If you’re not already following along via my newsletter, please sign up — I’ll share updates about upcoming events (including a romance author panel this summer) and new projects there.

With love and gratitude,
Punita

PS — If you missed the event, signed collector boxes with both books are available, and signed copies of The River’s Daughter can still be ordered.

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