{"id":938,"date":"2026-11-08T17:45:31","date_gmt":"2026-11-08T22:45:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jeanbaur.com\/wordpress\/?p=938"},"modified":"2026-11-08T17:45:31","modified_gmt":"2026-11-08T22:45:31","slug":"what-if-no-one-came","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jeanbaur.com\/wordpress\/?p=938","title":{"rendered":"WHAT IF NO ONE CAME?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>My wonderful therapy dog, Rudy and I were scheduled for story time at our local bookstore this past Saturday. We got there early, helped set up, put out the free coloring pages for children, had my bubble &#8220;gun&#8221; ready to blow bubbles all over the place, and of course, had my new book, &#8220;Read to Rudy&#8221; all set to read to the children who would soon arrive. One toddler ran over and tried to get Rudy in a head lock. I intervened. Another child, about five or six, wanted the coloring page and did a beautiful job with her crayons. We waited. And waited. No one came. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I distracted myself by reading a book from the shelt behind me&#8211;a book about a man who wanted to be a French chef. Fun, but after a half hour, not so fun. I got up and spoke to the women in charge at the bookstore, and they were as puzzled as I was. Rudy took a nap. So we packed up and went home and today I wondered what I could learn from this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here are my takeaways in no particular order. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Find places that want you, need you. Front of mind:  animal shelters since Rudy came from one himself. I could do a fundraising event that would both sell books and help them raise money.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Don&#8217;t forget to give books away&#8211;I did this more consciously with my board books and believe it&#8217;s an important way to make a difference and balance the focus on sales<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Try dog boutiques and see if they&#8217;d carry &#8220;Read to Rudy&#8221;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Ask for advice.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>So, no one came, but we have a wonderful book that is finding it&#8217;s &#8220;legs&#8221; and is out there, reaching children and their families, one book at a time. Don&#8217;t be shy&#8211;if you have suggestions, please send them!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2048\" height=\"2560\" src=\"https:\/\/jeanbaur.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Cover_Rudy_JPG-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-921\" srcset=\"https:\/\/jeanbaur.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Cover_Rudy_JPG-scaled.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/jeanbaur.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Cover_Rudy_JPG-240x300.jpg 240w, https:\/\/jeanbaur.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Cover_Rudy_JPG-819x1024.jpg 819w, https:\/\/jeanbaur.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Cover_Rudy_JPG-768x960.jpg 768w, https:\/\/jeanbaur.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Cover_Rudy_JPG-1229x1536.jpg 1229w, https:\/\/jeanbaur.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Cover_Rudy_JPG-1638x2048.jpg 1638w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My wonderful therapy dog, Rudy and I were scheduled for story time at our local bookstore this past Saturday. We got there early, helped set up,&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jean"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2j73q-f8","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeanbaur.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeanbaur.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeanbaur.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeanbaur.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeanbaur.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=938"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jeanbaur.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":939,"href":"https:\/\/jeanbaur.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938\/revisions\/939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeanbaur.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeanbaur.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeanbaur.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}