Just the numbers...

I'm still afterglowing from last night's party. I'll hopefully have pictures and a full recap later this week, but here's the event by the numbers.

312: number of attendees that packed into the BAM Harvey Theater

3: number of award-winning Fort Greene authors in attendance (Jhumpa, Jennifer, and Colson all showed)

2: number of local politicians who shook my hand (Tish James and Velmenette Montgomery, woo hoo!)

2: number of local rock stars in attendance (Johnny Temple of Girls Vs. Boys and Craig Finn of The Hold Steady)

7500: dollars in small business loans offered verbally on the spot

250: amount of a donation check handed to me, no strings attached (from Chris Kerr of Parson Weems: you rock!)

as yet uncounted: number of surveys in the giant box, waiting to be counted and tallied for more offers of help

1: fabulous new business partner revealed: Rebecca Fitting, Random House sales rep! This is the one I've been telling you about -- we've been talking all summer, and we're out, we're ready, we're hitting the ground running. Rebecca will be blogging here herself later this week, so I'll let her tell you her side of the story. But we're so excited to be in it together.

8: number of members of the Fort Greene Indie Bookstore Initiative, who deserve all the credit for the event (Mike, Steve, Jon, Carolyn, Sharon, Tom, Hillary, Susanna, hooray!)

4: number of photographers telling Rebeecca and I and the FGIBI to "look here, just one more" -- could we feel any more like rock stars?

1: New York Times reporter who's writing about the event for the Friday Metro section

0: bites of food consumed by Rebecca and I during the evening (it was like a wedding, too much glad talking to eat)

dozens: number of book people discovered after-partying afterward at Moe's bar in Fort Greene

infinite: measurement of the love, joy, and goodwill from assembled booklovers; also the measure of thanks due to the Fort Greene Indie Bookstore Initiative for pulling this all together; also the measurement of our hopes for the future

Thank you all so much -- we'll keep you posted!