FUN WITH THE “NEEDS-A-NAME” BOOK CLUB

Me with the “Needs-a-Name” Book Club

The absolute most fun an author can have is to visit with a book club comprised of more than a  dozen fun-loving gals who are brimming over with comments and conversation. The book club I visited with on Wednesday, February 8th was at Evergreen Country Club and hosted by Joyce Humboldt. I can hardly find words enough to tell of the wonderful time I had.

I have to start off with a big shout out to Ann Rogak who introduced the ladies to my books, and then add another shout out for Holly Duquette, who suggested “Cracks in the Sidewalk” as the monthly read. A few of the gals brought their copy of the book for me to autograph, but many of them had downloaded the book to their Kindle or Nook and could take advantage of the bargain price the e-book format makes possible.

When Ann and I arrived at Joyce’s home, the fragrant aroma of coffee was wafting through the room and the ladies were already gathering. After a few minutes of conversation, they quickly settled into a meeting mode, took attendance and proceeded with a brief discussion of upcoming reads. A few minutes latter, we began the discussion of “Cracks in the Sidewalk” – which I am pleased to say, all of the women enjoyed reading.  They commented that the story was unbelievably tragic and were interested to learn the core truths behind the book. After explaining that I didn’t have the heart to write the story until the woman, who is Claire in the book, was reunited with her grandchildren, the gals became interested in knowing what prompted me to write other novels.

Once that door was opened, we talked about so many aspects of writing and of an author’s life. One of the questions was – who is my favorite author? Truthfully speaking, I don’t have a favorite author – I have dozens of ‘favorite books’ but I quite often love one book by an author, but not necessarily the next one. I suppose for me, it’s all about the story. The conversation meandered down many pathways during the meeting and I can honestly say it was one of the most fun book clubs I’ve been to. When all was said and done, I did a brief reading from “Spare Change” and then Joyce served a lunch that was memorable. Were I to have a Tupperware tub in my handbag, I would have been sorely tempted to smuggle out a bit of that wonderful chicken salad peppered with chunks of pineapple.

As for the title of this story “Needs-a-Name” Book Club – well, when I asked the gals what the name of their club was, they said they had no name for it and asked if I’d make a suggestion. Here are a few that I sent to Joyce for their consideration – but stay tuned and I’ll let you know if they choose one of these or came up with something much more unique…

PAGETURNERS, WORDBIRDS, FICTION FRIENDS, COVER GALS, LIT LADIES, WEDNESDAY’S WORDS, STORYBOOK SISTERS, and the inevitable BOOK BABES. There were a few more, but we’ll save those for next time.