Fun Book Event

It's Sunday night and my book event this afternoon at the Anderson County Library went great. Thanks to all of you reading friends and family who came out to hear me talk about writing about the Sixties in Small Town, America. In my case, that's Lawrenceburg.

When I decided to re-invent myself as a writer for the third or maybe it was the fourth time, I went back to basics and tried to write about something I knew really well. That turned out to be growing up in a small town back in the Sixties. A lot of the people who came to my book party today had already read some of my Hollyhill books so they knew that I had used how Lawrenceburg looked back then as the model for the town in the books, Hollyhill. I told them I had to change the name of the town because the Lawrenceburg Series just doesn't have the same ring as the Hollyhill Series.

I think my Lawrenceburg readers enjoy trying to figure out if I based my characters on any specific persons, but I never do that except for maybe a minor character here and there. Still, as I told them today, writers take what they discover about everyone they meet along with what they know or feel about themselves and put it in a stew pot on a little stove in the back of their head that's warmed by their creative fires. From those combined and cooked together characteristics come all our characters. This character might have somebody's ill temper or sunny smile while that one might have somebody else's fear of spiders or love of lilacs. I always feel as if my characters are totally a product of my imagination, but yet at the same time they become real enough to me that I sometimes think it might be nice if they would come by and have a cup of tea with me. Of course I wouldn't invite the rude or mean characters in to stay long. At least not until they changed their ways or gave me some new plot ideas.

But back to my book party. I do appreciate everyone who came. I love to talk about writing and about my books. Oh, let's face it. I just love to talk. And I love getting to know people. You know, so I can add all their fun characteristics to my pot of character stew for another book down the road. I gave away a lot of doorprizes and we played some just for fun Sixties Trivia. We focused in on some Lawrenceburg things, but we also talked about the Beatles and going to the moon. While some of the people there couldn't exactly remember about the Sixties since they hadn't discovered America by then. You know - been born. And some others of them were mere babies. But there were plenty of the rest of us who have been around a few decades and we had fun doing some remembering. Do you know what year the Beatles were first of the Ed Sullivan Show? What did the first man on the moon say? Stuff like that.

I've got a busy week ahead with a church workday Monday and my granddaughter in WV having a big fifth birthday. She was born on tax day, so her birthday is easy to remember. Then this weekend I'll be going to the Southern Kentucky Book Fest in Bowling Green, Kentucky. If you live in the area and make it to the Book Fair on Saturday, please come by to say hi. I'll be on a panel about My Old Kentucky Home Revisited; Novels about Kentucky at 1 p.m. on Saturday. Janna McMahan and Laura Benedict will also be on the panel. That's sure to be fun. I was on a panel with Janna in South Carolina. She's a great writer. I haven't met Laura yet, so I'm looking forward to that. You can check out other authors there on their website www.sokybookfest.org. Harlan Coben and Mitch Albom are their headline authors. So come enjoy a fun day of books.

May you have a blessed week.

Memories on my Mother's Birthday

Today is my mother’s birthday. She is 88. She was the second of four sisters. No brothers. Her father was a blacksmith and her mother was a housewife when that word seemed to carry more honor. Now we’re homemakers or domestic engineers or a lot of us are wearing so many hats we don’t know what to call ourselves. Mom grew up during the Great Depression, but although she knows they never had any money to speak of, she never felt poor. She and her sisters were loved and had food on the table and books to read. Her father and mother were both readers, and I’ve heard my grandmother say she was never happier than when she and my grandfather spent an evening in companionable reading. My grandfather enjoyed reading about scientific advances and history as well as fiction. I don’t remember him very well because he died when I was young. But I can tell by the way my mother and my aunt talk about him that he loved his daughters very much. And what better gift to leave your children than the assurance of your love? That’s the gift my mother passed on to me and that I have done my best to pass on to my children.

Mom has lost two of her sisters, the oldest and the youngest. She and the other middle sister still get together at least once a week to talk about the good times when they were growing up and having fun together. I’ve been eavesdropping on some of their conversations and going back in time with them. They remember their father pulling his chair up close to the radio to listen to Joe Louis knock out whoever climbed in the ring with him. They smile when they talk about sitting on the outer edges of their father’s forge to warm up on cold winter days. They laugh about the taffy pulling parties their mother let them have when some of their friends ended up with fingers stuck together. They know where they were when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and how that changed their lives. My aunt rode across the country on a train to spend a few weeks with her husband before he was shipped overseas. That was the first time she was ever away from home. She rode the train back home with a baby on board. So many memories.

We all have memories we treasure, but that perhaps we never share with anyone. Maybe we feel they’re not important enough to tell others. But I’ve found my grandchildren’s ears perk up when I tell them about some little thing their daddy did when he was growing up. Stories tie us together and help us realize what makes us a family. Next time you get together with your extended families, listen to each other’s stories and enjoy!

I’m going to do some remembering when I do my presentations at the Anderson County Public Library here in Lawrenceburg on Sunday April 13th at 2 p.m. and at the Paul Sawyier Library in Frankfort, KY on Thursday May 8th at 6 p.m. I’m planning to do some just for fun Sixties Trivia. Whether you lived through the Sixties or have only read about what happened back in the olden days, we can have some fun remembering. I’ll also be talking about my writing and giving away some door prizes at both events. Nothing too big since I’m only a poor struggling author, but you might win one of my books or perhaps an Elvis CD. Hope if you’re in the area, you’ll come out and join in the fun.

Finally here’s a list I came across to leave you with a smile while you think up your own additions to the list.

10 Things to show God has a Sense of Humor
1. The platypus
2. The digestive system
3. Bumblebees
4. Baby giraffes
5. The appendix
6. Solar eclipses
7. The story of Baalam and his talking donkey (Numbers 22)
8. Hammerhead sharks
9. Snowflakes
10. Oklahoma weather

I think I’d have to put Kentucky weather right in there with Oklahoma. Especially in March. And I don’t know about the snowflakes although I have wondered how anybody can be absolutely sure no two snowflakes are exactly alike since we certainly haven't inspected them all. Of course what might show the Lord’s sense of humor best is all of us.

Happy St. Paddy’s Day. Hope you have a good reason to laugh at least once every day. Laughter worketh good like a medicine. It promises us that in the Bible.