Local Love for SINK TRAP!

This week I had my first experience with a book club. I've never belonged to a book club, never attended a meeting. To tell the truth, I was a little intimidated by the whole idea of a book club - especially one that had read my book!

Let me give you a little background: I got a call a few months back from a local lady named Marcy Taylor. Marcy, I have found, is a huge fan of books and writers, and something of a force of nautre. She told me she likes to support local writers, and buys books by every local writer, even if it isn't something she will read.

Marcy has a system for what she reads. "If you're under 50," she explained, "you have to give a book 50 pages. Over 50, you subtract your age from 100, and that's how many pages you have to give it. I'm 85," she said with a little chuckle, "so I only have to give a book 15 pages."

Apparently, she gave SINK TRAP 15 pages and then more, until she had finished the book. She liked it well enough to give several copies as gifts, and to suggest it to her book club as a monthly pick.

Then she invited me to join them for their monthly meeting.

I have to tell you, it was a strange feeling to walk into a group of strangers, and have every one of them carrying a copy of my book!

Some of the women I recognized. After all, in a town of 7,000 you see everybody at the grocery store or the coffee shop, or somewhere. But none of them were people I would say I knew, yet they all knew me, through my words and my characters and my stories.

Colleen, the esteemed first reader, went long as wingwoman (hey, if a guy has a wingman, can't a gal have a wingwoman?) and support system - for which I will be eternally grateful. (I really own you lunch for this one, C!) It made facing that room of strangers easier with a friend there to help me out.

Not that they weren't friendly. They were. They came armed with questions about how the books got written, how they got sold, why did I write mystery, what was my writing schedule like -- and they listened to the answers, laughed at my lame jokes, and generally made me feel like a real celebrity.

But that wasn't all. There was a SINK TRAP theme for the entire event, and our hostesses - Marcy, Pattee and Patty (I think, there were a lot of new people to sort out) - went above and beyond in the creative department. Everything, including our lunch, was an inside joke for fans of Georgie and her friends.

The morning started with cookies and coffee, but not just cookies - broach cookies! Cut in fanciful shapes, some with "windows" of melted hard candy, the cookies were decorated wtih miniature jelly beans to resemble tiny jewels. There were name tags, carefully printed with a little piece of art from the book cover (mine had the picture of Buddha - has to Buddha, Daisy wouldn't sit still long enough for a picture), and a font made up of pieces of pipe.

We settled down a bit after ten, and the morning flew by as a lively discussion ranged over many topics, mostly related to books and reading and writing. Then lunch arrived, in the form of the "unpaid help."

The "unpaid help" is actually Patty T., Marcy's daughter-in-law, and a very creative hostess! She showed up in a flannel shirt and overalls, wearing a tool belt and hard hat - perfect for a lady plumber!

But that wasn't all. Lunch came in tidy Tupperware-like boxes, which had been neatly stacked in the refrigerator, though they swear Sandra hadn't been anywhere near the kitchen. Inside each box was a lovely combination of chips, fruit, vegetables, sandwiches - including egg salad! - and cookies. The napkin had been carefully rolled and slipped inside a napkin ring made of a short piece of PVC pipe.

The best part, though, was the toolbox.

Patty, hostess extrodinaire, had cast chocolate toolboxes for each of us, and filled them with tiny chocolate tools. I cannot begin to tell you how touched I was by the thought and effort that went into that toolbox. It was just incredible!

We talked through lunch, and an hour past the normal end of the meeting - and I think some of us could have gone on all day. Eventually, though, I did have to leave. My boss had generously allowed me to take a half-day off on a Monday morning (very generously), and I had to leave the glamour and accolades of my fans and head back to the office.

I left with a bag of lovely gifts, courtesy of the delightful hostesses. When I got home I discovered a small package in the bottom of the bag. Someone (I suspect Patty T.) had made wrapping paper by creating a photocopy collage of the SINK TRAP cover. Inside was a group of blank notecards - perfect for thank-you notes. The front of the cards had been carefully printed with a reproduction of the SINK TRAP cover, in full color. And if you look very carefully, that pencil is imprinted "SINK TRAP BY CHRISTY EVANS."  I'm telling you, these women were amazing!

I have no idea if this is what a book club gathering is like for other writers, but for me this was an entirely postive, incredibly enjoyable day. My hostesses and all the members of the group were delightful, charming and oh, so warm and welcoming. I really didn't feel like a stranger for long.

And, bless their hearts, they all said they would read the next book.

A writer can't ask for better than that!!