Saturday was two weeks from the day I’ll be at Park Road Books in Charlotte (Jan 23 3:00 to 5:00), signing copies of my novel, Motherless Soul. So my wife, Toni, and I made the trip down I85 to see the store, put up posters and visit our son and daughter-in-law who live in that area. My father-in-law agreed to drop by our house to let Georgie, our lab/terrier mix, out in our backyard midway through the day. Our dog’s never been alone longer than six hours. If we left her for eight or ten hours, she would probably just sleep on the bed and wait for us to return. But since she’s not used to long periods without access to the yard and since we worry about her more than we should, we haven’t pushed her.
We listened to the beginning of Gilead by Marilynne Robinson as we drove. I’m only a little into the book at this point, so I can’t judge it fully at this point. So far it is a number of reminiscences by a minister nearing the end of his life and doesn’t seem to have a traditional plot. In a way it is a fictional memoir, which strikes me as odd. But the writing is good, the characters are appealing, and I’m enjoying it.
We went to Erik and Becky’s house first then tried to distribute a few posters. The plan was to hit the libraries. Unfortunately, I discovered that I should have called ahead. The Charlotte library system has a rule that all bulletin board items need to be approved first by someone who doesn’t work weekends. We also tried the library at Queens University and discovered that the college is still on break and the library won’t reopen until Monday. But we dropped two posters off at Park Road Books and another one at a bagel shop in the same shopping center. Those were the most important places. I also left a few others with my son and daughter-in-law, who said they would put some up at their offices and possibly try the libraries again, after I call.
At Park Road Books I met a couple of nice women who were working behind the counter. It’s a lovely book store, much more intimate than the big box stores. They have a good selection of books and it was a nice feeling to find mine on the shelf. The store owner likes to do signings there and has a table set up for the various authors. I’ll be sitting at that table on January 23 and, hopefully, meeting a number of interesting people while I’m there. If anyone is in the area, please drop by.
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