Last night I attended the second of three
booksignings Mel and I have been signed up for in a local
small town this month--after no signings for over a year.
It was amazing. From 6-8 pm, our local pharmacist--where several
of us writers were signing books--was bombarded with shoppers,
as was the rest of the tiny downtown. The streets were packed.
All was Christmas oriented, I'm talking CHRISTMAS, not
just generic "holiday" stuff. We had live music
on the street and everybody who knew everybody else getting
together and chatting and hugging and trying really, really
hard to remember names. We're all getting a little older.
I'm not much on crowds, but this was fun, and since I can't
drive, and Mel had to work, I had to catch a ride home with
the mother of my stepchildren. Yes, my late ex-husband's
first wife, who is one of my dearest friends.
This is SO small-town that I must write it into the next
book. I mean, the Methodist minister came by to see me because
I was wild about his rock band when I was a teenager--The
Lavender Hill Mob. I don't think I've ever been so glad
to be a part of this tiny microcosm of society. Small Town
Missouri, live on!
My biggest problem was protecting my shoulder--still in
a sling since surgery. So many people came by to hug me
that I was afraid it would set my healing back a week or
so. It didn't. It just reaffirmed my faith in small-town
America. Mayberry RFD, Petticoat Junction and Green Acres
all rolled into one, with intelligent, loving and very GOOD
people roaming the streets half the night. God is still
blessing us here in Mid-America.
Hannah Alexander
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