Author Tour Day 2

Sadly, Author Tour is now over. I meant to blog about Day 2 and 3 as it happened, but Saturday and Sunday got away from me. All I can say is that I had a blast and am extremely sad it's now over.

Day 2 (Saturday) started out with me picking up Shannon at her hotel. We hit the drive through at Mickey D's then swung by Deidre's house which is near the historic old downtown section of Madison. Just as I pulled into her gravel driveway, a horse-drawn carriage filled with a small group of tourists went ambling by the road behind her house. If you didn't know better you'd swear you were in another century. The homes in Madison are quite frankly my dear, beyond lovely. Deidre told us the story of how Madison avoided Sherman's torch during the civil war. Apparently, one of Madison's citizens, Joshua Hill was a pro-Union senator. He also had ties to Sherman's brother at West Point. He met Sherman at the entrance of the city and begged him not to burn his home. Deidre said that the story goes that the citizens of Madison laid out all their valuables on their front yards so that the Yankees would take their things, but spare their homes. Thus, Madison avoided the fate of most of rest of Georgia's towns along Sherman's route. Pretty cool, huh?

So after we do a little historic tour of Madison, Deidre, Shannon and drove to Buford in my mini-van, with D directing us with her hand held GPS tool (more on that later). The ride was beautiful. We went through small town after small town past cotton fields and talked about everything from our writing to bizarre unrelated topics like Pica (the compulsion to eat dirt).

We arrive at Books for Less in Buford where everything is pre-set up for our Author Q&A and book signing in the adjoining coffee shop. Jia has everything set up, including the red and white balloons I now recognize from yesterday's signing and the awesome poster. The crowd is very friendly and is genuinely interested in the publishing business. Most of them are writers and aspire to publish one day. We get asked a broad range of questions, including the old "Where do you get your ideas from?" I really love listening to my fellow TKA sisters answer this question. Dreams, daydreams, fantasies, etc, is the answer most given. I tell the crowd that most of my inspiration comes from real live experiences, from listening to other people and people watching (the crowd now looks at me suspiciously, wondering if one of them will end up in one of my books)- no really, they are very gracious, and after our Q&A we sign books and munch down on some tasty snacks that Jennifer has provided.

Deidre, Shannon and I all load back up in our car to meet Jia and Jennifer and Debbie (who didn't attend the Buford signing b/c of familial obligations) and head back to Madison for the next signing. This is where D's GPS system fails us. We get lost no less than at least 4-5 times, however this is not necessarily a bad thing b/c we get to see more of the beautiful Georgia countryside, hit a Chick-fil-A for something to drink, and do what all writers do whenever they are together- talk about and plot their books:)

We arrive at Dog Ear Books in Madison (one of the cutest book stores ever!) where Jia has arranged the red and white balloons and the now much beloved TKA signing poster with our faces and books on it. I know I'm showing my complete dweebness again when I say that seeing a bookstore poster with my face and book on it gives me a thrill like no other. I really hope I never lose that feeling:) We meet a bunch of very nice people ( a lot of them Deidre's friends) sign books, then head over to Town 220, the restaurant next door for dinner. I had the scallops and risotto with a balsamic reduced sauce. It was absolutely delicious. I completely cleaned my plate and would have licked it clean if I wasn't in public. I kid you not. One of the really cool things about this restaurant is that there's a large glass window into the kitchen where you can see the chef and his crew preparing the food. This immediately made me think of Louisa because of her Recipe for Love books and made me wonder how her hunky chefs would do with an audience. I think a couple of them would love it, actually.

After dinner, Jia gave us a tour of the agency, and even though I've been there a few times, it's always a thrill to walk through and see all the stacks of client books, including mine! We pick through some freebie books, then head back to our respective beds because by this time we're all beat, and we need to start the day all over again.

Coming tomorrow: Author Tour day 3 and the ride home!