TALES OF A GOOD BOOK CLUB AND OF A GOOD BOX

Kay Marrero and I met Saturday so she could pick up a box of books for her book club, Creek Readers.

 When you are indie published, the author hat comes off, and the marketing one goes on. Not only marketing, but the scheduling, speechwriting, and distribution hats.

One could work fulltime plus overtime to reach out to all the people, and do all the things, that the professionals recommend in the weeks following a book launch. But when you are one, and not a team, it takes time.

One thing I wanted to get to on my list was contact Kay Marrero of Fishers. Her Creek Readers group is composed largely--maybe exclusively--of retired teachers from the Fishers area.

Here's a funny story about networking. One would assume that Brian somehow connected me with this wonderful book club. He spent the bulk of his career as a Fishers educator. That would only make sense, right? But no!

It was a New Castle friend who connected me. Mary Malone's best friend is a Creek Reader. Mary shared my first book with her pal, Rita, who shared it with her book club. Mary picked me up one night and off we went to a meeting where we discussed the book. Can I even begin to tell you the thrill involved in being asked questions about your "baby," -- your book-- by interested readers?

Then they invited me in to do the same with the second novel.

Since that was five or six years ago, I wondered if the club was still going strong. I couldn't seem to find Kay's contact information! Well, again, Mary saved the day. She reached out to Rita, and Friday night, my cell phone rang. It was Kay, excited about the new book and by the way, she has the pick for May and it's There's a Clydesdale in the Attic: Reflections on Keeping and Letting Go.

She needed nine copies for the group. We met yesterday for the hand off.

Kay also plans to share Clydesdale with another book club she's in, the Fishers United Methodist Church. The club also read my novels. What fun it was, too, to meet with them for the discussion.

This is why I informally call my book journey my Tupperware party. One gathering leads to another. You never know where the ride will take you, or when it will end. You simply count your blessings and let the wind blow through your hair during the ride.

My calendar is full for March and April, with some May and one big June booking in place. It's time to write, write, and write some more programs. It is an honor when someone contacts me and says, "We were wondering if you would consider ..."

If you know me or have read Clydesdale, you know how ridiculous I am about a GOOD BOX. In the grocery store before meeting up with Kay to hand off the books, I spotted two empties inside some refrigerator doors. They looked perfectly sized for my books. I asked if I could have them and they didn't care.

I got home and gathered the nine copies for Kay. They nestled beautifully into one of these boxes.

"I can't get over how perfect those fit in there," said Brian.

"I know!" I beamed. "I will be going back to snag more of these."
​
Yes, these little book boxes are on my grocery list from now on. Thank you, Anderson Payless!

​We Cronks love us a GOOD box.

A perfect box is hard to find.