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Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Author event at Town Crier Books, Emporia

The good people at Town Crier Books in Emporia hosted an author event June 9th with 40 authors attending. It was quite a show, with every genre imaginable represented, except for smut, I reckon. (Too bad!) Kudos to manager Becky Smith, who did a fantastic job in pulling off what can only have been a daunting challenge. As far as I'm aware there were no fisticuffs among the authors, who, as we all know, can be a might tetchy at times.

My greatest pleasure (beside selling a few books) was in meeting Cheryl Unruh, blogger of Flyover People fame, and Mark Scheel, a writer friend from the Kansas City area. I had been communicating through e-mail to both of these excellent people but had never met them in person. It was quite an honor.

Mark's book, A Backward View, has been a favorite of mine, especially the last paragragh. I can't say how mnay times I've read it, and each time it's as fresh as the first. In fact, I get terribly jealous when I read it. I wish it were mine. Mark's photo on the dust jacket shows a refined man, chin in hand, a pensive intellectual, a cultured poet and author--which made me wonder what kind of man he really is. Now I know.

When I first saw him he was grinning at me like a Cheshire cat. "You're even uglier in person than you are in your pictures," he said. God bless him, I could only agree.

Mark autographed his book specially for me and we retired to the local cantina where he bought me and Lori lunch. What a guy!

Afterward, we returned to the bookstore for a photo shoot. As you can see, we maintained our dignity as befitting "excellent" authors--Markspeak for "unsuccessful."

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