Book clubs discussing my southern novel The Secret Sense of Wildflower have often asked me to attend. Last week I attended one of those book clubs here in the mountains of Western North Carolina near my home.
It was a magical night and such a beautiful spot for a book club meeting. It was at a lake pavilion here in the mountains, about 15 minutes from my home, in a wonderful community called Slick Rock. The fall colors were gorgeous, the lake sparkled in the evening light and a fire roared in the fireplace! It doesn’t get much better than that.
I love book clubs. (I am the first one on the right, in purple.) Not to mention that they had a great potluck meal to start off the meeting and prepared food mentioned in the book! (Brownie points for anyone who has read the book and remembers what that might have been!)
Their comments and questions about Wildflower were thoughtful and perceptive, and I appreciated the opportunity to talk about this book and the characters that I love so much, as well as about my writing process.
We writers sit with our stories day after day hoping that someday readers will find our books and hopefully enjoy them. Nights like this make it worth the years invested. I’ve said it before: writers are nothing without readers!
I also participate in book clubs all over the country via Skype, so if your (local or online) book group wants to read, The Secret Sense of Wildflower, and have me answer questions, I am available. You can email me to set it up. I also have a set of book club questions I can send you.
HAPPY READING!
P.S. My thoughts and best wishes go out to those readers dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy! If you are able, please let us know how you are!
More on book clubs here.
From one of our lovely email subscribers:
“No brownie points for me, foodie that i am. Please tell me the foods they prepared that were in the book. My curiosity is engaged :))
Are these foods you grew up with? Great idea to make your time with them a potluck. it sounds like it was a very wonderful night.”
Anybody want to answer her question? Hint: It’s in chapter one. It was something my family ate quite often when I was a kid.
Here’s one from another subscriber. You can see why I love my readers so much.
“It sure looks like your evening with the book club was a lot of fun. What a thrill to sit among those who have read your book and are asking you, in person, questions about it. A gift of acknowledgement—sweet! You are so deserving. Mary”
You know, as lovely as the book club surely was, and as interesting a speaker as you surely were, what really has me gawking is the scenery in the background! I’d just have to take a long walk if I were there!
It really was a beautiful place. I wish you could have tagged along!
Hi Ed,
Thanks for stopping by! I will check out your website. I like the thought that there is more breadth to southern fiction because it includes multiple genres. My novel, The Secret Sense of Wildflower, is not only considered southern gothic literature, but historical fiction and literary fiction.
Susan,
I stumbled on your website and blog screening for Southern Fiction. It’s very well done, and you appear to have had some success. I’m a couple years behind you. I’ve published two books, one 22 years ago in paper and the other in paper and ebook this past August. I have a website and blog. My blog is Southern Adventure Fiction and I’m going to discuss fiction in the New South, and that includes historical fiction, romance fiction, and what used to be called literate fiction. My premise is that there is more breadth to current southern fiction as it includes multiple genres, and genre fiction is mainstream fiction. I would invite you to visit my blog, read the couple of posts I have, and comment. Though my second book is a political action thriller, I’m interested in bringing female readers into the discussion because they seem to be a large part of the market.
I’d like to explore the common threads of Southern Fiction that bring the genres together. What makes a romance novel or a thriller Southern, as opposed to just romance or thriller?