On the Road

SELLING BOOKS IN ST. PETERSBURG

We had a great---make that a tremendous!---day in St. Petersburg!

Librarians are such nice people and the group from the Church and Synagogue Library Association were especially terrific. Not only did they buy my books in record numbers, but they asked intelligent questions, made super suggestions, and agreed to send in even more orders once they got home!

What surprised me was the librarians were so interested in my mysteries set in St. Petersburg. Now why hadn't I guessed that? What may have sold them were the covers! The Don CeSar, world reknowned resort , that pink beauty, was painted by our daughter Noelle on one, and for the other, she'd painted a parrot, a match book cover from the Single Hearts Club, and a black straw hat---all clues in the mystery. Actually, I had considered bringing a box of my mysteries, but we'd left the house at 7:15 a.m., and I'd forgotten the books. Luckily, I'd made order sheets and quite a few librarians promised to send me orders through the mail.

I also got to see my writing teacher, Charlotte, who was honored by the group for her work as a founder of the Florida-Suncoast Chapter with a beautiful custom-designed monarch butterfly pin. I was so happy to be there and congratulate her and donate a book to her church library. At 80, she's still a live wire, teaching at Eckherd College, teaching writing students, and being librarian for her church library. I plan to follow in her energetic steps and continue writing at least until I'm 90!

Lunch was another adventure! We planned to meet a couple of friends. When we got there, we found the restaurant we love was closed and under renovation. We tried to call our friends, but they had already left home, so we waited for them. They had another restaurant in mind and it had a terrific Chinese buffet, which we gobbled up.

All-in-all, a great adventure!

Keep reading, writing, and adventuring!

Carolyn