I have been asked to share this cool idea with the board. I hope you enjoy it.

Does your club have the ho-hum need something new blues? Call your friendly librarian and ask if she has a list of local authors and copies of their books or look online for local authors. Once you have secured enough copies of his/her books, contact the author and invite them to you next meeting. I contacted one author Bev Marshall through her publisher and found out that she lived about 20 minutes from my house.

I called Bev and invited her and she accepted. For the meeting I made each member a copy of the menu of items taken from the story. Like we had Orange Crush and drank from Mason Jars and dessert was Mississippi Mud Cake all things were in the story.

The other members were blown away and the author has told me she will never forget the experience. We talked briefly about the story and had her undivided attention to ask about how she got started and published. It was truly an awesome night.!

Try it what do you have to lose and if you do please post your experience.

Happy Reading,
Radar_Charley

That is a fantastic idea! I know we have some local authors in my area. Thanks for posting.

I still have a copy of that adorable menu! Another suggestion for book clubs: Many of us authors will chat with a book club via telephone. Simply email us with the date and time you'll be calling, and we'll send a phone number and confirmation if we are available. I know Silas House does a lot of phone visits, and I enjoy doing them, too. Bev Marshall

Hi!

It always amazes me how giving authors are with their time; I always thought of them as sitting in their rooms typing away and ignoring the outside universe, but in truth, I have been wonderfully surprised by how willing nearly any author I've ever read is to meeting their fans, whether at larger conventions, or coming to smaller goups to talk!

One of my treasures from my childhood was a letter sent to me by an author after I sent her a note telling her how much I loved her book and asking what was probably to her, a rather silly questions, but to me was so very serious. The time she took in sending a hand types and signed reply that actually answered me, and in turn asked ME some things was so wonderful to find in my mailbox.

Thank you so much for sharing the idea, and Ms Marshall, welcome to our boards.

Thanks for the welcome, Anne. I admit to sitting and typing, ignoring the universe from time to time, but I make time for my readers. After all, if not for readers, we authors would be out of work. Most of the authors I know love to hear from book lovers (even if they don't love the books we wrote). Some of my readers are the most interesting people I know and have wonderfully fascinating stories to tell. I always wish they'd written a book for me to read, and some of them are working on doing just that. Bev