The laundry is done and the bills are paid up, so before I bury myself in trying to finish Book 4, I’ll finish the saga of my Colorado book tour.
We left Monument on the morning of October 26, after my day of illness and evening of booksigning in Colorado Springs, and drove to Denver – an easy 45 minute trip. Miraculously, my vicious ailment had disappeared, and I was tired but otherwise back to my usual self. We arrived too early to check into the motel (aside – our motel was actually in Aurora, a suburb of Denver, and we were lucky to get it. The week before, we called for reservations at several hotels close to Tattered Cover and/or my sister’s house, but due to the fact that there was a World Series going on that weekend, there was no room in the inn! The motel we ended up with was quite nice, if somewhat out there.) So, we drove on in to Denver to locate the Tattered Cover Bookstore on Colfax.
There are three Tattered Covers in Denver, and the one at which I had my event is located in a renovated historic theater. It is three stories, huge and funky and impressive, filled with neon, levels, and layers. Our event was on the lower level, and quite well attended, since fortunately the Rockies were travelling that day.
I did the gig with author Mara Purl, whom I met through the Women Writing the West on-line group. We corresponded through e-mail and arranged the entire event electronically, and the night of the talk was the first time we had actually met in person. Mara is the author of the Milford-Haven series, which is an intriguing set of serial novels based on a radio serial drama that she wrote and produced for the BBC in the 1990’s, which reached an audience of 4.5 million listeners. Mara is no artistic slouch. She started out as an actess (she was “Darla Cook” on Days of Our Lives), and her writing credits include plays, screenplays, scripts for Guiding Light, cover stories for Rolling Stone, staff writer for The Financial Times of London, and the AP. There’s more, but I’m running out of room, here.
Mara’s books, of which three have been published out of a proposed twelve, are contemporary novels set in the fictional town of Milford-Haven, CA, whereas mine are historical mysteries set in early 20th Century Oklahoma. At first, we were concerned about finding a common thread in our novels, but in the end there was no problem. We both write about women and their lives, and the particular way that women see and interact with the world. Totally coincidentally, we both spoke about intuition being a higher form of knowing than intellect. Mara was a great contact to make, and we exposed each other to a new audience. The titles of Mara’s three published books are: What the Heart Knows, Closer Than You Think, and her newest, Child Secrets. Be warned, though. You’ll have to read all twelve books to ultimately find out who killed Chris.
And, I was priviliged to meet Woodstock at the event! Woodstock, you may remember, writes a blog at www.journalscape.com/woodstock, as well as reviews mysteries for CrimeSpree Magazine. She has said some wonderful things about my books, and I was thrilled that she took the trouble to come out and see me.
My youngest sister Marti lives in Denver, and came to see the talk, as well. She had to, of course, but I was really happy that she was there. We spent Saturday and Sunday with her, being royally chauffeured around Denver, Rocky Mountain National Park, and Estes Park. But this is a topic for yet another post in a couple of days, Dear Reader, since this one grows lengthy. Besides, if anyone deserves her own blog entry, it’s my sister.
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