Meeting Bob Morris, The Caribbean King

I was thrilled to hear that Bob Morris would be in Chicago promoting his new book, Bermuda Schwartz (which I had read and enjoyed). I brought my husband Jeff to the event, and it was no big sacrifice for him, since Bob made the traditional drink of Bermuda, the "Dark and Stormy," for everyone present, and those are some tasty drinks.
Jeff thought so, too, and he is excited about starting the book tomorrow, now that it's signed by Bob and the two of them bonded over the pleasures of rum.
Here is the ubiquitous J.A. Konrath, who I was surprised to see with liquor in his hand. :)
And Henry Perez made it, too, although he had to come a long way and, like me, he got caught in a snarl of Chicago traffic. Still, Bob made all our problems go away with his fun talk and the Dark and Stormies he passed out to the crowd. He told us tales of the far flung islands, including his first trip to Jamaica as a fifteen-year-old boy, which made such an impression on him that he knew he would write about the islands some day. And now he does. Great meeting you, Bob!

Happy Monday

For some people "happy" and "Monday" are mutually exclusive, and there are days that they are for me, too. But today is exciting for a few reasons. First, I begin all new classes. Sort of a clean slate psychology there. Second, I've had some nice exchanges in the book business lately that I'd like to mention.

I got a lovely e-mail from Robert Fate last night. I loved Baby Shark and in fact have a lot of theories about where the series might be going. Bob told me, via e-mail, that he read and enjoyed my book and wanted to tell me how beautiful my writing was. LOVE him.

I finished Hope McIntyre's book, How to Marry a Ghost, and thought it was terrific. Really hard to put down, especially for the last 100 pages. LOVE her, too.

Bob Morris was kind enough to send me an ARC of Bermuda Schwartz, and I am getting ready to begin. He signed it "For Julia, who gives great interview," and I'm inordinately pleased about that. Sort of like I'm in high school and the captain of the football team spoke to me in the hall. Never mind that I'm 42 and spend most of my time driving my children around town and telling them at various volumes that the house is messy.

Right now I'm just enjoying an unexpected perk of having written a book--the people that I've met, the talents to which I've been exposed, with the added knowledge that they're not just names on covers; they're real people, inevitably warm and kind.

Like the ladies with whom I've joined a blog called Poe's Deadly Daughters. Check them out at http://www.poesdeadlydaughters.blogspot.com/ Here are some more women that I've gotten to know--especially Sandra Parshall and Lonnie Cruse--and their books, too, were great fun to read and highly suspenseful. I'll never run out of books to read, not with so many people to recommend them.

So that's something to smile about this Monday morning.