In December, I was invited for the first time to join a book club (in this case, my neighborhood book club) to discuss my first Riley Creek Cozy Mystery book, Hiking Sticks, Hawks, and Homicide. Now, full confession, I felt a bit awkward at first because I had to this point never taken part in this book club. With work, single parenting, and trying to grab a slice of time for me and for me and Dixie, there just had never been time. But I said yes and was so tickled as the organizers began making plans. Click the title of the post to hear how it went!
I had to immediately get comfortable being the literal center of attention as we gathered in my neighbor’s basement. But what a wonderful hour it was! For the first time, I really thought about this book, how it had come about, whether it connected to me in any autobiographical sense, and how it related to the cozy genre in general. We talked about birds, the creative process, and our favorite authors. Within moments I was comfortable and the conversation was flowing! I will be ever grateful for this first book club invitation, not only because it was my first but because it was among neighbors who are also friends.
The photo above is from January 2023. The Delta Kappa Gamma Zeta Book Club invited me to their inaugural meeting at the Knoxville Barnes and Noble. This group of active and retired teachers was a hoot! They are like walking librarians (in fact, one person was a retired librarian) and we talked about HHH and other great mysteries we’d read. My favorite part was the ice breaker where a few of us shared the first book we remembered reading!
I am a total book club convert now. I will eagerly RUN to any book club I can! And, for the record, I am attending the next meeting of my neighborhood book club. It’s about time.