National Lifewriting Month

Authors Liz Moloney, Kim Wolterman & Linda Austin

November is National Lifewriting Month, which is designed to encourage people to document their personal and family stories. 6 North Cafe in St. Louis wanted to kick the month off by having Liz Moloney, Linda Austin and me at the cafe this morning to talk about our books and inspire others to write down their life stories. Liz has authored a book about her own life, Linda co-authored her mother's story of growing up in Japan during WWII, and has just released a book of poetry entitled Poems that come to Mind for those who love someone with dementia. (What a perfect illustration of why it is so important to write the stories down while they can still be remembered and told.) And I have told the story of my father's WWII history through the photos and documents he left behind. Houses also have stories to tell, so my other books tie into this topic as well.

We did have several people stop by the table and talk to us about their desire to document some of the stories in their lives, so it was fun to be able to offer words of support to them. We were also able to let them know about the St. Louis Publishers Association and what it has to offer authors in the area.

For more information about National Lifewriting Month just click on this link.

Book Signing

As I had mentioned in an earlier post the lovely folks at 6 North Cafe invited me to hold a book signing and presentation about researching house history at their Ballwin location. We had selected this morning as the date, and what a beautiful day it turned out to be. Sometimes that can be bad for an author event because people want to be outdoors during these lovely fall days. The event was promoted by the cafe through their social media and local contacts as well as by me.

Things started out on the wrong foot for me as my mapquest failed me. It said it would take me 17 minutes to arrive at my destination, and that 6 North Cafe would be on the right hand side of the road. I allowed 30 minutes for arrival, thinking that on a Saturday the time would be adequate. First I was overshot the address. In my defense, not too many of the businesses have an address large enough to read while operating a car. A few more trips up and down Clayton did not reveal the business to me. I finally stopped and asked the kind lady at Clarkson Eyecare if she knew where the cafe was located. Fortunately I was close, and it was on the left hand side of the road, not the right. Bottom line is that I was 20 minutes late and I was mortified by that. As there was no long line of fans waiting for my arrival, it was not that big of a deal. My tip of the day is to always ask your host for help with directions! I do not know why I didn't do that since I was unfamiliar with the area.

As it turned out no one arrived to buy my house history book or to hear my presentation. (Though I did sell one copy of From Buckeye to G.I.) So you might think that I am disappointed in the outcome. But you would be wrong. Four other authors came to the cafe, two because I had been announcing it and two by coincidence I believe. We had a wonderful discussion about traditional publishing versus self-publishing, ebooks, marketing, printers - you name it. It was fantastic! In fact, I would love to see all of us, and more, get together for coffee once a month or so to share ideas.  Even though the St. Louis Publishers Association meets once a month, there is never enough time to have the kind of conversation we were able to have today.

Top all of that with a fantastic cup of brewed tea and an amazing pumpkin scone, and my author event was great!