Next Chapter Bookshop

Greetings from Milwaukee! This is rare for a book tour, but I actually get to stay in the same hotel (and a wonderful one at that—Milwaukee's lovely Pfister) for three nights.

There were truffles on my bed when I arrived Monday night. Truffles. :-)

Last night I had the pleasure of a great event at Next Chapter Bookshop in Mequon. What a great turnout, what great questions, and what a great store! They had the Humane Society there giving out information. My very favorite audience member (of MANY special audience members) was a puppy named Bert. Bert has a brother Ernie, who was not able to attend.

The Next Chapter event was especially special because after years of correspondence, I at long last got to meet one of my favorite authors, Lesley Kagen. Years ago, we were always missing each other by one or two days, our paths almost crossing at various stores on book tour, and it was that amazing Jill Miner at Saturn Booksellers who recommended Lesley's novel, Whistling in the Dark to me. We've emailed, we've blurbed each other's books, and now we've finally had dinner together and got to meet face-to-face. It felt like we'd known each other forever!

I was very honored that Lesley introduced me at Next Chapter Bookshop.

(In the first photo, from L-R, Anne, Lesley Kagen, Morgan, me, Connie, Mary Gielow).

Also in attendance in the audience were two former students of mine from when I taught at Centerville High School in Ohio. Thanks to Megan and Susan who walked me down memory lane (um...yeah...remember the group who pretended to be digging up a grave in David's Cemetery for their parody of Frankenstein and the police got called? Stuff like that...).

Also wonderful wonderful FB friend Lindsy O'Brien, a writer, a publisher, and bookseller extreme made the trip from Duluth (!) to see the reading! I was so touched. That was like being handed a present. Wow.

I had a great day with media escort extraordinaire, Mary Gielow, who not only took me to a delicious lunch on the river, but took me to Milwaukee's many bookstores to sign stock and meet cool booksellers.

Tonight, on to Books & Co. in Oconomowoc. And I've gotta say, I love saying Oconomowoc. Really. Try it. Now say it six times fast.

Be careful. It's addictive... Oconomowoc. Oconomowoc. Oconomowoc.

Oh, and you know what? I'm wearing a different shirt tonight. Now, watch, I probably won't take any pictures, which means every single one of my tour pictures will have me in the same purple shirt...ah well. What are you going to do? Oconomowoc.