I belong to a book club that meets the second Tuesday of each month (Sugarbook Club).  This past Tuesday was our first meeting of the new year and we were fortunate to have an author visit.  What is an author visit you ask?  Well, we are fortunate (and we actually work really hard at it) to have local authors come to our meetings and hang out with us.  We are not your average book club that sits back and chooses a book to read for the month and then discusses the symbolism or does in-depth character traits.  NOPE…that’s not us.  We do have a set book that we are to read each month.  We do discuss the book more like a review…did you hate, did you love it and why.  We do talk about the characters…are they punks or alphas, are they deserving of each other, that kind of discussion.  No symbolism, no hidden meanings.  After we have discussed the book we are supposed to read, we start talking about other books we read during the month (this can be very heated and enthusiastic) as well as, what books are soon to be releashed and what we plan to read next.  We have found that most authors are initially overwhelmed with the unformated style of meeting, but once they realize the way of it all they think it’s loads of fun.

So about the author…  Her name is Carmen K. Glenn and she is the author of three published works and is currently working on a fourth.  He novels are: Overdrive, Ambition, and Office Gossip.  Carmen began writing in 2006.  The first story, Overdrive, was originally a journal that she was writing for herself that she later changed to a story for her own personal enjoyment.  Her sister pleaded with Carmen to let her view it and from there she persuaded her to publish it.  After the first book was published, she found that readers had questions about one of the characters from Overdrive and the second novel, Ambition, was born.  Again, readers had questions about another character that was addressed in Office Gossip.   All in all it was a good visit.

We also talked about the trips we will be making this year as a book club.  There are author/reader appreciations that happen throughout the year that are hosted either by an author or, in one case, a major bookstore chain.  This year we will be attending the Lori Foster Readers Appreciation weekend in June and the Borders sponsored RomCon in Denver in August.   There is so much planning to be done, hotels, car rentals, flight arrangements.  A couple of the ladies have been thinking about taking the train to Denver after hearing me talk about our train trip to Houston.  They think the scenary would be breathtaking.  The debate is that the cost of a coach seat on a train is a little more than the cost of a round trip plane ticket.  So do you want to have scenary or be there in a couple of hours and be able to relax in the hotel room?

As usual, I supplied the “treat” for our meeting.  This month was Red Velvet Brownies.  I had to make them without nuts because one of our members is allergic to them, but they were still awesome.  All of the snow started coming down that day so we didn’t have a full head count; but it just made it easier for everyone to take home the extra brownies.  Kristian always comes with me to my meetings (I’ve tried to leave at home a few times and she always has a fit.  She actually called me one time to tell me that I was in trouble because I left her at home. :)), and she was telling me to make sure that I get a some brownies too.  The presentation wasn’t the best, because it had been a crazy, busy day (the snow and Kristian had an awards ceremony at school in the middle of the day that I left work to attend, then took her with me). 

I love our meetings….I love being in the company of anyone who loves the written word.  🙂  Even if I’m now considered a snob because I will only read books in electronic format.  I’ll have to tell you guys about that another time. Happy reading to all my fellow readers.