An unforgettable day

TUESDAY – D-day

Was up very late last night, fighting with a very weak wifi connection trying to send out email blasts to my friends and family.  Got up early, took a walk.  Then, couldn’t help myself but ended up at the bookstore (opens at 7) and strolled through, to the kids section under “F”.  Nothing.  

I looked at the table out front where they have a number of the faculty’s books (which I thought would have been presumptious to look there first).  Nothing there either.  I’m too self conscious to ask for the manager while I'm in the store, so I go back to my room and email him(Coward!  Yeah I know.  I save the hero stuff for my books).  He responds shortly that he ordered it 7 days ago and should arrive today.  

 

I get a barrage of wonderful emails from all my friends and former colleagues.  I even get a job offer to teach a film course at the college where I taught screenwriting last year.  Everyone at the Highlights conference is so excited for me.  Peter Jacobi comes up and congratulates me,  One after another, people come up to congratulate me and wish me well and ask if the book is in the store yet. 

 I check back in the afternoon… but no.  I end the day still waiting to see my book on a bookstore shelf, but that's okay because...

Dinner is a 30 minute busride across the lake to a museum for Roger Tory Peterson who created the field guides for nature study.  The food is good, but the best part is I get to sit at a table with Clay Winters, president of Boyds Mills Press, Highlights publishing company.  He’s a funny, charming man and raconteur who instantly treats you like you’ve been friends with him for years.  A real prince.  He tells a great story of how he met Kent Brown, the head of Highlights Magazine and how the two of them started Boyds Mill Press 20 years ago.  I share a seat with Clay on the busride back and he shares more wonderful anecdotes about sailing on a yacht with Dr. Seuss, getting a million dollar check tossed back in his face by an arrogant bestselling author, and being brought to tears when his grandson read Go Dog Go aloud for the first time during an elementary school visit.  By far this is the highlight of the week.