Monday, October 15, 2012

What!? A Christian In A Honky-Tonk?

Marshall Chapman sang at the Bluebird Cafe ... I didn't get a ticket, but I hovered in spirit. Do you know there are just 100 seats in that place? They're sold out every night, obviously, but the essence of American Country Music runs so thick in and around Nashville you can cut it with your fork. It's everywhere. Not just at the Bluebird. Men and women walk the streets with guitars slung over their shoulders in the shadows of the Ryman Auditorium, the home church of the Grand Ol' Opry. It' a sight to behold.


The Author's Reception was only a few blocks from "honky tonk row". After running into Julie Cantrell and Susan Cushman, and talking like friends who had known each other forever, we walked outside to the sound of music floating up the street, drawing us like dry rub on a pork butt. At each place we stopped, you could watch some country star wanna-be through the window, crooning their heart out. I loved it. The people loved it.

A sea of cowboy boots, short skirts, Dolly Parton hairdos, and glittery shirts. To sit and people watch, it was a gift ... and this ol' pentecostal-raised gal felt not one drop of condemnation.

 

The Southern Festival of the Book took over downtown Nashville again this year, with authors, readings, signings, and tents filled with everything "book".
 
 
New Voices in Women's Fiction. I sat with Kimberly Babb Brock and Ginger Moran, discussing our work, our new books, and the industry as we saw it. The room was full, which was great for an early Saturday morning panel. But something strange happened. Reading from Televenge I suddenly saw myself as if from a dream. I experienced a true deja vu moment and I almost stopped mid-sentence. It spooked me, but I kept reading ... I had never felt something quite like it during a reading of my work, and I've read to hundreds of groups. I know. I know. What can I say? It simply runs through the women in my mother's family. I can't explain it. I stopped trying long ago.
 

More on the book tour tomorrow ... every day something exciting happens!

Blessings to you and yours.



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