The Book Store and the Author

The title of this post sounds like the title of a Nancy Drew novel...and though that could be an interesting blog entry, what I did tonight was even more interesting. 

A few months ago my book club read Robert Goolrick's "A Reliable Wife."  None of us had previously read it and therefore found the somewhat darker, risque themes a bit surprising.  The plot and characters, though, were absolutely captivating thanks to Goolrick's amazing style of writing.  Another member of the club, who was very interested to know the background of the author, purchased, read and shared Goorick's first book and autobiography with the rest of us.  We quickly  discovered that this poor man had a very difficult and, frankly, terrible, childhood.  When we heard he was coming to town to promote his third book, "Heading out to Wonderful," we knew we had to go hear him speak.

After receiving some last minute drop-outs, I headed over to Boswell Books by myself where I met a couple from book club.  I had never really been to Boswell Books before...I say really because it turns out I had unknowingly wandered in after stopping at the connected Starbucks for coffee earlier this year...I just didn't know where I was apparently.  Anyway, Boswell Books is a really great, nice-sized, private book store that has all sorts of personal hand-written book recommendations, authors visiting numerous times a month, and a super convenient location connected to a Starbucks. I will definitely spend more time here.

I wandered around the store for awhile, resisting the urge to buy 5 or 6 books that I've been wanting because (1) I have a Kindle and (2) my reading list/pile is already more than I can handle right now.  About 10 minutes after 7pm, Robert Goolrick finally showed up--he was at two other Milwaukee book stores before he came to Boswell.  He was wearing orange/pink pants and a light blue blazer that somehow managed to go together...a bit.  He was older than I thought he'd be, but looked younger than the picture on the poster announcing his visit. When he launched into reading an excerpt from the first chapter of "Heading out to Wonderful" I was bothered by a seeming lack of vocal inflection.  As he went on, though, the highly descriptive quality of his writing and his ability to so accurately describe a scene, atmosphere or the inner thoughts of his characters made me forget I was even listening to a book being read. It sounded like a grandfather telling a story to his grandchildren.

My autographed copy

I ended up purchasing his new book largely as result of wanting to know how the story ends.  There was a woman in the audience who had read the book and was treading dangerously close to spoiling it for the rest of us with her questions.  I did, however, appreciate when she asked about how he goes about writing his stories.  His answer, that I will certainly remember and use as inspiration in my own writing aspirations, was thus: "I keep telling the story to myself over and over and over. When it's ready, then I sit down and tell it to you. I want you to feel like you're being told a story, not reading it on a page."

I really enjoyed the whole experience for three main reasons:
1) I would like to be a "real" author someday which means...
2) Meeting actual authors is informative and cool
3) I got some inside information/background on both "Reliable Wife" and "Heading out to Wonderful"

More author encounters will certainly follow as LeakyCon is only 9 days away!