Patti Callahan Henry

Patti is a contributor to the Southern Authors blog A Good Blog is Hard To Find.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

So I thought....

Those are champagne bottles we are holding!

God Bless Linda Brown from Milestone Books for being there with me!

I really thought today was shaping up to be the WORST DAY ever of book tour. (Read below from earlier this morning). When a day starts out like that, how could it possibly end? Really -- when you start out at 4AM with a stolen GPS and a late flight, how good can it get?

And that is what is so great, so fun, so amazing about life and its turns. This is why I love a good story -- because just when you think it is as dark as it can get; just when you think you can't take one more minute of ANY of this == light bursts through.

At five o-clock today my agent -- the amazing Kimberly Whalen --- calls my cell phone while I am at Milestone Books. I almost don't answer because after my book signing I must go back to the airport to find my LOST luggage. But I answer and she is hollering into the phone. The good kind of hollering.

DRIFTWOOD SUMMER hit the NYT Bestseller list.

I don't believe her. This is what kind of day it has been -- I don't believe her. I think she has read the list wrong. Or is delusional. Or I am.

But it's true. And I am dizzy with happy.

Truly amazing.

Is this real?

It is -- so I make a complete fool of myself in front of my friend Linda (who owns and runs Milestone Books in Birmingham, Alabama -- GREAT STORE). And then we go out and celebrate....

Just When You Think....

PICTURE with me: River Jordan, author of Saints in Limbo -- beautiful book. Beautiful author; Kathy Louise Patrick, the Pulpwood Queen in her Beauty and the Book combo beauty shop/bookstore.

Just when you think it is all working out so perfectly.....I mean here I was in a town so quaint and near perfect that I thought it might be a movie set. I had a great night meeting all the Pulpwood Queen book club members from ALL over Louisiana and Texas, and then slept in this perfect little BB.

THEN, bam!

Not so perfect.

I awoke at 345Am to leave the BB by 410AM so I could get to Shreveport for my 625AM flight. I tiptoe out of the BB, stumble to my rental car in the dark to discover that someone has stolen my portable GPS in my rental car.

I want to cry, but I don't. Really, it's 410 in the morning and I have no idea where I am or how to get where I'm going. Who do you wake up? Who do you call? What do you do?

I remember this: my iPhone. I love my iPhone now more than I ever did (and that is saying a lot) as it took me through backwoods Texas roads at 415Am to the Shreveport airport where I sit and wait on.....a delayed flight.

Oh, the glamour of book tour.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Jefferson, Texas

Today I'm somewhere I've never been before (that's not saying lot as I'm not some kind of world traveler). Jefferson, Texas. I flew into Shreveport, LA (beautiful from the sky), and then drove an hour or so across rolling hills and farms to Jefferson, Texas. This is a town that looks more like a movie set than a real place. The square with the statue; the white church steeples; the river with the covered bridge; the brick streets. Amazing.

My favorite new thing I've learned so far: Texas has a day speed limit. And night speed limit. I get so bored on the road alone that I wondered this: What is the speed limit during twilight -- that shimmery time between day and night?

My favorite new food this week so far: Cornbread Sandwich from Kitt's Kornbread Sandwich and Pie Bar. Yes, I also had the Coconut Buttermilk Pie.

And tonight I finally get to meet the famous Pulpwood Queen Kathy Louise Patrick.

I in a Bed and Breakfast where the owner has a dog named Money-Penny and a son named Atticus.

These are things you can't make up.

And these are good days....

Here are some pictures for you to enjoy....

Tell me -- does it look real or don't you expect Sandra Bullock to come strolling out of the Five and Dime?

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Crazy World

No, this isn't where I stayed during last week's travels. BUT I did make a screeching stop on I-17 to pull into this parking lot and take a picture of the sign. DRIFTWOOD MOTEL.

Seriously.

On my Driftwood Summer Book Tour I drive right past the Driftwood Motel. Not quite as cozy as the cottage in my novel, as far as I can tell.

But these are the things that entertain me on the road.

This past week -- 1216 miles. Yes. Over a thousand miles logged. So many wonderful people and beautiful stories.

Old friends find me. New friends show up, and my life is enriched.

My favorite question so far: "Why can't you write more books and faster?"

I'm still trying to answer that one!

Favorite new discovery so far: Clay Rice and his silhouettes. Very cool.

Favorite food so far: Ms. Margaret Anne Johnston fried me up some fresh fish on Fripp Island.

Least Favorite Stretch of Highway -- I-17, which I usually love, but is completely under construction...

Best surprise so far: High school friends found me in Charleston at the Barnes and Noble. I forgot I had high school friends. :)

Best beach I've never been to so far: The stretch of beach behind my friend, Jenny's house on Pawley's Island. The full moon stretched across the water and it all looked like something out of a movie; all photoshopped and fake, but it wasn't. At all.

Next week -- Greenville, SC; Jefferson, TX; Birmingham, AL; Fairhope, AL; Atlantic Beach and Vero Beach, FL.

And more favorites.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

On The Road

It's TODAY.

Yep, the book was released today -- DRIFTWOOD SUMMER that is. You'd think I write books to have parties -- because that's all I've been doing the past three days -- celebrating. You see, we as authors spend most of our time alone in a room typing. And typing. And staring at a computer screen hoping that the story we see is the story that we write.

And then we walk out into the light of day where readers hold our book in their hand; we celebrate! (before we go back into our office alone to do it again and again).

These past three days have been amazing -- and I have to hit the road again in an hour, so I'll tell you a few of my favorite moments.

--An old patient of mine (I was a pediatric nurse, and then a research nurse) came to my launch party in Norcross. It's been thirty years since I last saw him. He read an article about me. When I asked how in the world he remembered me, he said, "I saw your picture and felt a jabbing pain in my hand." (I once put an IV in this man's hand once a month). I'm still smiling about that one.

--My dearest college friends, Cate, Laura and Beth ALL came to see me. Of course I'm still smiling.

--I discovered I'm the launch book for a new book club. How very cool.

--My son turned 11 years old on my release date (June 2nd). Almost a double birthday -- in a way.