Girls' Night Out, sort of :)

When I find an author that I really enjoy, I tend to try to read everything that person ever wrote and then eventually get tired of their style (or run out of books written by that person) and move on to something else.  For example, right now I'm totally hooked on The House of Night Series No, Mom, you shouldn't read them, they are totally trashy.  Really trashy...I'm actually embarrassed that I love them...about teenage vampires who are friends who are friends with nuns and 30 boyfriends each (the vampires, not the nuns).  Anyway, several years ago, I LOVED anything by Diane Mott Davidson.  Unfortunately, while waiting for her "next" book to be published, I forgot all about her...

Until a few weeks ago, when I saw a sign at our local library that she would be speaking to publicize her newest book.  I signed up on the library website--easy, peasy--and told Mr. Ranch that he was going to get to have a Friday night with the kids.

The library sent reminder emails, saying things like "make sure you come early--we expect lots of people".  So, I being a good direction follower, showed up at the library an hour before the event, as instructed...worried that I was going to have to park far away and walk in the dark.  When I arrived there were 10 cars in the parking lot.  I forgot we were on local time, I guess.  I made my way into the library, received my ticket to stand in line to have my book signed.  Hmmm... I don't have a book to sign...oh, well...

There are snacks (cheese, crackers, lemonade and water) and beer and wine for purchase from the Rotary club.  I find it ironic that cheese and crackers were the snacks served at an event honoring a writer who writes about a caterer. Giggle.  There were also a lot of "older" women, both with and without their "older" husbands/boyfriends/whatever. There was also a young family--mom and dad looked younger than me and the son looked about six.  What an interesting choice of events for them...

Ms. Davidson spoke for about an hour--I really do need to pick up her books again. She writes about a caterer who lives and works in the Denver area--not hard to picture the places described.  She said a couple things about writing that I plan to share with my students--she used a cooking analogy for writing, saying that we all have an emotional refrigerator, where we store ingredients for writing, and that if we can access those ingredients we can write.  She was entertaining, very funny in person. We got to hear about personal events that inspired different storylines and about her never ending kitchen remodel. I also learned that Barbara Rosenblat, who reads Elizabeth Peters' audiobooks, reads Ms. Davidson's audiobooks.  I may have to look for them on CD or playaway. 

At the end of the evening, Ms. Davidson announced that she always brings cookies, baked from a recipe in one of her books, to all the events she speaks at.  She apologized that she didn't bake all of "tonight's" herself--because she recently had hand surgery. Since I didn't have a book to be signed, I was able to collect my cookie and head home for the evening.  I haven't been able to find the recipe online, but she says it is in the "recipe" section of The Whole Enchilada (her newest book)--they are called "chocolate snowdrop cookies" and weren't chocolatety enough, so she made some modifications...I'll share the recipe if I ever find it.  The cookies were very tasty though--I restrained myself long enough to snap a picture for all of you....