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Joan...and the Ladies...send their love... |  |
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Greetings! I was invited to attend the Red Hat Convention in Iowa in July. What a marvelous time I had! Those mid-western ladies really know how to make a gal feel welcome... Joan
My granddaughter, Toby, bless her, was infinitely patient and kind to me. We were three days on the road going and three days coming, which on the return trip seemed interminable. It was my pleasure, once again, to see and talk with the energetic and enthusiastic Patt Riggs, who suggested me as the speaker for this convention. I met Patt when she visited Asheville several years ago. We spent several delightful hours together and became pen pals. It was a joy for me to finally meet Kathleen Evans, a lovely lady, and to be able to thank her personally for her kindness to me and for creating the e-mail fan club. Thanks and kudoes go to Ginny Del Rosario, a warm and welcoming woman, for a magnificently well-organized convention.
One of the joys of this convention was that no one
pressured me to do anything. I could attend an
event or go to my room and rest. I appreciated that.
After the long three day drip getting there by car (I
won’t fly) I needed to rest.
What fun when three fine women greeted me dressed as Hannah, Grace and Amelia! [Jane Townsend, Dorothy Jensen, and Jo Kilburn] It was my pleasure, once again, to see and talk with the energetic and enthusiastic Patt Riggs, who suggested me as the speaker for this convention. I met Patt when she visited Asheville several years ago. We spent several delightful hours together and became pen pals. It was a joy for me to finally meet Kathleen Evans, a lovely lady, and to be able to thank her personally for her kindness to me and for creating the e-mail fan club. Thanks and kudoes go to Ginny Del Rosario (left), a warm and welcoming woman, for a magnificently well-organized convention. I visited with and spoke informally to fans at a pre convention fan-club dinner. Then on Friday afternoon 125 women signed up for a "Chat", a question and answer session.. Questions generally cover everything I would talk about in a more formal address. At breakfast on Saturday, I gave a formal talk about Possibilities. I shared that at 64 when I began to write, I hadn’t a clue what I was doing and had to learn all about eh craft of writing. Life presents roads we can choose to take or not, and none of us need ever stop learning and growing. If I were not able to write, I would sign up for Archaeology classes by e-mail. I would visit local high schools and talk to English classes about writing. We all have skills and talents—let’s use them. I was welcomed into the hearts of so many wonderful women, and have heard by e amil from so many of you since I returned home. Thank you all for your kindness and hospitality to me and to Toby PS For lots of great photos and info about the convention, check out Kathleen Evans web site.
The bookstore, at the Convention, Borders, graciously handled the books sales, and sold out of books leaving some of you unable to buy the books. Should any of you want an autographed book, just write to me. You can send me a check made out to my local bookstore ACCENT ON BOOKS and I will get the book, autograph it, and mail it to you. It’s not any trouble. I am often at that bookstore. My address: Box 355 Barnardsville, NC 28709
As Toby and I left the mountains of Kentucky and headed into Ohio and Illinois and then Iowa, the sky grew wider, bigger, bluer. In the Mountains the sky seems smaller. You see less of the sky and never the horizon. In the Virgin Islands, I could look out at the ocean to the far horizon. In Florida, the skies are big and blue. I miss a big sky. What a treat, then, for me to ride along and look up at such a huge sky and marvelous enormous white clouds that change shapes. Iowa’s Big Sky and far horizons were pleasures to me.
So many of you have asked about the next book.. There will be a mothers day ladies novel in the spring next year, and in the summer of 2008 the 7th ladies novel will be out. Check my web site joanmedlicott.com for information as the time grows closer. I am 300 pages into book seven now. In 2007 there will be a non-ladies novel called The Mountains are Dancing. That title came from a poem by e.e. cummings that I have always liked. The novel is about a woman who, when she loses her husband, goes on a campaign to find another. She feels that she is nothing without a man. She will not go to a movie alone or a restaurant and has no women friends. How she changes and grows into a whole self is the substance of this novel.
Topic: Landscape.
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