Thanks to Kathy Patrick for choosing Love on the Big Screen as a Pulpwood Queen May Bonus Book Club selection. It’s been great getting to know so many of the book club members. You are all passionate readers with big hearts, and I’m still holding onto all those hopeful vibes I picked up from you when it comes to your enthusiasm for literacy. First, I made you all a special video greeting that also previews some of the great pictures taken in Jefferson, Texas by Brooklyn-based photographer Natalie Brasington. Click on the video below to watch:

I’m also at work on a documentary film about my visit to Texas last January for Girlfriend Weekend. I’m calling it For the Love of Books, something that just popped into my head near the end of my weekend after watching everyone stuff their extra suitcases with books and as I saw book group after book group using literacy to help others. Yes, you ladies–and a few good men–have fun, but your devotion to literacy and to caring about people is what really inspired me.

If you do read Love on the Big Screen, you can find some book club discussion questions here.  It might be fun to see what you think of this teacher’s idea about conversation starters. Also, if you glance over to the right of this page, you’ll see that I’m selling some extra copies of the novel that have accumulated at my house. Sometimes when I do a conference or a book festival, too many books are ordered and when those go unsold, they get returned to the publisher. Since the burden on an indie press can get pretty tough, I’ve purchased some of these copies.  If you’re interested, you can purchase the book here through Pay Pal, I’ll write you a big ole thank you note inside the book, and then ship it off to you. I hope it’s okay to trouble you with mentioning that possibility. The book is available through the usual channels  including Kindle, Nook, and iPad.

I’ve already made plans to return to Jefferson next year with my Midwestern Gothic novel entitled Horseshoe.  For those of you who read Flannery O’Connor, I hope you’ll see some of the ways her “Misfit” fiction has influenced my writing. I’m also going to join those of you who are planning to come with Kathy to NYC this June. You can read more about the trip here.   Brooke Ivey is doing a lot of the planning, and I just found out I get to lead the charge into Strand Books, a store that claims over 18 miles of titles. I don’t really know what they mean by that, but I’ve been in the store and it takes a marathoner’s stamina to make it through even one of the floors.  By the way, Brooke’s mother Anita is a Pulpwood Queen!

I’m happy to interact with individual chapters of the Pulpwood Queens in lots of ways including perhaps a Skype visit or a special video that answers questions readers might have. I’m a native Indiana Hoosier, and so like David Letterman, perhaps I could do my own sort of version of reader mail. With another shot from Natalie, here’s to Texas and the Pulpwood Queens:

photograph by Natalie Brasington

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Thanks for reading, and I look forward to being in touch.