Big things happening here. I now have an agent for Mint Juleps and Murder. I have been corresponding with Holly McClure, president of Sullivan-Maxx (http://sullivanmaxx.com/) for a while now and she happened to be at Amelia Island for the Book Festival. She's been very busy reorganizing her agency merging with an entertainment agency. She has read the novel and wants to represent it. And, besides that, we've decided that we're cousins (through our Cherokee line)! I do love finding kinfolks!
Michael Morris, always one of my favorite people, was at the Amelia Island Festival and Joe and I thoroughly enjoyed his company. Erika Marks, author of The Mermaid Collector and now The Guest House, whom I met at SIBA (Southern Independent Bookellers Association, one of my absolute favorite group of people!) last September also happened to be there and it was a delight to reconnect. But the big event at the Amelia Island Festival was hearing Debbie Macomber. She gave one of the most endearing and inspirational talks I have ever heard. Folks, I want to tell you as my mama would have said, "That girl is all cotton and a yard wide." Having sold about 150,000,000 book around the world, she is still grounded. Her story of achieving her dream of being a writer took us all through the valley with her to the joy of her first acceptance, a tale I to which I could not do justice. It was worth going to Amelia Island just to hear. It is my dream for Books Alive to get her as a speaker!!!!!
I was excited to be at Amelia Island because several scenes from In Pursuit take place there. In Pursuit will be out in September 2013.