Lakeville Book Club

This past Tuesday night I was invited to share at the monthly meeting of a book club in Lakeville. I must say they are a delightful group of ladies! Cindy Korpela hosted the event in her home with scrumptious appetisers, wine, coffee, and treats. How can you go wrong there! The book club consists of: Sheri O'Shaunassey, Sandy Woker, Nora O'Leary, Barb Becker, Claudia Nelson, Bev Wood, Kathy Culp, Cindy Korpela, Rosemary Mikkelson, and Jane Hotzler. They meet once a month and discuss their current book selection, reading a wide selection of genres throughout the year.

On Tuesday the group came together to discuss, Hidden Heritage...the Story of Paul LaRoche. Typically most people who read Hidden Heritage are fans of Paul and his music, or simply know either Paul or myself. These ladies, however, chose to read the book as "readers." I couldn't help wonder what these true readers would think of the book or my writing.

Not to worry, each of the ladies said they enjoyed the book, and wanted to know more about Paul & Kathy. Since most of them had not heard Paul's music, I brought my collection of Brule'/AIRO CDs and no surprise, they loved the music right away. It was a unique chance for me to share some things that I did as a writer, and ask for their reaction as the reader. The intimate setting of Cindy's home made it easy to talk openly about a number of the issues that took place throughout Paul's journey. As often the case, different ones picked up on different things in the book. It was a wonderful opportunity to answer their questions and also share more about the process of writing the book.

A great big "Thank you" to Jane for inviting me, to Cindy for hosting the event, and to the entire book club for choosing Hidden Heritage as one of their selections.

Blessings,
Barbara

Upcoming Events in the Twin Cities

I have two fun events coming up in the next several weeks. First, I've been invited to be a guest speaker with a book club right here in my hometown of Lakeville. Long time friend Jane Hotzler is hosting the book club event, Tuesday, March 25th, at her home (which just happens to be only a few blocks from mine!) The ten ladies in this book club have all read Hidden Heritage and are meeting to discuss the book. This is the first time I've participated in this type of a more intimate venue and I'm really looking forward to hearing from all the ladies and finding out their thoughts. Of course a setting like this has to have Paul's beautiful music playing in the background, so I will make sure to bring along the Brule'/AIRO CDs!

Also on the horizon is the Bloomington Writers' Festival & Book Fair, Saturday, April 5, 2008. This is held at Bloomington's beautiful new Arts Center and runs all day Saturday with numerous events going on throughout the day. Classes, speakers, workshops, readings, book sales, and more! Keynote speaker Faith Sullivan will kick-off the day at 9:30 am. It's a wonderful chance to network with the 46 published authors in attendance and check out all the different types of genres represented. Once again, it'll be a great day to celebrate the literary arts!

The other upcoming event I am awaiting with desperate anticipation is the arrival of spring! The view out my window is still completely white, I had to shovel several inches of snow this week, and I'll have you know it was below zero again last night. When, oh when, I wonder, will spring make its grand appearance??

Barbara