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Home of Michael Perry – Author, Humorist, Singer/Songwriter, Amateur Pig Farmer

Posts Tagged ‘book tour’

Book Club Visit

Privileged to be a guest of this group yesterday. We had a lively discussion. And coffee. And while Turbo the dog withheld judgment on my book, he most graciously accompanied me on the walk to the church.

Mid-Week Thank Yous

Age is funny…you start meeting high school principals and realize they can be younger than you. And certainly better be-haired. (Hello to his personal photographer – I believe she was six and wearing purple shirt with a bird on it…my youngest would have loved it.) Thanks to all who came to the readings in Viroqua and LaCrosse, and also the Wisconsin/Minnesota crew to whom I spoke yesterday afternoon. It was tough to discuss the Packers/Vikings thing, but I got through it.

Photos from Grand Rapids

Photos from the night Red House recording artist Drew Nelson joined me for the reading at SchulerBooks in Grand Rapids. Honored that he showed up, even more so that the guitar he was playing was making its public debut…and he built it.

Yammering

Sometimes in my eagerness to make personal connections in the book signing line my mind jumps to inaccurate conclusions, then reinforces them madly. All through Minnesota I kept meeting people who said they’d seen me when I visited Carleton College, and when the very first person said this, I immediately thought of the time I spoke at the Festival of Faith and Writing. And so every time someone said they saw me at Carleton, I spoke effusively of my time there, including how much fun I had sharing a panel with Joshilyn Jackson. The Carleton folks would look a little confused at this, but smiled politely anyway.

Then during the Michigan swing, folks started telling me they’d seen me at the Calvin College Festival of Faith and Writing, and without pause I’d yammer like mad about all the Calvin alum I met in Minnesota, and we’d speculate happily on how they all came to wind up there.

Not until I’m all the way back home here in the little room over the garage do I figure out I’ve been conflating Carleton College of Northfield, Minnesota, with Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

So: Carleton, Calvin, I meant what I said, even if you all went home talking about how hopelessly confused that poor boy was.

Figured it out now.

I think.

What Is the Opposite of Embedded?

For most of my book tours, I stay at your basic Super 8-style motels. There are exceptions, as when I’m in a big city and a more central location is beneficial. And although my publisher very kindly offers to pre-book my hotels, I generally prefer to do it myself on the fly, in case I decide to drive all night or there is some other logistical advantage that develops. Also, after a day of locating radio stations and bookstores and other stops, a pre-booked hotel is just one more place you have to find. Easier to just pull off the interstate and grab a room.

So. All that to provide context for this:

I have a break today before heading home tomorrow. That means today is a day for going through receipts, writing thank-you notes, catching up on email, sorting through all the gifts and books and odds and ends that have accumulated in the car. As such, it’s one time when I can use a touch more workspace than the standard modest motel room provides. So yesterday I went online and looked for something reasonably priced but including a desk or somesuch. Found a great deal on a suite-type setup that includes a dining room table where I can spread out my stuff to sort and work. Best part? It was only $10 more than the average Super 8 room. So I pounced.

Arrived. Carted all my stuff up from the car. Big spacious room, well-lit, and yep, a dining room table. Emptied everything out on the table, got to work. Coffee, happy as a clam. Bedtime rolls around. And then I realize something is missing.

There is no bed.

Kinda missed that on the website pics, I reckon. It’s one of those rooms intended for meetings, or for family events in which everyone has their own room but wants a central gathering place. Now that price begins to make a little more sense.

There is a couch. Didn’t sleep half bad…

A Book-Signing First

I was signing books at the Kickapoo Country Fair when a woman handed me a copy of Population 485 that had been signed by Don Majkowski.  Apparently she had met him at a football camp earlier in the week and she had him autograph the only thing handy, which was a copy of my book.  She was a little apologetic, but I thought it was terrific.

I still remember the excitement of watching the “Majik-Man” play, blonde mullet and all.  In the midst of some grim doldrum years for the Pack, Majkowski gave us hope, and he beat the Bears in an especially delicious way.

Then he got hurt.  Then he came back.  Then, on September 20, 1992, he injured his ankle during a game against the Bengals and was replaced by a new kid named Brett Favre.*

So.  If you see Don Majkowski, please tell him I don’t mind him signing my books as long as he doesn’t mind me signing his footballs.

*Sadly, after serving as the Packers starting quarterback for 16 consecutive seasons and setting nearly every record extant, in 2008 Favre abruptly and mysteriously disappeared, never to be heard from again.