BLOG NOTE:  I'm so flattered to be featured in a blog by fellow writer and friend Emilie Richards.  Here is the link, for your reading pleasure:  http://blog.emilierichards.com/

I got to see Emilie at a book reading/signing event in Sanibel, Florida.  If you're in the area, visit the Sanibel Island Bookshop.

SEA TURTLES AND INTERIOR DECORATING

What do sea turtles and interior design have in common?

See for yourself at the upcoming Charleston Home + Design Show. By the title of it, you probably can easily imagine what the weekend event entails. It’s a great show, but most interesting and fun to me is the so-called “celebrity idea rooms.”

This year, the organizers selected six acclaimed writers in the Charleston area. I’m honored to be one of them. My fellow friends-turned-competitors are poet Marjory Wentworth, cookbook writers Matt and Ted Lee, fiction writer Dorothea Benton Frank, newspaper columnist Ken Burger, and TV chef Bob Waggoner.

Each of us has been paired with a professional designer. I’m working with Amy Floyd of Island Daze Designs, who is also a member of the Isle of Palms Turtle Team. Not only do we share a love for helping the endangered sea turtle species survive, we also enjoy living seaside. Her design talents are a perfect match for my room style—eclectic with ocean-inspired colors. I also love local art, along with antique and traditional furniture. Just for participating in the contest, the Charleston Home + Design Show will make a $500 donation to the charity of each writer’s choice. I selected the Sea Turtle Hospital at the South Carolina Aquarium.

Now, here’s the competition side of it. The idea rooms will be on display Friday-Sunday at the Gaillard Auditorium where visitors cast a vote for their favorite room. The winning writer receives an additional $500 to donate to their selected charity.

I’d be thrilled to help win $1000 for the Sea Turtle Hospital, which rescues sick and injured turtles, then rehabilitates them so they can return to their ocean home.

I hope you’ll come out Jan. 29-31 to enjoy all the aspects of the annual Charleston Home + Design Show and take a look at the idea rooms. You’ll get a glimpse at the personal style of each writer while also helping a good cause.

Sea turtles and interior design do have something in common!

Coming Out of my Writing Cave

My latest book project has kept me hunkered down in a cave (my office) with no contact to the outside world (with the exception of Facebook and my cell phone). However, I’m breaking free this week by taking a little road trip South. My destination— the Naples, Florida area.

This trip has been on my calendar for quite some time; one book club event and three bookstore stops.  Here’s a little secret of mine. I sometimes get names for my characters from book signings.

And, here’s a confession. If you’ve been to more than one book signing, I likely remember your face, but I’m not always as good at remembering names. Surely, there are many who are just like me! Why is it that when we can’t recall someone’s name during a conversation, we silently agonize and hope the name will miraculously come to our memory, instead of just politely admitting our predicament to the mystery person? I shall quietly bless anyone who kindly restates their name when we’re meeting for a second time.

People often ask me if book signing events are tiring. Honestly, I feel exhilarated at the end of a book signing! By necessity, I spend days alone so I can shut out the noise and enter my story world. Authors spend a lot of time in their heads. So when I hear personal stories from a reader telling me how they were influenced by my story or inspired, I feel re-energized. I leave the signing soaring. Especially with Time is a River, dozens of women breast cancer survivors shared their experiences with me. I was honored and moved and so grateful that they found the book helpful.


I wonder who I’ll meet and what I’ll learn this week?

Go to my website to see where I’ll be making appearances in Florida.

In Case You Wanted to Know

From the assistant’s desk:
Mary Alice is diligently tapping out the pages of her next novel as the book deadline quickly approaches. Because she’s focused on that, I’m stepping in this week as her guest blogger.

My real job here at the office is serving as her assistant and PR liaison. I must say it’s quite a fun job and would be for anyone who’s a fan of her work.  I’ve gotten to know interesting things about one of my favorite authors that I would never have read on the author’s page of any of her books.

With that said, I’d like to share with fellow readers a few things that you might otherwise never know about Mary Alice Monroe.

     1- Have you ever noticed that in most of her books, at least one character is a coffee lover and always makes a descriptive statement about his or her love of the beverage?  One of my favorite descriptions is from an older novel, in which two characters are working late on a marketing campaign for a tea company at their London office where there is no coffee pot:

They huddled over the desk like two conspirators. Bernard practically groaned as he sipped. “Nectar of the gods,” he murmured. “Me mother’s milk to me,” she relied in a purr, drinking greedily.  (pg. 90; SECOND STAR TO THE RIGHT)

     Well, I always figured Mary Alice had to be a devoted coffee drinker because who else could describe the feeling of sipping coffee with such perfection? My first day on the job, she offered me a cup of java from her top-notch brewing contraption, which also steams milk. I was hooked for the job at first sip!

     2- She’s fluent in Japanese. The problem is she sometimes speaks the language to me as if I have a clue what she is saying. My response is always the same—a smile and a raised eyebrow of confusion. Thankfully she always translates for me.

     3- Her love of the Japanese language also translates to a love of the cuisine as well. Periodically, she prepares Japanese dishes for her family to enjoy, and I’ve happily been the recipient of her meals a couple of times. Her food pantry is stocked with the basics of Asian cuisine, which is something we have in common, expect I prepare Korean dishes.

     4- When it comes to her interests and book research, Mary Alice really goes all in! For example, her butterfly raising experience began with a visit to the local butterfly habitat in Mount Pleasant, SC. That same day, she returned home with several chrysalis and milkweed plants to transform her screened porch into a butterfly garden. Since that fateful day in the summer, she has raised DOZENS of monarch butterflies (The life cycle is beautiful to witness. The chrysalis looks like a jewel). Little did I know that my job description would include helping her clean up butterfly poop!

What kind of things would you like to know about Mary Alice? Let me know your thoughts and I might be able to share some more tidbits about one of our favorite authors upon my next visit to her weekly blog page.