When I Came West (Part Thirty-four)
Just as interesting as the places we travel to for book events are the ones that occur right here in our home town. As soon as the folks at Fuel Coffee House found out that I had a new book coming out, they offered to do a book release party for me. A couple of months ago we set the date for Tuesday, February 23rd. The editor at the local paper took a review copy and began to write about my book in his editorial. The library set up a display announcing the event and also had all of my books set up as well. Posters appeared on area businesses to advertise the event and everyone in town mentioned it to people on their email lists. The women in my hiking group planned a pre-party party and a bunch of us and our husbands got together on a snowy (yes! snowy!) evening at the home of Tom and Sandy Shaw to enjoy cocktails, grilled meats and an array of appetizers. Then we all drove into town to Fuel Coffee House where Todd and Dana Wright had set the stage to look like a living room, complete with comfy chair, area rug, and a small table with flowers and a lamp. Despite the weather, people came.
Soon, after ordering coffees and lattes, friends and new faces settled into the seats in front of me. The room grew hushed and I began to read. I had not planned exactly what I was going to say, nor had I organized my selections. Instead, I allowed the evening to unfold as a storyteller would, letting the reaction and the response from the listeners drive the direction. I felt like I was at a family gathering where every rapt and attentive face said, "Tell us more." So I did. An hour later we paused long enough to set up the DVD and screen and showed a TV documentary filmed when I lived on the Snook Moore Ranch in Wyoming, 1981. Seeing the photographs in When I Came West is one thing, but seeing a short film is quite another: the deep snow, the high peaks, the rushing streams, the moose in the willow bottoms, the horse herd, the cattle, the dogs, the log cabins, and, of course, Bill Atkinson, Snook Moore, and me talking about our life in that isolated, pristine, and incredible domain. When the clip was over I retook the stage to answer questions and talk about the book. And so we passed another delightful hour and we closed the event with a book signing. And, despite the late hour, people stayed and bought books and waited in line for me to sign and personalize their copies. 
As a gesture of great appreciation I donated ten percent of the proceeds to Fuel Coffee House (a non-profit staffed in part by volunteers). A week has passed and I'm still walking around town with the rosy afterglow of such a fine reception for my memoir.
