Subscribe to one of Suzanne's online bookclubs and receive her daily
column at: DearReader.com
AUTHORBUZZ: Discover new books, "meet" the authors and enter to win: Goto: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader
Dear Reader,
Two years ago when I was sitting in a hospice room with my friend, author Blaize Clement and her son, John, Blaize asked John if he would like to continue writing her popular Dixie Hemingway Mysteries. I'm so happy John said, "Yes" because the latest book, The Cat Sitter's Cradle was just released and you'll love it. I sure did!
Please welcome today's guest columnist, author John Clement. Send him an email, he loves to talk to readers and he will reply. And of course, he's giving away five copies of The Cat Sitter's Cradle. Email: [email protected]
Take it away, John Clement...
First of all I want to thank Suzanne for inviting me here today. Anyone who's ever met her knows what I know--she's an angel on Earth. Plus she has a bubble-machine. Anyone who has their own bubble machine is at the top of the human pyramid as far as I'm concerned.
Suzanne assured me I could write about anything I wanted, so I'll start with the truth: I'm exhausted. There are a couple of reasons. First of all, it's hot. "Hot as blue blazes," my mother liked to say. Even as I write this I'm fighting with the dog for space on the floor in front of the AC. I don't mean to be dramatic but I can barely take it, and yet I was born on the hottest, most humid day on record in the history of Beaumont, Texas.
It's hard to believe now, but in those days, fathers weren't allowed in the delivery room in most hospitals. They were banished to a waiting area down the hall, where they chewed on their fingernails and the corners of the morning newspaper. My father waited with another father-to-be, a sun-wizened farmer in sweaty overalls, cowboy hat pulled down low over his eyes, who every minute or so would nod and mutter, "It ain't the heat, it's the hum-ditty." Nine hours of hearing "it's the hum-ditty" over and over again and my father left convinced he'd been saying it wrong his whole life. Anyway, you'd think coming into the world as I did on a day as hot as hell in August, I could handle a measly Northeast summer with a little less whining.
Secondly, my first book came out just a few weeks ago--an astonishingly exhausting and surreal experience in and of itself--but made all the more surreal because it's a Dixie Hemingway Mystery. Before my mother passed away (exactly two years ago this month) she asked if I would continue her series of adventures about an ex-deputy turned pet sitter. If there's anything I know, it's that things go better when you say yes to your mother. So I said yes, even though I was terrified by the idea, and sometimes I wonder if she truly believed I would pull it off.
I hope wherever she is that she can see it. Book number eight! The little world my mother created lives on.... It feels like such a huge tribute to her, and I'm pretty sure everyone in my family feels the same way. My older brother emailed me just the other day to say he still hasn't read it--every time he opens the book and turns to the first page he bursts into tears and has to stop. Apparently I'm not the only one in the family with a penchant for drama.
--John Clement Say hello and enter the drawing for a copy of The Cat Sitter's Cradle. Email: [email protected]
----------------------------------------------------------
More about the author: John Clement is the son of author Blaize Clement, who passed away in 2011, leaving him with the herculean honor of continuing her popular Dixie Hemingway Mysteries. His first book, The Cat Sitter's Cradle, is in stores now. John lives with his partner and his pit bull in New York City, where he's currently working on the next Dixie Hemingway Mystery and trying to keep in the shade as much as possible.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Start writing and enter this year's Write a Dear Reader Contest. Cash prizes of $600 and your column will be published at the book clubs. Rules, deadline and past entries: http://tinyurl.com/DRContest2013
Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.
Suzanne Beecher
[email protected]
* This month's Penguin Classics book is DEATH OF A HERO by Richard Aldington. Start reading now and enter to win a Penguin totebag. Go to: http://tinyurl.com/July13Classics
AUTHORBUZZ: THREE LITTLE WORDS (Fiction) by Susan Mallery
Have you ever done something embarrassing to get a man's attention? Isabel wrote to her crush for years after he joined the Navy SEALs, but he never replied. Now Ford is back in Fool's Gold. He knows all her secrets--and he's making no secret of his desire for her. A sexy, funny small town romance.
Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader click on THREE LITTLE WORDS to find out more about the book and the author, Susan Mallery. Send her an email, she'd love to hear from you.
Comments