A Book Reading, a First Time for Everythang

An ole high school buddy of mine, Steve Yarbrough, who now lives in the Boston area, has come back to Mississippi to do several readings from his new book.  You can travel the world, but you always end up coming back to your roots.  He must still have a little buckshot and gumbo mud between his toes!

Tonight's reading was held at Lemuria Book Store's annex where they do their Lemuria.com business.  Of course, they were selling books, but to my surprise, they had a refrigerator full of beer!  I got their a little late and did not know this until somebody came in after me.  I'll be better prepared next time by golly!

Ole Steve still talks as slow as ever, but I did see hints that his southern drawl was beginning to fade, just a bit.  He indicated, that when folks ask him where he is from, he usually says that he lives in the Boston area, but that he is from Mississippi.  I could tell from listening him, that he truly has fallen in love with Boston, and in twenty years or so, he just might begin saying that he is now from Boston, but raised in Mississippi! 

Turns out that a book reading, you only get to hear a few pages from the author. For some reason, I was expecting this to be the live version of "Books on Tape".  While it was short, I fully enjoyed myself.  He gave a little background on the book without giving the story away.  Sounds like a dang salesman, anything to sell a few more books.

He told a story from yesterday about doing an extended interview at the local TV station, and all he could think about during the interview was the two guitars that were in his car in 110 degree heat.  He could just see in his mind, the glue, slowly oozing out of the guitars, leaving nothing but a pile of wood and strings.  I had to chuckle on that one.  Years ago, I got a nice leather briefcase as a gift for ten years of service at work.  I cherished that briefcase. One day I go out to my car to retrieve it, and the seams had come apart in the heat, probably 110 degrees.  I paid to have it put back together, but it was never the same.  Still have it.

In the middle of Steve's reading,  the grandmaw sitting next to me had her stupid cell phone go off.  Not once, but twice!  I almost took it away from her, grrr.  It is just something about a woman and their cell phones.  You know that sooner or later that sucker is going to go off, but women consistently plant them at the bottom of their purses.  This woman was no exception.  I think she was also hard of hearing, because she had the ringer on that old timey flip phone turned up to full volume.  Then her whispers of "I'll call you later" could be heard by everyone within ten feet!

Even with this interruption, Steve did not miss a beat.  Eventually, he finished his reading, and then he took  several questions from the audience. For me, the questions and the answers were eye openers, and extremely helpful, as I dive more and more into this world of blogging.

The reading for me concluded with a light conversation with Steve Yarbrough, the author, and friend, and of course, an autographed copy of his book!

Thanks Steve!