Sunriver

We were sitting at the B & B breakfast table when we happened to glance up and notice that it had SNOWED during the night.  Everything was covered in around an inch of snow.  Beautiful.  Impossible.  True. 

We ate, then I scraped all the ice and snow off the front windshield with my B.C. Care Card while Don worked on the sides and back of the car with his Visa.  Who would have thought we would have needed an ice scraper in the end of March?  It was kind of exciting, felt like we had been plopped down in the middle of an adventure. 

There was a lot of black ice on the road and we had to drive very carefully and when we arrived at the KBEND radio station, we had to shuffle-walk our feet so we wouldn’t fly up in the air and land on our derrieres.  I enjoyed talking with Kathy, we had a few interesting parallels, career-wise and there are somethings that someone else can only understand if they’ve been through it as well. 

Then it was off to bump around Sunriver for a while until it was time to meet Deon and Rich at Sunriver Books and Music.  We walked around the Village and it was really fun when we passed the bookstore, because right in the window was a huge display of pink Porcupines!  I wished it wouldn’t look egotistical to just stand there gazing at this exuberant display, but it would have, so I walked slowly by savoring it, out of the corner of my eyes. 

At 12:15 we finally entered the store and were greeted with enthusiastic smiles, and it’s odd, because suddenly I got really shy and tongue-tied, for no reason.  Couldn’t seem to do anything but smile inanely and nod my head.  I hoped Deon didn’t notice. 

I think what it was, was she had been so kind at The Pacific Booksellers Conference.  Rescuing me when I arrived at my first round-robin table at the same time as the first course did.  These booksellers had been on their feet working hard all day and I imagine they were hungry.  So when my butt hit the chair, the salad hit the table and I thought to myself, if I were them, what would I want to do, listen to an author babble about how great their book is, while I am starving to death?  Or eat? 

Well, I know what would have been my preference.  So, instead of wowing the table with how great and wonderful Porcupine was, I said, “Please, eat, don’t mind me.” (I can hear my publisher groaning) But Deon, she was an angel.  She took me under her wing, even though she doesn’t even handle children’s lit.  We had a great chat.  I liked her enormously, and talking to her, gave me courage to face the rest of the tables that I was bounced to for each course, because I thought to myself, certainly there will be at least one person who might not mind me sitting with them.  And so after that first table, everything changed, and I felt way more comfortable because of Deon’s generosity. 

So, when she asked me to come to Sunriver, of course I said yes, even though it meant 11 hours on the road.  And let me tell you, it was totally worth it.

All of you authors out there...if you are lucky enough to have Deon and Rich ask you to read at Sunriver Books, GO!  They sent out notices, she set up a radio interview, a newspaper interview, she wrote a lovely article for another one of the local papers, she steered Don and me toward a lovely walk that meandered by a river and it was so magical, with the mellow afternoon sun slanting across the tops of the trees, glinting off the field of snow.  We saw geese and ducks and a beaver swimming, and then boomp, he turn bottom up and disappeared.  It was very peaceful and romantic, and afterwards we went to South Bend Bistro (another Deon suggestion) and enjoyed a delicious dinner. 

Yes, my fellow authors and book buyers.  You need to know that Deon and Rich have a lovely bookstore and if you go there, you will want to come back again, and again, and again.

And Three Rivers School, oh-my-goodness!  There were posters, there was an author biography.  When we first walked in we were greeted by a smiling face, we signed in and (darn, I forget the name, but you know who you are) who said she’d been reading some of my hot flashes, excerpts from my blog and she said to herself, I like that woman.  And her telling me that made me feel so welcome and warm.  And the kids!  Such enthusiasm, such interesting questions, what fun we had.  I couldn’t believe how fast time flew.  I love that school.  I wish I’d know it was pajamas day, because it would have been so much fun to wear my goofy looking ones.  However, the school gifted me with a hat, in Porcupine pink, and since it was hat day as well, I plopped that hat on my head and felt right at home.  I love the Goody’s box of chocolate and I am embarrassed to say that already one-third of the top layer has been devoured. 

Thank you everybody for making me feel so special.  You were great!  Much love, Meg

Posted by Meg Tilly on Friday, March 21, 2008 in

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