I went home to Robertson County this week to speak and sign my latest book, Skip Rock Shallows. It’s been many years since I lived there, but still the rolling hills and winding roads are as familiar as the streets of my subdivision. A thunder storm was rolling in across the ridges as I drove into town. I thought of my girlhood, when I would wrap up in an army blanket (courtesy of my father’s service in WW2) and enjoy the storms from my family’s back porch.  Usually, I had a cat wrapped up in the blanket with me.  I was momentarily homesick for that porch and the security of that scratchy wool blanket, not to mention the succession of cats that shared rainy days with me.

My homesickness dissipated as soon as I walked into the library and saw the folks gathered there for my reading. As I shared my book, they shared their memories, so much like mine, of growing up “on the farm.” Some on them had attended the same one-room schoolhouse in Piqua that my brothers and I did. One recalled the column that a friend and I authored for the local newspaper during our high school days. How sweet to share that rainy evening with homefolks.

One of the joys of being an author is being invited to libraries to meet with people who love books as much as I do. I’ve just finished reading, The Forever Fix, by Ricki Lewis. It relates the true story of Corey Hass, a boy whose sight was restored through gene therapy. Forever Fix explains “complex biological processes in understandable ways.” I’ve just downloaded Gretchen Rubin’s, Happier at Home, and am looking forward to a book on making a house a place of simplicity, comfort, and love. Sort of like a woolen blanket, a cat, and a cozy back porch on a rainy day.

Here’s hoping you have a good book for your rainy days.