Sista Girl Book Club of Philly (Fans of A Natural Woman)

Sista Girl Book Club (of Philly)

March 27, 2010

This past Saturday, I had a GREAT time discussing A NATURAL WOMAN with the members of the Philly-based Sista Girl Book Club. I absolutely adore the picture they sent me of them holding up copies of my novel. Check those smiles!

If you own any similar pictures of yourself or the members of your book club, holding up (waving, reading, etc.) copies of either of my two novels (A Natural Woman or After The Dance), I'd love to see them and it would be my pleasure to post them.

WHAT I DON'T MISS . . . ABOUT LIVING IN CLEVELAND . . .

From Lori's Beachwood

Picture Collection

The small figure you see in the picture above is my son. He'd just been dropped off by the school bus and was trudging home through the snow. The covered vehicle is my poor car.

Snow and freezing temps are at the top of the long list of things I hated about my exile . . . oops, I meant my stay in the Cleveland area. But for probably 3 of the 4 years we lived in Beachwood (a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio) this is typically what our neighborhood looked like, not long after (and sometimes on) Thanksgiving Day. Even worse, this mess didn't usually leave for good until AFTER Easter. Come on. Those of us from the Delta know it's not supposed to be snowing after Easter, much less in freaking EARLY MAY. I'm SO GLAD those days are in the past. But even now, I still can't help but wonder how the early settlers of the area ever made it. And for those who did survive that first winter, what in the heck ever made them want to stay?

Last year in Charlotte, the one time the white stuff actually fell and the accumulation reached all of an inch, the kids got out of schools, several businesses shut down and the very next day, all of that crap had melted. Um-huh, now that's my kind of winter and my kind of town (smile).

From Lori's Beachwood

Picture Collection

Yeah, it's pretty . . . in pictures . . . and from a safe distance. But I must admit, I do kind of miss the scraping slide of the snowplows and the soft rumble of the salt trucks I used to hear late at night and in the still darkened, wee hours of the morning.

IN CELEBRATION OF MY . . . 100TH POST . . .

From Lori's Pic Collection

Yes, in honor of my 100th post I changed my profile photo. Don't get too attached because I kind of like the old black and white baby pic and I just may go back and repost it at some point (smile).

The color photo is only a couple of years old. The twists in my hair are a little thicker and longer, but basically I think I look the same. My son snapped the pic and I'd say he did a fairly decent job of capturing the essence of ole Moms (smile).

One of my favorite things about the photo is the framed artwork in the background. The signed and numbered print is a piece entitled "Up All Night" and it is one of several I own by the Memphis-connected artists/brothers commonly known as "Twin."

I love how Terry & Jerry Lynn, who really are twins, capture the music, the vibrancy and the funky soulfulness of the Bluff-City and the Mid-South community. But what truly fascinates me about the twins is their ability to work on a piece simulateneously, (quite often standing side by side) as if they were of one mind. Cool stuff, don't you think?