Amanda Flower – Walking Chester

I don’t usually care about autographs. I do have a few but it was more interesting meeting the person than the autograph. It doesn’t make sense to me to covet a signature when the person doesn’t even know you. There aren’t that many people I would want to meet either. Yet Saturday I drove an hour to hear author Amanda Flower.

Amanda writes cozy mysteries; the stories are great, just not so much sex or violence. It’s like you are drawn into a community and something happens. Then the protagonist must find out what it was and solve the mystery. I enjoy her books and have read almost all of them. My favorite character is Jethro the pig (yes, a pet pig, but almost the rest of the characters are people!) If Amanda ever sold stuffed Jethro pigs, I’d have Christmas shopping done for everyone! Well, when I heard she was speaking at the Twinsburg, Ohio library, I decided to go. She was there to promote a new book, “Because I Could Not Stop for Death,” a mystery (not really a cozy, more a full fledged mystery) involving Emily Dickenson. She would autograph the books, and the library said there would be tea and baked goods.

Tea? Baked goods? I’m there! I scored a cupcake and water and turned off my phone, chatting with the lady next to me. My ringtone is goats making screaming noises so I didn’t want the goats to disturb anyone especially around Halloween. No goats were harmed. I listened to her talk and learned some things I did not know about Emily Dickenson. Actually, there’s a lot I don’t know about Emily Dickenson so that’s not a surprise. But it was very interesting. I bought the book. I took my place in line, chatting with the lady behind me. Amanda had this camera thing, kind of like the old Polaroid instant cameras only white and much more modern. I was talking and musing about how it worked when suddenly it was my turn.

You know, sometimes I need to just be quiet. When I meet someone I admire I turn into a babbling doofus. I began stammering about how we met a long time ago, and I ended up writing this blog, and she was my inspiration and yada yada blah blah blah. Then I asked if I could take a picture. She kindly said yes. I pulled out my phone. Lo and behold, I hadn’t turned it back on. Well, no way was I not getting a picture so I fumbled around and turned it on, waiting and willing the little apple logo to show up. Then it wanted my password, and I had to find the camera icon, and all along I’m sure the other people in line were shooting visual daggers at me. It was kind of like a person with a bunch of coupons in the speedy lane at the grocery store. Amanda was more than gracious, and I was finally ready, smiled, and took the picture. My hands were shaking but it turned out ok. Whew!

Why do I get so flustered? I hustled out of the library (grabbing another baked good on the way) and made it to the car unscathed. I then went back in to use the restroom. Overall it was a delightful outing. I recommend the book, and if you like mysteries, look hers up. She’s from Ohio too, another plus!

On Sunday, we had a reunion to attend! Chester had his “City Dog Reunion”.

He was adopted from the Cleveland City Kennel which makes him a City Dog. All the City Dogs who are able get together and converse among themselves via lots of butt sniffing and barking.

The owners converse also, admiring the other pups. I got a sweatshirt and a glass, and we got a goodie bag with a cookie for Chester. He is good with other dogs so we all had a great time. The weather was kind of cold and windy but we do look forward to meeting new friends. Chester met Harley, Mina, Luna, all beautiful girl dogs. He’s kind of a flirt.

When we got home, Chester was exhausted so he slept while we…well we slept too. But we had the tv on so we could pretend we were just resting our eyes.