Want to Book Some Fun Next Week? A Novel Idea

Food, drink, music, door prizes and Atlanta authors talking about their books. What could be better?

The folks at A Novel Idea are pros at hosting memorable monthly events with a literary twist.

I’d love for you to join us on Tuesday evening, June 18.

And I’m thrilled that our friend Hannah Sage From will be providing music for the evening. Her lovely voice and guitar-playing skills lighten the heart. Hannah looks so happy when she’s performing; she makes audiences happy, too.

I attended the May 2024 event by A Novel Idea, where my buddy Jerry Grillo presented his new book, Big Cat: The Life of Baseball Hall of Famer Johnny Mize. It was such a fun evening. Brimstone Restaurant & Tavern is a chill spot for relaxing, making new friends, buying new books signed by the authors. The food is good and the pours generous!

For the June event, I’m on the bill with two other Atlanta authors. Their books look exciting and provocative. I can’t wait to meet them.

And I hope to see you there!

For more details and to RSVP if you haven’t already, click here:
https://docs.google.com/…/1FAIpQLSdzXN8gcCs…/viewform

Of course, I understand if time and distance prevent you from attending. To show my appreciation for your interest in my new author career over the past year, I’ll share one of the 35 “Ann Arbor” letters Ted and I wrote to each other not long after we’d met in 1977.

We were babies … 24 years old. A political science grad student at Vanderbilt University, Ted was attending a six-week program in statistics at the University of Michigan that summer while I stayed in Nashville, continuing my work as a reporter for the afternoon daily paper.

Ted’s sweetness, strength and confidence in the idea of “us” bowl me over today. No wonder we’re still together. The guy could write! He even threw in a musical theater reference in the last paragraph.

I was smitten, to say the least.

July 3, 1977

My darling Michael,

It is 1:15 in the morning and I miss you intensely. I have missed you intensely all day. Last night I wanted so badly to fall asleep in your arms with my head on your chest. I could feel you arm around me and I could feel the brush of your chest hair on my face. During the night, I even dreamed of you—a conversation in which several people were saying, You do love Mike. You do love Mike. I was agreeing.

Tonight I went to dinner at Tom’s—my friend from Furman. Then we went to see a movie called A Safe Place which was really excellent—a study of emotion in time. I thought of you throughout the movie, which I’ll write more about when I have had time to understand it more thoroughly. Afterwards, Tom and I and another couple—married—went to downtown Ann Arbor for ice cream and wandered around. I wanted so much to be with you, holding your hand and being in love with you.

The theme of the movie was based on the covenant of the rainbow—God’s promise that Noah that never again would he destroy the earth. The movie was about how as children we believe the world is a safe place—that we have a covenant of safety and protection which as adults we constantly try to reaffirm—always wishing to go back to the security of childhood.

Being in love and wanting to share a life together is similar to that covenant. While security is not the only part of it, it is a factor. I feel secure with you—I feel I have found a safe place—in that I believe the love I have for you is well-founded and the love you feel for me is as well.

Michael, I love you. I love you so very much. I miss you in a way I have never missed anyone or anything I have ever had before. I t is not a sorrowful feeling of missing you—but just a feeling that once you have found what you want, you should never leave it. As Dorothy said, you don’t need to look any further than your own backyard. There’s no place like home. Your arms are my home. I never wish to be away from home again. Once you have found him, never let him go. I want you. I want you in every way. So good night for now. I’ll be with you in my sleep.

All my love,

Ted