You’ve Got to Have Friends

Kristin Hannah and Abraham Verghese might be able to waltz into a bookshop and make a signing occur with a snap of their fingers, but for many of the rest of us, book events take work. I’ve found the best ones happen with a little help from my friends.

Several of the events I’ve participated in since my book’s launch last year have required submitting a lengthy application and then awaiting approval or rejection. Others have come about through the networking I was told you must do when you’re a published author. (It’s true. You must.)

Looking back on these events, I see a common thread:

Friends made them a success.

Take my recent event at The NewSouth Bookstore in Montgomery, Alabama, where a longtime friend, Gordon Fowler, provided beautiful, tone-setting music before and after my book talk, songs of finding oneself and showing one’s true colors to the world.

He also strummed guitar accompaniment and sang harmony for a piece I perform to begin my book talks–a song Gordon and I co-wrote about the night I met my husband, Ted, in a Nashville bar in 1977.

Last fall, Gordon sang at another event that featured my book. The scene was Story & Song Bookstore Bistro on Amelia Island, Florida. Gordon’s wife, Marie, pictured in the photo above and a darn fine singer, too, joins us on these adventures.

So does our mutual friend Steve Saunders, shown below with Ted in one of my favorite photos. An extrovert with a capital “E,” Steve was being coy for the camera on this particular day in his stunning Midtown Atlanta condo.

Steve has set a record of sorts.

He has attended four of my eight book events. Now that’s a friend! I so appreciate his support.

He even made the 2.5-hour drive to Montgomery for my most recent event on August 4, after which we toured the town’s Rosa Parks museum and had a meal at one of the world’s best meat-and-threes: Martin’s Restaurant. I occasionally patronized that landmark establishment five decades ago when I was a police reporter for the Alabama Journal at the beginning of my writing career.

The chocolate and coconut cream pies are still killer.

Old and new friends brought the Montgomery event to life.

The cofounders of the bookstore that hosted the event are my friend Randall Williams and his partner Suzanne La Rosa. Randall was also a reporter at the Journal when I was there from 1974-1976, so of course he was one of the first booksellers I asked about hosting … and he and Suzanne graciously agreed. Connections matter!

I was thrilled to see my event on the list of activities for this proactive, hardworking bookstore!

Below is a photo taken before the gathering–Randall and I with Lenore Vickrey, another dear friend and former Journal colleague.

Yes, the three of us go WAY BACK.

In the photo , I’m pointing to a copy of possum, a literary journal Randall and I and another reporter, Kelly Norrell, launched during our time at the paper. In our roaring twenties, we were full of creative juices that needed an outlet, so we created one.

In addition to rekindling old friendships in Montgomery, I made new ones at our NewSouth event. Googling local Pride organizations when I was planning our visit, I discovered an incredibly vibrant group in Prattville, a town of 30,000 people about 12 miles northwest of Montgomery.

Prattville Pride agreed to co-sponsor my event and even arranged a social gathering beforehand at Prevail, a hip coffee and wine bar a short walk from the bookstore.

Center in the photo above is the group’s vice president and co-founder, Caryl Lawson, with her partner, Slade. They were warm and friendly, helping this old guy feel right at home again in Montgomery. In fact, everyone we met from Prattville Pride had the same welcoming vibe.

How I wish they had been around when I lived in Montgomery in the 1970s, in my early twenties and in desperate need of someone to talk to about my true … and hidden … sexual identity.

Thank goodness, times have changed.

Above is a group shot with Prattville Pride’s president and co-founder, Adam Hunt, to my right.

Meeting these folks made our visit to Montgomery more than a trip down memory lane.

It was a visit to a new world, too. A world I never could have envisioned when I lived in Montgomery in the 1970s.

Thriving in a small town in the conservative south, Prattville Pride is a kind of miracle … at least in the eyes of this 71-year-old, who grew up at a time when the only visible gay fellow was a boy at my high school who was institutionalized after his sexual antics in a boys’ restroom.

When a hate group attempted to disrupt Prattville’s first Pride picnic gathering in 2023, Prattville Pride was born, courageously staging another event the following year. In June 2024, more than 1,000 people, none of them protesters, attended the outdoor celebration.

It made national news.

The group not only was featured on Good Morning America in a recent segment, but also was honored with a special award from GLAAD, the world’s largest advocacy organization working to ensure positive LGBTQ representation in the media. The award recognizes the groundbreaking work Prattville Pride has done for the LGBTQ community in Prattville and beyond.

What a story of courage! I’m proud to call the members of Prattville Pride my new friends.

And I marvel at the doors my book has opened for Ted and me. Doors to friendships I never would have imagined a few years ago. Friendships sweeter than the pie at Martin’s … and that’s saying a lot.

I am deeply grateful.

We look forward to more book events … and friendships … in the months ahead.

Note: Many thanks to NewSouth Bookstore for some of the photos here. The photo of the scheduling board courtesy of Atlanta author Jeff Clemmons, another fine friend my book introduced me to. Coincidentally, Jeff visited Montgomery, and the bookstore, a week before Ted and I did.