We Now Continue Our Regularly Scheduled Blog

Oh yeah. Where was I? When I’m wrapped up in a book–or in life, things fall by the wayside. Usually it’s laundry, bill-paying and grocery shopping, but this time around, I slacked off on blogging. The thing is, there were no monumental blog topics to put my arms around. Valentine’s Day came and went. We spent the weekend at The Breeze Inn, joined by two couples who are old friends. It was a cold, mostly gray weekend. We managed to watch the Tybee Mardi Gras parade, which was a hoot. Our favorite marchers were the Beach Chair Brigade–a group of fun women adorned in hilarious “bikini” beach cover-ups who did precision beach chair manuevers along the parade route. Saturday night the husbands fixed us a Valentine’s Day dinner, starting with yummy martinis and cosmopolitan cocktails, grilled shrimp and steak and a surprise dessert. The surprise was three grown men, serving pound cake and strawberries–dressed in red longjohns, which they’d hidden under their jeans and sweatshirts during dinner. Silly but sweet, just like our guys. On Sunday, before leaving the island, we were treated to a Valentine’s brunch given by Diane at Mermaid Cottages–the highlight of which was her Krispy Kreme doughnut bread pudding. Always good times at Diane’s.

Beach chair brigade struts stuff at Tybee Mardi Gras parade

I’ve been doing a few book club appearances this winter, including meeting with The Outlaws Dinner Club and Literary Society in Decatur. It sounds pretty high-minded, but really, they’re just a book- loving group of women who meet for dinner and book talk. After all that book talk, they played a cutthroat dice game to determine the winner of the door prize books I’d brought.

Dataw Island book club member and door prize winner

Last Friday, I spoke to a group of book clubs on Dataw Island, near Beaufort, S.C. No dice games this time, we just drew names for the door prize. That night, I attended the kick-off gala for the Cooks and Books literacy fundraiser on Hilton Head. After spending the night on the island, I headed back for Tybee, but not before making a quick stop at a yard sale I spotted. I scored an adorable pair of bamboo twin headboards for peanuts, and quickly added them to my booth at Seaside Sisters.

Hilton Head yard sale–home of the bamboo headboards

Sunday’s Cooks and Books event at the Shelter Cove Mall on Hilton Head was great fun. Chefs from some of the best restaurants on Hilton Head offered their yummiest dishes for an Iron Chef competition, and eight authors–including myself, my friend Patty Callahan Henry, and lots of others, signed books. All the proceeds went to the Low Country Literacy Volunteers.

MKA and Patti Henry getting cozy with Salty Dawg on Hilton Head

And now it’s time to dig in and write. My writer’s group from North Carolina will be joining me here at The Breeze Inn for a week of writer’s retreat on Sunday, so I’ve got to have 200 pages of the new book, SUMMER RENTAL, done before they get here. But before that, I’m heading down to Jacksoville on Saturday to give the keynote speech for the Jacksonville library’s Much Ado About Books festival. You can still buy tickets here. See? I really have been busy.