Muskogee

I think there's probably nothing on a book tour that beats reading in the town(s) where you grew up — in my case, Dallas and Muskogee, OK, where my father and stepmonster live, as well as my great-aunt Wanda, a passel of cousins and my mother's partner's family. Muskogee is more affectionately known among my family as Damnright, OK, because nearly any question you ask about it— "Jeez, does everybody in this town have a gunrack in their pickup truck?" — can be answered with the reply, "Damn right!" I did a fun signing at Hastings. My dad stood in front of the table beaming, greeting everyone who came in and bragging shamelessly about His Daughter, The Author. All sorts of people turned up: old friends, family, old friends of my mom's, parents of people I went to school with. We had such a good crowd we ran out of books.

Afterwards Dad and Jaque threw a bash for me at their house. My three best friends from elementary school came: Jeff Payton, Kathy Rogers Keeling (with adorable son Kaleb) and Karen Milam Flusche. Jeff, who is a judge, is actually my oldest friend on the planet. We were born the same day of the same year, and have known each other since we were about a year old. We sledded, caught lightning bugs, wrassled, made snow angels, played doctor — all the fun stuff.

Others in attendance were: my brother Jared; the Turner clan, led by my step-grandfather Tom; Robert Gaddy and Jennifer McCutcheon; Tom and Martha Alford; Robin and Alice Adair; Jimmy and Jean Kay; Norman and Cheryl Thuygeson; and Paula Sexton. A wonderful time was had by all. And did some of us have headaches the next day? Damn right!