Book Club

This morning I am at a local coffee shop with TJ Grant.

Yes, that last name is the same as mine.

Yes, she’s related.

Yes, she’s my mother.

She’s been working on her book series for about ten years? Maybe longer. Hold on, let me ask, no sense guessing when she is sitting right beside me.

She’s getting a coffee refill. Sigh.

Anyway, we go to different coffee shops in town a few times a week, depending on her schedule and my energy. We call it Book Club, BC for short in our texts

It’s been very useful to the both of us. For me it gets me out of the house (see my previous post about where I am at these days) and working on my book. For my mom, it helps be around another writer, able to bounce ideas off of each other.

Ok, she’s back. She started in 2012. Here are the things she told me to say about it:

Started as a short story.
Expanded into a historical romance series based in St. Magloire, Quebec.
Loosely based on her family’s history.

That’s all I’m allowed to say.

Back to Book Club.

See, for my mom it’s been good, because it gets her out from the desolate desert of writing, and amongst other writers with ideas and conversation. Even if that’s just me.

And let’s be honest. As a first-time author, writing a book can be very lonely. After the first few dozen times, no one wants to hear about the latest idea you have, or the most current edit. But a fellow author, who hopes the favor is reciprocated, they’ll listen.

Brandon Sanderson, my current favorite author, talks about a writing club he made at university and continues to interact with to this day. My small book club with my mom makes me think I should reach out and try to find a few more kindred spirits, but that would be way too social for me.

All that to say, Book Club is usually my favorite time of the day. Not always. Sometimes it’s hard to get up and going.

Hopefully, one day it pays off.