What a Day!

The book signing which took place on Saturday at New Market's Community Library, and which marked the release of Safe at Home:  A Season in the Valley, was a huge success.  The gathering of Rebel fans was as usual very much like a family reunion.  Indeed, all along I have felt like the cousin who has taken upon himself the task of writing a book on the family.  It has been a sacred trust.

It was great seeing many folks who populate the book including the Kipps, the Lanhams, the Hawkins, the Smiths, Front Row Fred and Melissa, Vic Moyers, and others.  Mo and Bruce Alger, two of the main characters, as it were, also signed books.  Melissa Dodge snapped pictures, of course, John Leonard covered the event in his blog, and the Kipps made sure that we ate well!  Come to think of it, it was just like being at a ballgame, except that there was no need for Fred to get on any of the officials--and there was no actual ballgame.  The fellowship was just as good, however!

Many thanks go to Peg Harkness and Becky Kipps for publicizing and hosting the event.  Thanks too, to Tacy Hawkins and Melissa Dodge for their thoughtful gifts.  My appreciation runs very deep, cousins, very deep.

Hopefully, I will put together a photo album of the event later in the week.  I've already received some pictures, but our main computer has a virus and it's in Staples Hospital; therefore, computer time is limited to the laptop at our house and there is always a line to use it!

Thanks again, New Market for a wonderful launch of Safe at Home!

Comments

[Melissa Dodge]

It was absolutely fabulous! So many people walked out of there with multiple copies in hand. I was quite impressed to see that it looked as if each member of the Kipps family had their own copy---I'm guessing no one wanted to have to wait their turn to read it! Once the book makes the rounds I'm predicting that housing sales in New Market are going to jump dramatically in the coming months!

[Bruce Kipps]

Yes, in order to insure domestic tranquility, the Kipps family needed five copies. For our kids especially the book represents a slice of their lives. In five or ten or twenty years they can go back and remember the summer of '09 and this particular Rebel team.
As I told Becky, "Safe at Home" is the first book I've read in which I've literally lived the story. I finished it last evening and it's a great read! Thanks, Austin, for a job well done!