I recently got an email from Judi, a reader in Delaware who sent a copy of The Finder of Forgotten Things to her father since he’d married a woman from WV and spends half his year there. They all enjoyed the story so much, she ended up sending copies to five other family members.

Now, this makes my author’s heart happy for several reasons and yes, book sales is among them! But the main reason this delights me is that all these folks wanted to read the story because it’s set in West Virginia. Talk about hitting my target audience. I love to write stories set in my home state because I want people to know more about my home state. And now another handful of folks do!

Judi went on to share how they ended up with a sort of family book club as they all talked about Sulley, Gainey, and Jeremiah over the phone. And then they bought more of my books and talked about those, too. This tickled me so much I asked if Judi would share her dad’s phone number with me. And on Saturday, I got to have a chat with Bill & Carolyn Sue!

We talked about my books but mostly we shared our enthusiasm for West Virginia. They live near one of the prettiest parks in the state and had visited many of the locations in my stories. I actually started setting my novels in real places because I discovered the fun of being able to walk around inside my stories. And now other people are doing it too!

Bill and Carolyn Sue are in Florida right now, but they’ll head back to WV in the spring. As will I. I’m hoping the next time I head up Route 19 I can take a side trip to visit my new friends. Maybe we’ll meet up at Hawks Nest and have lunch overlooking the gorge. And maybe we’ll talk about books but I’m betting mostly we’ll talk about how wonderful it is to get to call West Virginia home.