My Saturday Morning Book Reading.
This morning Katie and I drove all the way out to Hampden, making only one wrong turn (on the way there) to hear Suzanne Strempek Shea at the Hampden Public Library (and town hall, and school board, and police station, and municipal meeting rooms); it was pretty freakin sweet. Suzanne talked about how she got into writing, talked about what you need to be a writer, talked about the book she's promoting (obviously) and read a little bit from it. It was really fascinating.
I have felt as though I am in a cultural and intellectual hole since I left college and that I have suffered for not having that mental stimulation that made me love college and the friends I had there. I had received a postcard about Suzanne's new book in the mail about a month ago and I realized that she might be doing readings. I looked on her website and I found that she was going to be doing a bunch around New England. Because I return to my seasonal job at Nature's Classroom tomorrow, I realized I would not be able to go to any of the readings that are scheduled in places I know how to get to; but there was going to be one in Palmer and one in Hampden this week. I desperately wanted to go. I happened to mention it to my sister at lunch last week and she had heard Suzanne's NPR spot the previous Sunday and she was really interested and said she'd like to go.
If you don't know, Suzanne Strempek Shea's new book is called Sundays in America. It's a non-fiction book about the year she spent - Easter 2006 to Easter 2007 roughly - traveling around the country and going to a different Protestant church each Sunday. In 52 weeks she went to about 50 churches. She went to big churches, little churches, famous churches, unknown churches, Shaker churches, Mormon churches, Baptist, Methodist, UCC, Episcopal, Gerald Ford's church, Barak Obama's church, Joel Osteen's church, churches in Harlem, in Maine, in Massachusetts, in Omaha, in Texas, in California, in West Virginia and North Carolina. She explored American Protestant churches and spirituality for one whole year.
The whole idea stemmed from the funeral of Pope John Paul II. As a good Polish Catholic who married a good Irish Catholic man, she knew nothing of Protestantism. In fact, the nuns at her Polish Catholic parochial school told her that if she went into a Protestant church that the roof would fall in on her head and she would burn in Hell - or something to that effect. But she watched the coverage of the Pope's funeral and she saw the fervency of the people who flocked to St. Peter's Square and the religious zeal and she decided that she wanted to find that passion and explore Christianity - and religion in general. So she set out to explore the other side of Christianity that she knew nothing of: Protestantism.
I met Suzanne about a year ago when she spoke at my school at the request of my professor and the newly formed Honors Program. My name was pulled in the raffle and I won one of her books. I was the last person whose book she signed and we got to talking, partly because I wanted to chat with her and partly because Dr. Kozaczka was pushing me to talk to her - one writer to another. I told her a little bit about my murder mystery and she told me I could email her whenever I wanted. I didn't take her up on that until last December.
It was about the middle of the night and I had been working on this one piece and I was worried about the subject matter I wanted to discuss and how it would look to other people who know me, when I remembered something Suzanne said at the talk at Caz. She said that you have to write for yourself. You can't write for your mom or your boyfriend or your friends: you have to not worry about what other people are going to think when they read your work - only your own opinion matters.
Remembering her words helped me get past my fears. Without thinking I looked up her email and wrote her a quick note thanking her for saying that and how much it helped me. A few days later I received an email back thanking me for my email. She was finishing up Sundays in America and had been worrying about some of the things she'd written in her book and my email had reminded her that it doesn't matter what other people think. She's thanking me for my wisdom when all I did was quote her back her own words!
I bought her book Sundays in America today. Katie bought a copy and a copy of her first book Selling the Lite of Heaven. I was a little flustered but then I identified myself and she knew who I was! She remembered my name and was very excited that I came out for her reading. She, apparently, printed out the email I sent her and has it taped up on her wall as a reminder when she is writing. I was flabbergasted when she said that.
I am very grateful all of a sudden to Dr. Kozaczka for bringing Suzanne out to Caz last spring and I'm glad I got the opportunity to talk to her and I'm glad that I impulsively decided to send that email. I like writers. I think they're fun. And they usually get me better than other people do. I miss being around other people who write. I feel so isolated and misunderstood when I'm not. I'm glad to be finally making the acquaintance of such amazing, encouraging and delightful people.
Check out Suzanne's books. And, if you have the opportunity, go to one of her readings. They're listed on her web site. She's a really fun person, genuine and delightful to hear speak.