Dear Readers,
August is a cruel month for book club meetings. Nobody wants to come, as they are either getting their kids back to school, just exhausted from the heat and summer activities or trying to get in their last chance summer vacation! Being the ever resourceful Pulpwood Queen that I am, I became proactive! I put on my hot pink and leopard print thinking cap! What would make a Pulpwood Queen Book Club member want to forget all of the above, read a great book, and come to our monthly book club meeting? I have two words: Charles Martin!
Charles Martin is the author of many books, books so wonderful that we have made them at one time or another Pulpwood Queen Book Club Selections. You see, we consider it an honor and a privilege to feature authors that are yet undiscovered in a big way. So when we invited Charles Martin originally for our annual convention held the third weekend in January every year, many years ago, no one at the event had heard of Charles before. Charles Martin is still not a household name as far as authors are concerned to the general public, but to the Pulpwood Queens, he's famous! In fact, we predict that this latest book, Where the River Ends, will bring him into the bestsellers frame picture! He is just that good!When Charles received a three-book deal with Broadway, part of Random House, we were not at all surprised. With each book and each visit, we all clapped each other on the backs that we had discovered such a fine author. In fact, if someone could create an author who had both the visible and reading appeal to readers as Charles Martin, you can count that money in the bank. He is a model and an artist at the same time for authors and readers everywhere. He paints a picture that makes you want to look again, and again, and again, and then read everything you can to learn more about the artist.
And funny, his book is about a fishing guide and struggling artist from a south Georgia trailer park who falls in love with a beautiful, privileged child of a South Carolina senator. Doss Michaels and Abigail Grace Coleman meet by accident, but each feel as if they have found their true soul mate. After ten years of marriage, Abbie faces a life-threatening illness, and Doss battles it with her every step of the way. She makes a list of ten things she hopes to accomplish before she loses the fight for her life, and Doss helps her complete that list by stealing away in the middle of the night to embark upon a 130-mile trip down the St. Mary's River --- a voyage Doss promised Abbie in the early days of their courtship.
Being a former art major, you cannot imagine my elation, our elation, when we found out Charles was bringing his lovely wife, Christy, too. Now we were able to observe the full picture and with the perfect setting. You see, I knew it would be hard to get Pulpwood Queens to come to my book club in August, but with Charles and Christy coming it would be a cinch. That was Plan A but on to Plan B. Did I mention East Texas weather?
It's hot and humid in East Texas. So hot you only go outside when you really, really have to, to run to your car that is completely air conditioned on to wherever that is completely air conditioned. How would we get all the Pulpwood Queens into my incredibly air conditioned shop? It would be a tight squeeze, so on to Plan. B. If you have to move outside, go to water, my friends.
How perfectly perfect, a boat ride down Big Cypress Bayou was arranged and we were booked to life preserver capacity. I soon had a waiting list and one woman all the way from Beaumont, Texas. I believe Charles' name and reads are getting to be known.A nice little breeze came up off the water as we floated down the river with the Pulpwood Queens, the Martins as our special guests in tow. Captain Johnny Nance gave us a splendid talk on the history of the river and its importance to the economy of Jefferson, Texas. As we turned to come back, Charles stood at the stern of the boat and began a reading like no other. As he read, the words drifted off the page in perfect rhythm with the rock and sway of the boat. He read of looking at the water. We looked at the water. He read that you could see the reflection of the trees. We were seeing the reflection of the cypress trees on the bayou. If ever there has been a perfect marriage of words to experience, we were witness to the event.
I looked at Christy as Charles read. Quietly listening, I felt the love she felt for her husband and
his words. I was in pure heaven. I heard the words, as Charles read, and felt the love of his words as they reflected the love of a good story. I viewed a man who loved his wife, both on and off the page, and who had a way of writing that gave me hope. Hope that love does conquer all. I thought: this is a perfect marriage in the sense of a balance between man and wife, book and story.As we disembarked from the boat, everyone felt transformed, refreshed and ready for what fall was about to bring. We forgot it was blazing hot, and all our attention was on the author and his book. Charles had been the perfect author for what I believe is the perfect book club read, Where the River Ends. I had previously handed out "Cry Like a River," little packages of Kleenexes that the publisher had so graciously sent to us to have handy as we read the book. But I have to tell you, I did not cry over the book. I felt an overwhelming sense of joy from the affirmation that true love exists in a world of apathy and skepticism.
Someone asked me once why the Pulpwood Queens did not read romance books. I beg to differ. My answer is define romance. I have never read a more romantic book than Where the River Ends, and I can tell you that I hope everyone will discover Charles Martin, too. He is my role model for author, man, husband, father, Christian, and friend. What more could a book club ask for. He's perfect to me!
---Kathy Patrick
