Hometown Girl

Nothing feels better than basking in the sunshine of your hometown.

This past Saturday, my husband and I flew to Ohio for a book launch of my debut novel, Circus of the Queens: The Fortune-Teller’s Fate. It was held at the O’Neil House, a big old beautiful Tudor mansion and one time home of the family that started General Tire. My mother’s baby sisters, age 95 and 88 were both in attendance looking beautiful, statuesque and proud. Oh how they loved my mother, who had had a degree in English literature. They knew how she and my father were rooting for me up in heaven. My sister Laura and I could almost hear our father proclaiming, “You see that? My baby wrote that!”

My husband Gary said he could see our fathers hanging out together, both with big grins on their faces, while we knew Gary’s mother was saying prayers on earth, so happy for our success even before she knew that the booksellers from The Learned Owl in Hudson had sold out of books. Friends from high school and even the baby crib showed up to pay their respect. When I left Akron at age 18 to start my own life adventures, I had no idea what something like this would mean to me later. I’ve lived west coast and east and in-between, but after this weekend I know, I’ll always be from Akron.