A few months ago, a good friend called to ask if she could throw me a BLISS HOUSE launch lunch at the St. Louis restaurant she runs. Karen Mott is actually a first cousin of my husband, Pinckney, but she is a friend, indeed.
Isn’t it a wonderful thing when a friend calls out of the blue with happy news? I hadn’t planned to have a launch party for BLISS HOUSE. A fourth novel is a little like a thirty-something birthday: you kind of want to make a big deal of it, but you’ve had so many parties that you think it might be the grown-up thing to just smile and move on. And I do have much to do besides party. My next book’s bytes are scattered between two computers, a notebook and The Cloud. (Is The Cloud capitalized like a physical place? I don’t know.) Spring was a nightmare of illness and activity, and every day I imagine escaping into my overgrown flower garden for a marathon weeding session. But let’s be serious–everybody likes to be celebrated, yes? I often suspect that many people who say they don’t want a fuss are precisely the people who secretly do.
The Barn Restaurant is on the grounds of the Thomas Sappington House in Crestwood, in suburban St. Louis. From Tuesday through Sunday, it’s open for breakfast and lunch. But the launch lunch was on Monday, so we had the whole place to ourselves. Karen says that the Sappington House itself, a National Historic Landmark that’s open for tours, isn’t haunted. But a girl can hope, can’t she?
Here are some pictures of the friends (old and new) and family who came out to help me celebrate. It was a delightful afternoon. I feel grateful and so very blessed.
