You see these smiling faces? This is the Once a Month book group in Lexington, North Carolina, one of the coolest book groups in the country. I know this because I talked to them on the phone this week. They had read A Piece of Normal and wanted to ask me questions about it. Before the talk, however, we emailed back and forth and they explained that they have strict rules for their book group: (1) it must meet at a restaurant, and (2) alcohol and dessert, preferably chocolate, must be involved.

These are the kinds of rules I think all book groups should have. In fact, I made up a rule for myself before I called them, which was that I should also have a glass of wine on hand, and since I couldn’t find any chocolate dessert around the house, I opted for a bag of peanut M&Ms. Striving to be thoughtful, I did not crunch candy into the mouthpiece.

We hit it off wonderfully.

Sometimes groups want to know such things as what are the three major themes that I see developing in my work, and are my characters composites of people I know, and where do I see the future of English literature going?

THIS group, bless their hearts, wanted to know if I dye my hair–and if so, had I ever had the unfortunate experience that Lily, the main character, had with turning her hair into a splotchy  mess due to hair color kit disasters?

The answers were yes and yes.

Then they wanted to know who I saw playing Dana, the hellion younger sister–and they thought Drew Barrymore should definitely get the first shot at the part. We discussed Helen Hunt for Lily’s part, but I don’t think we arrived at a consensus. A truck might have been barreling past their outdoor table at that moment. I definitely heard them recommend Matthew McConaghey for Alex, though.

Many of my writer friends imagine that talking to book groups on the phone has to be one of life’s toughest moments–you can’t see who you’re talking to, speaker phones can be disconcerting, and as one of my friends said, “Maybe they’re making faces behind your back”–but I have to say I love it. There’s something divine about sharing a glass of wine long distance with people who are making some excellent casting recommendations for your book.

And if you’re really lucky, they’ll send you a picture of themselves talking with you. Above are: (L to R, standing): Karen, Julie, Wendy, Megan and Marci. Seated are Buffie and Dare. (I told Dare I’m going to have to name a character after her.)

If you have a book group and would like to have a book chat, click on this link: http://www.sandishelton.com/group/ and we can talk about hair color, chocolate, wine, and books.