.Meeting Sue and Ann.

During my high school years, one could most likely find me with my nose in a book during lunch, downtime in class, and just about any other time of day.  I'm pretty sure all of my math teachers hated when I would hurriedly go through my math problems (probably getting most of them wrong) so I could bring out a book and get lost in other worlds and characters.  Needless to say, reading was very important to me and I was always searching the bestsellers shelves at Barnes & Noble and the suggested reading lists on Amazon for new reads.  One book that stayed with me and inspired me in countless ways was "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd.  If you haven't read this book (and yes, I mean read, not seen the move which is also fantastic) I suggest you drop what you are doing and run to the nearest library or bookstore and start reading.  Yes, it made that much of an impact on me!

While reading the book on vacation, my mother asked about it and she too fell in love with the story of the spirited fourteen-year-old Lily, the pink pepto bismol house, and the three black sisters, May, June, and August Boatwright.  During my senior year of high school, I chose this book for an assignment for my oral interpretation class and sat for hours on our porch swing trying to cut 336 pages into a 10-minute storytelling piece that would still be able capture the enchantment of the story.  After toiling over the pages, I cut it down and performed it for an oral interp. competition receiving second place.

It's been nearly five years since I read, fell in love with, and performed Lily's story, and on vacation I had the serendipitous opportunity to meet the author, Sue Monk Kidd.  While walking the streets of Charleston, Scott and I stopped, as we often do, in the local bookstore, which is called  Blue Bicycle Books.  There on the sidewalk was a chalkboard with the message:

It was almost too good to be true that she was going to be there in person and we hadn't missed her or happened upon the shop on a different day (which I find usually happens). We walked around and tried to kill an hour and came back to the bookstore to wait patiently for her arrival.  Before she got there, I picked up her newest book that she wrote with her daughter, Ann Kidd Taylor.  Now, having only returned from vacation a few days, I have already devoured "Traveling with Pomegranates," a mother-daughter story and travel memoir.  

When she arrived at the shop, she told how hers story of the bees came to her and how, after showing the first chapter of the story to a teacher at a writing conference, he/she (can't remember which) told her that it did not have the potential for a novel.  She filed it away only taking it out to be read at an award ceremony in New York. A publisher then told her she hoped that was the first chapter of a novel.  Sue took three years writing the story of Lily and the bees and it was bought at its first publishing auction.  I'm so glad someone was able to give her an extra push to finish the story (although I think she would have come back to it again eventually because of her convictions and feelings about it)!

Her new book, written with her daughter, has been a fascinating read for me personally having taken a trip abroad with my own mother.  I also read the book with the images in mind of Sue and Ann from meeting them in the bookstore; it felt almost like I was secretly reading their travel journals.  In the book, Ann discusses her concerns for her future career plans and finds her husband (whose name is also Scott) along the way, Sue discusses her own trepidation with growing older and coming closer to the final chapters of her life (although seeing her in person, you wouldn't think she was a day over 50).  She also tells how she came to write "The Secret Life of Bees," which I really enjoyed.

Meeting Sue and Ann was such a great surprise and I will always remember meeting (and talking to) my favorite author on mine and Scott's first vacation as a married couple.

 {Sue and me}

{Sue signing her new book}

{Ann and me}