This was a special evening. Five bookclubs in Bemidji, MN met together for the first time at the only speakerphone in town (really?) so we could discuss QUEEN OF THE ROAD. Over 30 ladies crowded into a 12X12 room at the Bemidji Airport.

They certainly got into the spirit of things:

The Book Bags: Back Row: L-R, Ann Cease ("who is a witch when she travels" - yeah, Tim says the same about me), Cori Rude, Leona Hambrecht, Sue Bruns, Martha Nelson, Evi Thompson, Nancy Bensen, Robyn Schulke, Lin Ward. Front Row: Mary May, Polly Scotland, and Trish Quistgaard.

The Finer Things Literary Society: Erin Curran and Amy Haskell

The Bemidji Belles (a new club that's been meeting only 6 months) and one member of the Tuesday Book Club (who didn't seem to mind meeting on Wednesday) wearing her pajamas (center in black - my kinda gal). L-R Back: Jeannie Peterson, Shelly Anderson, Joyce Siegert. Front: Carole Holmes, Vicki Holmes, Joel Olson.

Ladies of the Lake: L-R, Back Row Dianne Wilds, Pat Schneider, Susan Colliander, Eileen Gothman, DeeAnn Najjar, Mary Melchoir. Front Row: Peggy Olding, Annette Mackenroth, Nancy Ramsey. (I was told that 2/3 criteria had to be met to be in this club: Read the book, live on the lake, not be a virgin. I didn't ask who met what.)

Other book clubs take notice: All the ladies were either in tiaras or Burger King crowns. (I'm partial to the one I got from Target.)

Tim and I actually drove through Bemidji, MN. It's the first city on the Mississippi River. We even stopped for heavenly Walleye fish 'n' chips on Leech Lake, in the town of Walker. The book clubs told me I'd misidentified the lake as "Walker Lake" in the book.

Now, which would you rather swim in?

Thanks for a very special and lively evening, ladies!