Hey, Ace, it's Seth Kaplan in Massachusetts. I met you at the Framingham B&N when you toured with Joan Parker. I just finished "The Broken Places," and found it to be your some of your finest writing to date! Well-integrated characters and settings, and what (even allowing for the credit in Acknowledgements) is the best description of a tornado I've ever read. I'm guessing you've been in more than one.
About Mrs. Parker: Her vibrancy and wit hid her illness, so my wife and I were shocked when we learned of her passing. I was lucky to have a moment to chat with her during the signing.

I reminded her that, since I sat in the first row, I became a target for her comic vitriol. It was all in good fun, so I recalled for her another time I was an unwitting target. We had gone to see "Shear Madness," the longest-running show ever. One of the characters, a venerable grand dame, asked the audience for questions. Being bold, I asked one about how the murder might have been committed. She squinted into the stage lights and, pointing in my direction, tut-tutted, "Aren't you the man who delivers the manure?"

I expected Mrs. Parker to laugh. Instead, she rocked back in her chair and said, "I can use that!" She was a force of nature, and I'm sad she's gone.

P.S. I've been undergoing an internal struggle between my polite-fan-writes-to-author persona and my English teacher gene. The latter won: There is a typo in "The Broken Places." On page 327, Quinn says, "I'd whip you some more if you didn't look like you'd already been through the RINGER (sic) twice."

P.P.S. Whenever you're in Massachusetts, look me up. I enjoyed our conversation that night; it would be a treat to repeat the experience.