Extolling the Virtues of a Chocolate-Dipped Cone...

This is my "author" busy season, one in which I spend lots of time giving speeches and trying to sell books at a host of literary festivals around the country. If I'm lucky, I get put up in a nice hotel, sometimes there are pillow chocolates involved and turn-down service. Sometimes there are flies at the buffet (see Akron, previous...or better yet, let's forget about Akron) and sometimes there are fancy desserts at hoity-toity receptions with really big-name authors.

I was taught never to refuse food that is offered to you...which is why I continue to struggle with my weight! But I've recently observed that I do indeed have two sides to my personality: the Author side, where I hang with famous or-famous authors and celebrities, and we all talk about ourselves until everyone's sick to death; and the Mom side, where I do endless loads of laundry, drive carpool, and apply Band-Aids to skinned knees.

Speaking frankly, I love both worlds for what they each represent. But I gotta be honest, the desserts on the Mom side are so much better! Petit fours are all good and fine, but let's face it, you'd have to eat about 100 of them to really get enough to be satisfied. And you can't really do that in public, at a fancy reception.

But when you're a Mom, you can drive your clan to the local DQ, and treat everybody to a chocolate-dipped cone. What a simple, timeless treat! And it's dark chocolate, so it's GOOD for you! Can you imagine me filling up my Mom-mobile with a bunch of famous authors and driving them through DQ for a chocolate-dipped cone? They would curl up and die. They would lash me with their laptops.

So this weekend I'll be hanging at Nashville's Southern Festival of Books. I'll be in Booth #36, The Comma Goddesses. But pay close attention, because when I'm out walking the crowds, I'll be the one with the chocolate-dipped cone!