Me & Dave

I love Dave Barry!!! This is a pic taken of us at the Texas Book Festival in Austin in Nov. 2003. I went with my mom. I was so excited to meet Dave, and could barely contain myself. I told him I was a librarian and he signed his book for me, "To Adela, my literary idol." He had kept me from sinking into a deep black depression when I was in my mid-20's, and I own almost all of his books (not the fiction). I've always been sort of in love with him, too!

That TX Book Fest was something else. We also saw Amy Tan speak, and also Dave Barry w/Roy Blount, Jr. Later we saw them and their goofy rock band, the Rock Bottom Remainders, in concert at the Austin Music Fest. It was one of the best times of my entire life. Roger Guinn of the Byrds sat in. They made me cry when they did Warren Zevon's song "Keep Me in Your Heart", as he had recently died. I realized I also have a mini-crush on Mitch Albom, who's also in the band--he is a cutie, and buff to boot! I stood right up against the stage and took many pictures that night. If you ever want to see them, just ask!

I also got to meet Carlton Stowers at that Book Fest, who is a Texas true crime author [truth be told, that's probably my dream job!]. We saw him speak and he took questions afterwards. I have read pretty much all his true crime books, but I wanted to ask him about one in particular. His son had killed his own wife (girlfriend?) and was sent up the river for it. Stowers ended up writing a book about it. So I asked about that book, something like what was it like to write a true crime book from a personal viewpoint? He replied that it had been difficult, but ultimately therapeutic. Then he thanked me for asking that question. I was the only audience member he thanked! (I have a previous bizarre association w/Carlton Stowers. Just briefly: this guitar player I was "seeing" gave me a gift of one of Stowers' books and told me the author was his uncle. A couple of years later I was trying to track down the guitarist who was MIA from the Houston area. I actually found Carlton Stowers' home phone # at his home near Dallas and gave him a call, thinking he might have news of his nephew. He said he had no such nephew! I decided not to mention by the way, I'm a huge fan, and just hung up. Weird.)