From The Reader’s Room, October 2002.
It was a gloomy and dark day on October 3, 2002, but my best friend and I were thrilled to pieces. We were making a three hour drive to Capitol Books & News in Montgomery, Alabama to meet Robert McCammon. We could not believe we were meeting THE Robert McCammon, author of one of our all time favorite books, Swan Song. It had been almost ten years since he had written any books, and his latest, Speaks The Nightbird had just come out.
We arrived two hours early, and ate lunch at a wonderful cafe right up the road from the bookstore. It began to sprinkle just as we made our way back to wait on his arrival. There was only one woman in line ahead of us, so we sat and tried to patiently wait for his entrance. When McCammon walked in, his smile just lit up the entire room! Before we knew it, it was our “turn”, and as he sat at a table in the bookstore, we had him all to ourselves for about five exciting minutes. I don’t recall much of what we talked about with him on that day, but I do remember him telling us that his book, Boy’s Life was the favorite of most of his readers.
His southern drawl took me by surprise, for some reason, I had visions of New York authors dancing in my head! My friend and I had about eight of his books between us, and he graciously signed every one of them.
Alas, before we knew it, our time with him was up. Before we left, he was kind enough to let us have our pictures taken with him. We left the bookstore, driving in the wrong direction, we were that excited!
I will always treasure my signed copy of Speaks The Nightbird, which I read promptly upon returning home, and it ended up being one of my very favorite reads of 2002. I hope that one day he and I will meet again, and I hope he is busy at work on a new book. I would hate to have to wait another ten years to read more work from this great author!