I can not remember a time when I was not read to or I did not read. I'm the baby in a home of readers so reading was just second nature in our home. It was just likely for me to minor in English in college and almost all of those hours were in literature classes. I studied Women in Literature, Minorities in Literature, Italian Literature in translation, American Fiction and Shakespeare’s Greatest Works. I also took two writing classes, Creative Writing Fiction and Creative Writing Poetry. (I majored in Journalism.)

I have never lost my love for authors and for reading. I was so excited to receive an invitation to the 30th Book & Author Dinner  on Sunday, November 1. It was only my second one ever!  It's presented by The Houston Chronicle and it raises money for  the Houston Public Library. The five authors who presented this year were Oscar Casares, Charlaine Harris, Julie Powell, Lee Child, and David Cross. All of them were great!

Oscar told a great story about selling books and reading at HEB, Lee Child told a strange story about a book tour in Bulgaria, Julie Powell talked about the incredible journey of writing her blog, then book and then movie, and Charlaine Harris talked about the wonder of seeing her books turned into an HBO series. David Cross tied it all together with a totally off the wall story about hiking in Laredo and finding out he was kidnapped by French people, or something strange like that.

Lee Child is a Brit who writes a popular mystery series with character Jack Reacher. Julie Powell is the original blogger from the movie that inspired the movie, Julie and Julie, with Meryl Streep as Julia Child. Charlaine Harris is the original writer of the True Blood characters and story line. She is awesome and so down to earth. Julie Powell is also very nice. David Cross is INSANE! He was definitely "the wild card" like our editor said when introducing him. No one had any idea what he would do. David Cross is an actor (Arrested Development) comedian and now writer. I love the title of his book, I Drink for a Reason. Love it! By now you all know that Oscar Casares is my first cousin. Of course I love his book Amigoland.

All of these authors were such an inspiration! I was especially inspired by Julie Powell and Charlaine Harris. They are so close to their success that they are still in awe that they have a movie and a TV show, respectively. It’s really cool to see people that are still so real and to hear them speak about their success with such reverence and wonder.

I came away from the Book & Author dinner even more convinced that my true calling is in writing. I know that I am only happiest when I am writing. I need to pay attention to this long lost love.