So yesterday was the debut of Marina’s book, Gretel and Andy, God’s Gift; The Lives of Two Seeing Eye Dogs. We had the event at the Osceola Senior Center, a venue we worked hard to secure for senior activities and events like the one yesterday. I’d arranged a cake with the photo of Gretel and Andy on it. The cake had to be made over in Amery and was to be delivered yesterday to Dick’s Market in Osceola. Well, “Duck’s Off!” if you’ve ever seen that Fawlty Towers episode about Basil’s “gourmet night”. The cake had been marked for delivery November 25th, not October 25th. I’d been nervous about it and called that morning to reassure myself the cake was in Osceola. It wasn’t. Apparently, Baker Bob called Amery and they got to work right away to create the cake. However, there was no courier to get it to Osceola, so when I showed up to collect our cake, there was no cake. Baker Bob set to work as I stood there and created a cake for us, complete with paw prints. I managed to hustle over to the Senior Center without dropping the cake and arrived just as things were set to begin.
This was an event that I was not sure would bring in anyone, despite a newspaper ad and a news release, but I entered the room and it was full! On top of that, two of our kids, Britta and Aaron, sported doggie ears and black noses so that they were “in character” for reading short bits from the book. Marina spoke off the cuff for 15 minutes or so, keeping people spellbound, per usual. She did a great job! There were questions and then cake, coffee, teas and lots of conversation. Marina had brought 20 books and all but one sold. FYI, locally Amery’s Bowman Collective handles her book and it’s on Amazon under Marina Heide Peacock. I think Marina was a bit stunned by the whole thing. On top of that, her online sales royalties have been mounting nicely. Why, she might be able to support me in the fashion I’d like!