~from Ami

Hang with me here, it'll all make sense!

What a week! I started out by alternately stammering, flailing my arms around, staring into the camera i.e. the Cindy Brady On-Screen Freeze, and repeating the phrase "quirky characters" ten times on Tulsa's KOTV "Six in the Morning" program on Monday the 22nd. Finished the program and rushed to catch up with my work at my day job at the Department of Human Service, while simultaneously wrapping up an article for Oklahoma Today Magazine. All the while, looking forward with trembling of heart to my very first signing for Next of Kin at the Prairie Grove, AR, Public Library on Saturday. One problem, I only had five books on me and the shipment I'd ordered still hadn't arrived.

I didn't totally panic until Friday at about 2:00. No books, signing tomorrow. How would I sign a bazillion books if I only had five? I'd neglected to get the tracking number from the publisher and nobody was answering the phone on Friday. So my husband went out in search of our friendly UPS man.

Meanwhile, my friend and co-worker Cindy had brought buffalo chili to work, after enduring my many, many complaints about her venison chili. I despise deer meat with a passion. Cindy, who apparently stocks her freezer with a wide variety of wild game ("Do you have quail?" "Got it!" "Possum?" "Got it!") had brought a huge pot of buffalo-meat chili on Friday for me to try since I won't eat the venison kind. My anxiety attack and the buffalo chili were about to meet face to face. Let me add I was also waiting on amazing author and ByLine Magazine editor Marcia Preston to show up at my workplace to deliver a box of contest entries for me to judge.

The chili was exquisite. We sat in the breakroom and downed huge, hot bowlfuls of chili topped with Fritos and cheese while we gossiped about coworkers and the current state of Medicaid coverage.

But my books hadn't arrived at my house, and I was still waiting for Marcia to arrive. Long story short, absolutely sick with a stomachache AND panic, I finally learned the books had appeared on my front porch about the same time as the elegant Marcia showed up at my dingy little office. I was bowed over with stomach cramps but all was right with my world.

Saturday, August 27th. Was I really walking into the Prairie Grove Library, the place I used to roller-skate down to in order to slump into a bean bag and read Nancy Drews for hours, to sign copies of MY OWN BOOK? My mother-in-law, furiously snapping pictures of anyone and everyone, had brought two hundred Neimann-Marcus cookies. If you've never had these, or heard the urban myth behind them, you have to try them. I think my dad ate fifteen. They are the most incredible cookies I've ever had.

We cut the cake-complete with a copy of my book cover on top-into perfect 1x1 squares with a roll of dental floss. Yes, it was mint flavored. Probably added that extra little something to the frosting, no?

I had a steady stream of visitors from two o'clock to four o'clock, and also phone calls, like one from my old middle school boyfriend, Mike. Thanks, Prairie Grove! And sold all fifty of the books I'd brought. Surprised by a visit from Radine Trees Nehring, who writes the wonderful "To Die For" series of Arkansas mysteries- her latest is "A Treasure to Die For." She was gracious and a hoot to talk with- I believe she sampled the Neimann-Marcus cookies also.

What an amazing week! Came home exhausted to an email from Kate Stine of Mystery Magazine informing me my "New Books" essay--detailing why I wrote Next of Kin--would be in the September issue. In spite of my splitting headache from traveling, extra five pounds because of the cookie overdose, and back pain from standing in my ultra-high-high-heels all day Saturday, I was jumping up and down in the living room while the dog eyed me with disdain.

The writer's life. How very, very strange it is sometimes!

I'm pasting the famous Neimann-Marcus recipe below. Enjoy!

“Neimann Marcus” Cookies
2 cups butter
5 cups oatmeal, powdered (in the blender)
2 cups granulated sugar
1 tsp. salt
2 cups brown sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
4 eggs
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. vanilla
24 oz. chocolate chips
4 cups flour
2 8-oz. Hershey bars, grated
3 c. chopped pecans or walnuts

Cream the butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla, beating well. Mix together flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Combine dry mixture with creamed mixture. Add chocolate chips, Hershey bar, and nuts. The mixture will be very thick; do not use electric beaters.

Roll into balls and place two inches apart on a cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes at 375°. (Baking longer may cause the bottoms of the cookies to burn.) Each batch provides up to 120 cookies.