Friends Who Write Books

I went to a book signing last night for my friend Margaret Renkl. Margaret and I were neighbors for fifteen years. Her oldest son and my daughter are the same age and have been friends all their lives. We had the great good fortune to live in an idyllic neighborhood where the kids really did play from yard to yard while the parents stood in the street and chatted as the streetlights came on.

Margaret has always been a gifted writer. The first time I realized how good was when I read an essay in Redbook while waiting for my mother to get her hair done. It made me cry. After I finally stopped crying I noticed the author was Margaret. Then it made me cry more because I realized I knew all the people in the heart wrenching essay. It was about how her father fixed the things in their house in Alabama. That has been at least ten years ago and I still remember that essay and being amazed that I knew a writer like Margaret.

Margaret’s first book, Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss released yesterday. It is every bit as beautiful as you would expect from Margaret. The cover and interior illustrations are done by her equally gifted brother Billy Renkl. . When I ran into her husband Haywood earlier this year, he was afraid no one would come to her book launch event because so many people are out of town in July. He need not have worried. It was the biggest event Parnassus, our local independent bookstore, has ever hosted, which is saying something because they host serious book events. The room was packed beyond capacity and the crowd cheered and applauded repeatedly. Margaret cried. I cried because I was so happy for her. I have been to too many book events to count. But this was my friend’s book. She was my friend before she wrote a book and I was beyond thrilled that everyone was as excited about it as I was. That it is beautiful and profound is almost a bonus.

Today, I began reading a different book. Mended: Restoring the Hearts of Mothers and Daughters, by Blythe Daniel and Helen McIntosh, is also written by a friend. Many years ago, Blythe worked for me as a publicist. We were both a lot younger and she was still Blythe McIntosh. I have to remind myself that her last name is Daniel, although it has been for fifteen years. I also remember meeting her mother all those years ago. We were driving back from a business meeting in Atlanta and she wanted to stop to visit her parents when we passed Dalton, Georgia. He mother was a beautiful, gracious, bubbly, older version of Blythe. I have been privileged to visit with Helen several times over the years even though Blythe and I no longer work together and she has lived in Colorado for years.

As I read Mended, I was struck by how insightful, vulnerable, and well-written it was. I forgot that it was written by a friend and was drawn into the very real wisdom and encouragement I found in its pages. I have found being the mother of an adult daughter much more challenging than at any other time in my parenting journey. I began reading it so I could send Blythe a note to thank her for the gift and instead lost several hours and highlighted passages in numerous chapters.

It is not that am surprised that my friends are good writers. It is just that before now, authors were authors and friends were friends. I know what it takes to get a book from idea to publication. The work, self-doubt, determination, effort, trust, fear, cussedness, excitement, courage, strength, luck, and will. For both these books to be so very good is the ice cream on the peach cobbler. I can’t wait to tell people to please read Late Migrations and Mended, not because they were written by my friends Margaret and Blythe, but because they are just so good. It is an embarrasment of riches.

I hope you have a chance to meet Margaret Renkl and Blythe Daniel one day. If either of them are having a book event in your area, please go. You will be glad even if it is a fire hazard and there aren’t enough chairs. But, if you can’t, please go to a bookstore and buy their books. Margaret would strongly prefer you go to an independent bookstore even if they have to order it for you. Blythe, having been in publishing for decades, is probably not as particular. Either way, you will want to meet my friends, if only in the pages of their very, very good works.