Since Little Bookstore‘s publication, many nice people from all sorts of interesting places have written via the blog or our bookstore’s Facebook page to say thoughtful, funny, sweet things about their experience of reading it. They tell us their own stories, comment on things that resonated with them, ask insightful questions.

Yesterday a woman sent me a sweet and slightly different note: I just read your book and your description of the disastrous trip to the used “bookstores” in Indiana and after checking the phone book am sure you were in my city! Please – you were in a rotten part of town – we have a wonderful Used Book Warehouse I think you would love!

Do all towns have such pleasant defenders? Betsy is right; I was in her town, and since we’re friends I can tell you that Evansville, Indiana was indeed the home of the infamous Fulton Avenue Books and Fuquay Avenue, chronicled in the “Booking Down the Road Trip” chapter of The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap.

What I didn’t know, but do now thanks to Betsy, is that nearby in Newburgh is a Middle Eastern cafe, an ethnic cookery style I love to sink my teeth into. So next time we’re passing that way, we intend to explore its delights. Thanks, Betsy!

But there is a funny continuation to this story. One of the things they teach you in Author 101 school (the three weeks between handing in your final edits and the pre-book events cranking up in earnest) is how to make and monitor an online presence: Facebook, blog, Twitter, Pinterest. I’m a natural at FB and love the blogosphere’s interaction; Twitter and Pinterest, I’m slowly figuring out. (All pointers gratefully accepted!)

The stats on my blog include a map of where people reading it are from, and what search terms they used to find it. About every three to four days, I find that someone has landed on my (if I do say so myself) cheerful little blog about a daily life full of colorful local characters, book browsers, kittens and sweetness, by searching “porn” “Fulton Avenue Books” “adult bookstores” or “Evansville.” (Sorry, Betsy!)

Can you imagine this person’s disappointment when up pops a pic of our latest kitty fosters (NO “kitty porn” jokes, thanks!) or the now-infamous photo of Jack from his birthday party? They may never recover….

But it does explain why my stats keep rising. ;] And I look forward to the Middle Eastern food.