The M.R. Sellers/Doroth Morrison show, Part 1

I met authors M.R.Sellars and Dorothy Morrison a couple of nights ago and had a great time. They were doing a booksigning and lecture at Earth Spirits Herbal Apothecary in Sturbridge, MA.

The venue alone was worth the trip. The Apothecary is a fabulous, sprawling shop with multiple cozy rooms. Everywhere you looked was filled with tastefully arranged, colorful bottles, boxes, and more. It was like your typical chain pharmacy, but better -- holistic medicines have a tendency to have much more artistic packaging. I saw homeopathic simples, aromatic oils and diffusers, flower essences, herb teas, and Chinese patent medicines. There were shelves of books, gifts, jewelry, clothing, statues, candles, and incense. And fairies. Wicker chairs and small tables were arranged throughout the store and I thought that one particularly large area was where the lecture would be, but no! That was just for the "meet and greet" and book signing. The actual lecture was in a spacious lecture room with chairs lined up in four or so long rows.

The authors hadn't arrived yet because they had run into traffic on their way up from Pennsylvania. They've had an unbelievably aggressive tour schedule. In just the last five days, they had driven from Indiana to Pennsylvania to Massachusetts, which doesn't sound like much, but when I was a kid, the family often drove a summer trip that included crossing Pennsylvania, and that part alone took EIGHT hours. "Are we out of Pennsylvania yet?" was a familiar cry from the back seat of the station wagon. Anyway, they had run into a two-hour traffic delay at the George Washington Bridge (or a similar presidential-sounding bridge name), and were on their way, so I had plenty of time to absorb the beauty of the shop (but not enough time to buy -- too many things! -- but they do have online shopping, I notice...)

I had just gone out to make a call on my cell phone and when I came back in, there was a man who looked an awful lot like the pictures on M. R. Sellars' web page making some comment about "those authors" just blowing off the event. I knew it was him. He's described as having a sense of humor like Dennis Miller. I'd sort of agree, except that Murv is warmer. And that's no act; you can tell that that's Murv, all the time.

He and Dorothy were so gracious to me, who emailed them out of the blue not long ago begging for a chance to "talk shop" before the appearance, but their schedule is so stuffed that they didn't have time for a free meal or a coffee after. (Actually, I wonder if they ever ate! He told a story of a previous lecture where they ate something in the morning and then nothing all day...)

I need to stop here because I have a ton of things to do, but at this point of meeting them, I am just sooooo impressed. He's driven all this way, as he and Morrison have done for at least the past five days, and he's still joking. I don't think I could still be VERBAL at that point, but he's still joking. The rest of the evening didn't disappoint. I got my chance to "talk shop" with him while he flopped in a chair and cooled off from the drive (it was 88 degrees out when I left work; I can only imagine it was hotter in the south where they drove up from) and I ended up staying for their lecture, which was an interesting discussion of ethics.

Stay tuned for part two...