Bringing in more chairs.
A standing-room-only crowd showed up at the Orland Carnegie Community Center this week to hear me talk about my latest book, The Case of the Missing Game Warden. Thanks so much to Friends of the Orland Free Library for inviting me, and thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone who came. What a wonderful day!
Last Saturday’s book signing at the Chico Barnes and Noble was so much fun. We were greeted at the open door by store managers Caitlyn and Alisa. They and their professional staff made us feel at home all day.
I’ve often said that the reason I enjoyed the old Andy Griffith Show so much was because I practically grew up there. Growing up in Orland was as close to living in Mayberry as you could get without being a member of the cast.
My family moved from the Los Angeles area to Orland, a small farming community at the northern end of California’s Sacramento Valley, in 1960. By the end of our first day in school, my brother Kenny and I felt as if we’d lived there all our lives. The following Saturday, we joined several of our new friends and walked the railroad tracks to Stony Creek, where I caught my first smallmouth bass and began a childhood adventure that would last until I left for college years later.