Samuel W. Gailey
VOTM: What’s the most unusual experience you’ve had at a reading?
GAILEY: I was at the Poisoned Pen bookstore in Scottsdale, AZ, last March. Unfortunately for me, this was also the final weekend for the NCAA basketball tournament…so the turnout was intimate. Seven or eight people, tops. During my reading, a man showed up late and joins the small circle of folks. He was stoic and looked uncomfortable, appearing as if this was the last place he wanted to be. He kept staring at me like I just kicked his dog, and when I looked his way, he would quickly avert his eyes. After the discussion, he waited until everyone else was gone (all eight of them), then approached me and asked if I would sign a copy of my book. He seemed embarrassed to be asking. Sure, I said. Who should I make it out to? He grinned and said, Jay Eberlin.
It took me a moment to process…I knew this guy. I come from a remote little town in Pennsylvania, population 379, and Jay Eberlin was one of my oldest and very first friend from that area. I hadn’t seen or spoken to him in over 30 years. He still lived in the same town, but happened to be in Scottsdale for a convention when he heard that I was having a reading at the Poisoned Pen. And fortunately for me, he wasn’t a huge NCAA basketball fan.
Samuel W. Gailey was raised in a small town in northeast Pennsylvania (population 379), which serves as the setting for his debut novel, DEEP WINTER. Drawn to rural life and the sometimes deceiving atmosphere therein, Gailey’s first novel and his works in progress are suspenseful mysteries and intriguing studies of human nature.
Come see Samuel read at Book Show in Highland Park on Saturday, January 10 at 7pm.