I had the honor and privilege to spend blink-of-an-eye moments with Chris Crutcher during his four day author-in-residency in my hometown five years ago. My husband’s emails to Chris resulted in a rare invitation for insightful and delightful conversation with a gifted storyteller last Monday evening.

Chris spoke to a room packed with people concerned about the pernicious practice of banning books.  He told us how proud he was to be forever linked in censorship to famous authors, relayed inspiring real life stories he recreated in fiction, read to us until we laughed and nodded our heads in empathy and understanding.  He stayed on after the hour and a half that seemed like 15 minutes, answered questions, signed books, including the copy of “Deadline” I used to help my non-trad college students earn extra credit in a life skills refresher course.  He asked his hosts and the tag-a-long LaBellas to join him for drinks and appetizers at an after hours location of choice and agreed to an on-camera interview for my husband’s multi-media project “Words Never Spoken.”

I offered him a copy of my first published novel.  He accepted and asked me to sign it for him, the ultimate compliment from a truly gracious man who has given so much of himself to his readers and anyone fortunate enough to discover his talent.

Thanks for the inspiration, Chris