Reading at a barbecue dinner at the small Tennessee university where my father-in-law teaches, addressing an audience in Amarillo that included the high school English teacher who inspired me to write, visiting Flannery O’Connor’s peacock farm during a gig in Georgia, speaking to inmates at a medium-security prison in West Texas, as well as watching my four kids strong-arm bookstore patrons into buying my book—these were among the most memorable events of what I called, depending on my level of whimsy, “The Great Last Call Book Tour” or “The Great Futon Tour.”
