Anyone from Xenia, Ohio, has heard of the novel of that name written by Helen Hooven Santmeyer. Helen wrote her 1300 page fictional Ladies of the Club, a novel about Xenia, her – and my – hometown, by hand on bookkeeping ledger paper. It was published in 1982 and sold a few hundred copies, gaining little traction. Until that is, one day it was accidentally read by a librarian, who overheard a customer say it was the best book she ever read. The librarian sent a copy to her son, a Hollywood producer. Suddenly Ladies of the Club was “discovered”, reprinted, and profiled on the front page of the NY Times. In 1985, the book reportedly sold 2 million copies in a three month period.

Myles Traveled now has its own “Ladies of the Club” story. No, we haven’t “been discovered and sold two million copies” (at least not yet). But Jenny did go to another “club” last night, the monthly meeting of the Pandora Ladies Garden Club. When she got home, Jenny said, “You need to put Karen in charge of your P.R.” Karen is one of the club members, and is reading Myles Traveled. I wrote in a previous post about her not being able to put the book down. As relayed by Jenny, Karen started raving about the book last night at the club meeting, and they ended up spending about 20 minutes talking about the book, with Jenny describing Bill, explaining how the book came about, our trip to Kansas City for research, etc. Seems now some more “Ladies of the Club” want the book! Move over Helen Santmeyer, we’re coming after you…