One of our fellow Kossacks, Ilona Meagher ,is touring the country, talking about her novel, "Moving a Nation to Care", published by Ig Publishing.*
Yesterday, Ilona came to Boulder. She gave a talk at the Boulder Book Store on the Pearl St. Mall, staring with how she came to write about Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The thing that struck me most about her talk was the very real emotions she has about the subject matter. This issue does mean something to Ilona and that gives her a huge benefit when writing/talking about it. She's passionate about it and that's something I think is severely lacking in today's instant gratification culture.
More below.
I received notice a few weeks ago that Ilona was doing the book tour and had a speaking engagement at the Boulder Book Store. I'm a co-host for one of Boulder, CO's Drinking Liberally chapters. We've had great success hosting authors at chapter meetings after they speak: Markos for "Crashing the Gate" and advisorjim for "Confessions of a Former Dittohead" last year were popular. I enjoyed talking to previous authors not only about their experiences with writing their books and touring the country, but also getting to know them. Ilona proved no different.
After she graciously spoke with everybody who wanted her to sign their books, she and her friend Mike chatted with myself and em dash (who blogs here at dKos, the site unbossed, SquareState, and Colorado Confidential) about Colorado-centered PTSD goings-on. Unfortunately, em dash couldn't join us for a drink, so Ilona, Mike, myself and a fellow DLer walked over to the Republic of Boulder. But what did we find? The Republic had shut its doors! And I find this out after I had sent out an announcement to my DL chapter to meet us there!
Not all was lost. I'm glad I planned to stay near the Book Store because there are numerous places from which to choose to drink. We quickly settled on the Rio Grande after I explained they make excellent margaritas. From what I've been told, each margarita has three shots of tequila in them. They actually have a limit of no more than three margaritas per person!
Ilnoa's friend wasn't too sure about the concept of blogging, so we tried to explain to him what it is and why we spend so much time doing it. Ilona and I shared some stories from last year's YearlyKos. We're both planning on attending this year's event since last year was so successful. I would recommend attending if you're at undecided about this year's get together. If nothing else, you should come just to meet folks like Ilona - concerned citizens that are doing something about the messes we read about every day in this country.
I doubt Ilona (or a number of the rest of us) expected to be doing what she's (we're) doing today just a few short years ago. And that is what is great about this community. "Ordinary" citizens are discovering that in fact they are extraordinary.
For those of you in Colorado and specifically in the Denver area tonight, Ilona is speaking at the LoDo Tattered Cover Book Store. Afterwards, Denver's Drinking Liberally is planning to host her. I highly recommend going to both. You'll learn a lot from her talk and get to meet a funny, intelligent activist. Oh, and the Denver DLers are fun to be around, too. ;)