I think it’s not a stretch to say that between Square Books and Lemuria, we can rock a debut author’s world. At Lemuria, our AMAZING FIRST EDITIONS CLUB MEMBERS are a power house of influence with publishers. We are lucky to have you! Without you we might not ever meet such wonderful authors and read their books.

But what happens when the author is from Washington State? What happens when it’s his first trip to Mississippi? Yeah, that’s so not Mississippi.

Well, Lance Weller took it all in stride, despite the fact that it was his first published novel and Mississippi was his first stop on his tour. As he says, he was “nervous as hell”!

I was catching up with Lance on his blog and wanted to share a funny piece about his Mississippi experience during the first week of September.

Here’s what Lance felt in Mississippi in his own words:

Before leaving the Jackson city limits, I stopped at a roadside burger joint because I was hungry and thirsty since, besides being unnatural, air travel isn’t conducive to my appetite. I parked my cool car. Shut down the engine. The air conditioner hissed to silence. I stepped outside and immediately had no idea what was happening to me.

The engine had obviously exploded and I was caught in that moment that you read about in pulp novels where you know you’re dying—that transient-yet-impossibly-long second before the body gives way and lets go the soul and you’re aware of it all and there is no pain. But no, there was no explosion. Instead, someone had obviously thrown a wet cloth bag over my head and I was suffocating. I imagined government vans and black helicopters. Waterboarding. But no, I was not being manhandled. All I had done was to step from an air-conditioned car into something like 90 degree heat and 90% humidity and my glasses had instantly fogged and my lungs felt as though they’d collapsed. I must’ve made a sound, some sort of strangling noise, because folks in the parking lot looked up from their concerns and, seeing me flailing about—instantly drenched in sweat—just shook their heads and smirked and went about their business.

Somehow I found my way into the restaurant then back out again. Serena [GPS voice], patient and cool, guided me back onto the interstate and we set off north once more. I paid attention, now, to the temperature gauge on the dash and, at seven o’clock in the evening, it stayed steady at 92 degrees Fahrenheit. Mississippi woods flowed past to either side. The interstate ran straight and flat, the paving softly brown, shading into pale red. The sun slowly set at my left shoulder and it took its time going down—a thing far different from what I was used to. The west went brilliantly yellow and everything was watery. -Lance Weller

Hop over to Lance’s blog to get the rest of the story:

The Great, 4-Day, Mississippi Wilderness Roadshow

We gave Lance’s new pen a workout, not to mention his hand.

About Lance Weller

Lance Weller is the author of Wilderness from Bloomsbury, September 2012 & Lemuria’s September First Edition Club Pick.

First Printing of Wilderness: 15,000

His short fiction has appeared in Glimmer Train Stories, New Millennium Writings, Quiddity, The White Whale Review, The Broadkill Review and Terracotta Typewriter.

You can join our First Editions Club by clicking here!

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