A Tale of Two T-shirts

I have two t-shirts that I don’t wear very often. Well, hardly ever. I had to buy them. They were mementos from two of the three writing conferences I went to last year.

I always take lots of notes at the workshops and panel discussions I attend; they help me remember the important points, the tips on writing, and the things I need to research later. Notes make nice keepsakes, but the overall festive mood let me get hooked on purchasing commemorative apparel from the out-of-town venues: Nashville and Chicago.

So, I have two shirts and they’re both black. Black may be popular but it’s not my color, … and I brought them home anyway. They’ve sat in my closet, pretty much untouched, ever since. I did use one for a play where I needed to dress all in black as a sort of a neutral background color to set off a red hat and scarf that were my main props. Turned inside out and with the tag trimmed off the T with the least amount of printing passed quite well.

Not wearing a garment leaves it in great condition for an upcoming event such as my reading at RIVER LIGHTS BOOKSTORE in Dubuque this coming Saturday. But do I have the courage to wear a black shirt that has “KILLER NASHVILLE” splashed across the front in blood-red lettering? At least it has “Writers’ Conference” sedately written underneath the crimson headline. The bonus feature is the large moon that peers ominously over the silhouette of the Nashville skyline. This is important because there’ll be a full moon around 4 PM Friday afternoon. Saturday would have been better, but I’ll take what I can get.

I still must find the bravery to actually wear this shirt in a public place where I’ll quite likely be asked to explain it all. The four-day conference. The fact that my novel is a COZY MYSTERY and not some of the hardcore stuff other people write. At the very least, it will give me a starting point in my talk. It will all be good. 

That leaves the "MURDER AND MAYHEM" shirt for another author-ish occasion.