Bringing the Book Home to Fargo–Moorhead

There are moments in this whole author journey that still catch me off guard.

This week, it happened while I was packing.

Next week, I’ll be bringing Sitting in the Chair to Fargo–Moorhead—the place Roger called home for so many years. And somehow, that makes this part of the journey feel a little different.

Roger was raised in West Fargo and lived in the Fargo–Moorhead area until his mid-30s. His roots there run deep, with a very large extended family and friends throughout the area.

We come back regularly.

But this time, we’re bringing the book.

A book about a story neither of us ever expected to live, much less tell.

The Glamorous Life of a Book Tour

I always imagined that if I ever went on a book tour, I’d be packing cute outfits and deciding which shoes to bring.

Apparently I had a somewhat romanticized idea of what a book tour involved. 😂

Instead, I’m packing books.

And bookmarks.

And Sharpies.

And business cards.

And extension cords, presentation equipment, cables, adapters, and approximately 47 things I am absolutely convinced I will desperately need somewhere between Georgia and North Dakota.

There are boxes everywhere.

Lists everywhere.

And probably at least three things I’ll remember five minutes after we pull out of the driveway.

But every once in a while, in the middle of all that packing, I stop.

I’m packing for a book tour.

That sentence still feels strange to say.

For months, Sitting in the Chair existed as words on my computer. It was chapters I rewrote, paragraphs I questioned, sentences I moved around, and pages I read so many times that eventually I could barely see them anymore.

Then it became an actual book.

People started reading it.

People I didn’t know started buying it.

And now Roger and I are putting boxes of those books in the car and driving them halfway across the country.

This Stop Feels Different

Fargo–Moorhead isn’t just another stop on a map.

It holds a huge piece of Roger’s story—the years before I knew him, the family and friendships that helped shape him, and the place he called home for so much of his life.

And now we're returning with a book about a completely different chapter.

Our chapter.

There is something wonderfully full-circle about that.

While we’re there, I’ll be making two Fargo–Moorhead appearances:

I'm looking forward to both.

But I think what I’m looking forward to most is seeing Sitting in the Chair sitting on a table in Fargo and looking over to see Roger beside me.

Maybe that's when this will finally feel real.

Saturday, we hit the road.

Books, bookmarks, Sharpies, extension cords, approximately 47 absolutely essential items...

and one story we're bringing home.

— Melanie Rae