A "salon" evening

For several years I've wanted to start a community support group for TCU Press, not so much to raise money as to spread word and good will (if anybody wanted to make a donation, I'd be grateful). About a year ago I began active planning, and last fall we sent out invitations to join the Bookish Frogs. Well, we couldn't call it Friends, because TCU Press reports to the dean of the library, and they already have a Friends of the Library longstanding organization. We had once had a newsletter called the Bookish Frog, but we got too busy to do much about it, so we stole the name. About 50 people joined, which I thought was a great beginning. We had our first event, a dinner, in January--good attendance, good speaker, and a warmth of friendliness and interest about the whole affair.
One of my thoughts for the group was a series of small evenngs with authors, hosted in people's homes. So tonight I hosted ten people, including our star, author Jack August who has written three books for us--Vision in the Desert: Carl Hayden and the Hydropolitcs of the Southwest; Dividing Western Waters, and the forthcoming (in about a month) Adversity is My Angel, a co-authored autobiography (is there such a thing) of Raul Castro who was the first Hispanic governor of Arizona and ambassador to several South American countries. Jack, a historian, is an expert on water issues in the Southwest, and tonight the conversation ranged widely. Sometimes Jack held the spotlight, and the talk was about his experiences, his issues; other times it ranged over various topics--he had much in common with a couple of people in the group, so other things came up, from Yale to Arizona politics to publishing. Again, the room had a warm comfortable feeling (it was so cold and rainy that a fire in the fireplace was welcome). About 8:45, Jack sensed it was time to draw the evening to an end (I'd been wondering how to do it and bless him for that)--he thanked everyone and said he felt like he'd been to one of Judy's salons. It did have that kind of feel, which is exactly what I wanted. I hope this is the first of many evenings, hosted by other people. We had Dividing Western Waters on the coffee table for people to look at, but this was not an evening to sell books--just to relax and enjoy stimulating conversation, which we really all did.
I made a large pot of coffee, put out a bottle each of red and white wine, and had baked a chocolate bundt cake. Nobody much drank the coffee, but the rest of it disappeared. So now I'm left with a quickly cleaned kitchen and the feeling of a successful event--and a leftover pot of stale coffee. This is one aspect of my work that I like a whole lot!