By Deirdre Parker Smith
dp1@salisburypost.com
What began as a gift for her friend has brought Mary Kay Lester Forbes into a new venture.
Her little book, “Memories of my Best Friend ‘Susie Belle’,” is now a gift for others.
She and Sue have been friends for 59 years, and the origins of the book date back 31 years.
“I hadn’t seen my best friend in a while,” Forbes says, “and I wrote the book over two nights” while visiting her. “I did it on construction paper and glued it together, then bound it with three binder rings.
Last summer, she went to see her friend again and they found it. “I decided to do something more with it” and her friends encouraged her to publish it.
“I didn’t understand why people would be interested in our story, but I found out it was universal.”
Her daughter, Sarah Elizabeth Faircloth, owns La Print Express Inc. in Winston-Salem, so Forbes had the means to put the book out herself after the standard rejection letters.
It’s a tiny, purple paperback, about 4-by-6-inches, with simply cute illustrations by C.M. Forbes and pages at the back to share your memories with your best friend.
“I wanted to meet people with my book and self-published,” Forbes says. And she’s doing all the promotion, too.
So far, she has books for sale at Caniche, Waterworks and Literary Bookpost and will do a Saturday Salon at the Bookpost May 23.
She’s available to speak to groups about friendship and how maintaining contacts with your friends enriches your life.
The cost of the book is $10.
You may contact her at P.O. Box 546, Faith NC 28146.