I begin by quoting a remarkable email I received last night from a well-spoken 30-something reader in a suburban town near the Bay Area. It started out like many wonderful emails from readers, before taking an interesting turn:
“Hello Melissa,
I wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed your new book. I was drawn to your story because of adoption, and I was happy to feel even more connected with it when I read about Molly’s band, David Copperf**k. My husband and I are now settled in the suburbs across the bay from San Francisco, but we spent most of our twenties in the punk rock scene of San Francisco and have seen David Copperfuck perform several times. In fact, my husband’s band and our friends’ bands played with them a few times. If I had looked at your book cover a bit closer in the beginning, I may have recognized Molly sooner.”
Within ten seconds I had forwarded this to Molly and Molly called from her apartment in San Francisco! (Molly is now a public radio reporter and producer rather than lead-singer and bass player in a popular punk band, but she remains faithful to punk.)
“Mom!” she said. “We still have fans out there! Maybe David Copperfuck should get together for a reunion tour!”
“You could be my opening act when I give readings!”
I emailed back our new friend in the Bay area:
“You and your husband have just become Molly’s FAVORITE READERS.
She asks if this means SHE is the star of my book (since the Christian Science Monitor felt Lee was the star.)
And she’d like to know the name of your husband’s old band.”
Our new friend replied
“YES. Molly is the star of the book! You can imagine my surprise when I got to that chapter. My husband’s band was Hella Fitzgerald…they played with David Copperfuck once, maybe twice. We saw DC open for a few other bands as well. My husband remembers ordering a 7 inch (record) from Molly years ago…we still have it right here in our record collection! I say yes to a reunion tour.”
“I just realized,” Molly said later, “that this means that David Copperfuck will be in the Library of Congress, because your book will be, right?”
“Yes,” I said. “And now I’m hoping the punk scene will come through for the book.”
If David Copperf***k ever does a reunion tour… I am so there.
And I love the idea of them opening up your show… maybe you could even do a spoken word voice over to the punky sounds of Molly’s band… perhaps you could tour with her! David Cooperf***k featuring MFG…the possibilities are endless!