Country Girls Want Red Shoes, too

As you all know, my know my first book is out. (Yay!) SCRAPBOOK OF SECRETS has gotten some great reviews—one from the Library Journal. It also was chosen by Jules, the B & N Mystery expert as one of his favorite mysteries for the Nook. Very cool.
As for me, I’m gearing up to visit the Harrisonburg B & N to sign books on Saturday at 2:00. Last weekend, we held a book launch party at a local independent book store, Stone Soup Books, Waynesboro, Va.
At one point, I decided I wanted to wear red shoes with my new dress for the launch party. I thought the shoes would add just the right pizzazz, with a little intrigue. Good for a mystery author, right?
Thus began my search. The online store where I found my favorites didn’t have my size, so I thought I’d look around here. No luck in my town of Waynesboro—the only red shoes I could find were very high. (I wanted to look good, not kill myself in them!) I sent my husband to a neighboring town’s shoe store. He works in Staunton and could pop over there at lunch time—just to see if they had red heels that he thought I’d like. He called me back later that afternoon. “They don’t have red shoes. The sales clerk said they never have red shoes because Staunton is labeled an agricultural district by the headquarters.”
Um, WHAT?
Who are these people that think because women live in a rural area they wouldn’t wear red shoes? I despise them in the same way I despise people who think all New Yorkers are rude, all Southerners are sweet, or people that think all women should be tall and thin to be considered beautiful, or that smart people aren’t sexy, or well, you get the point.
But really—red shoes? Why red and not pink, or yellow, or purple? What is it about red that has some buyer in New York say “No, I don’t think farm girls will buy red shoes.” What is this 1959? Are we really in the United States of America? Shouldn’t I at least have a choice about this at my local shoe store?
Well, in actuality I do. We all do. The choice is take our business elsewhere. I found my shoes at another on-line store. This is one of the best things about the Internet—it’s evened the score a bit for those of us that don’t live in the big cities and are at the mercy of some man behind the desk in New York City that doesn’t know the first thing about us. We don’t fit into your little mind’s preconceived notions for us. We are smart, we are strong, short, tall, round and thin and yes, country girls and women want red shoes, too.