Welcome to modern publishing. As part of my "blog tour" I Skyped in to a book club in Greenville, South Carolina tonight. Hosted by Kathy, who also blogs about books at http://www.bermudaonion.net. I could have talked to those women for hours! (Instead we stopped at just close to 75 minutes.)
One has a son studying to be a Tibetan monk in India; another woman told me all about the magic and mysticism of Fairfield, Iowa, and all the others were just plain interested, engaged and fun.
Hands down the best reward for being sequestered for a year writing a book….is getting to meet new people because of it. Even if it's sometimes just virtually!