On most days, City Center Gallery & Books is a quiet refuge on Hay Street, creaking floors, shelves of well-loved classics, the murmur of regulars swapping recommendations. On Saturday, Sept. 20, from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., the store becomes something else: a living room for conversation. Owners Hank and Diane Parfitt will launch “Chat with an Author,” an informal drop-in series, by hosting Fayetteville-based writer and soldier Dylan Nigh, whose debut, Fool’s Gear: A Completely Devastating Thing I’ll Probably Do Again, was published this spring.
“It’s simple,” Hank Parfitt said. “A bookstore should be a gathering place. Not a stage with a microphone, just a place where readers can pull up a chair and talk one-on-one with a writer.”
Unlike a traditional signing, there’s no program, no podium and no RSVP. People can wander in, meet Nigh, ask questions, and step back to let the next voice join. It’s free and open to the public, aimed at aspiring writers, avid readers and anyone curious about how a book gets made.
“We want to encourage reading and support writers,” said Diane Parfitt. “Those two missions go together. You can’t have one without the other.”
The Parfitts opened the downtown shop in 2003, and quickly learned that “used, comfortable and curated” could be a formula for staying power. Classics remain bestsellers, they said, because readers return to them with new eyes.
“People tell us, ‘I didn’t care about The Great Gatsby at 16, but I love it now,’” Diane said, laughing. “Life experience changes how you read.”
City Center hosts book clubs and a writers’ workshop, and Diane has organized Saturday story times for children with high-school volunteers and local children’s authors. The new “Chat with an Author” format is meant to lower the temperature further, no lines for signatures, no public speaking jitters.
“Writers and readers both need a little space to breathe,” Hank said. “If you’re working on a manuscript and you want to ask a published author, ‘How did you push through?’ this is your chance.”
The Parfitts are candid about what helps author events succeed. “We’ll promote hard,” Hank said, “but we also tell writers to bring their people—neighbors, church friends, book clubs. A crowd creates its own energy, whether every person buys a book or not.”
They are equally frank about the hard work of writing. “Good writing is hard,” Diane said. “You have to read widely, revise bravely, and invite feedback—even when it stings. The best writers have good editors and tough readers.”
Nigh’s memoir grew from a cross-country motorcycle trip he took after six months of Army training and as his marriage was ending. The only time he could go was in winter. He went anyway.
“I had the time and I needed to shake up the norm,” Nigh said. “It wasn’t about being reckless. It was about getting unstuck.”
The title’s wry punch line “a completely devastating thing I’ll probably do again” works two ways, he said. “It’s the trip in the dead of winter on an old bike,” he said. “And it’s love. Heartbreak can level you. Most of us still risk it again. That’s part of being human.”
On the road, he hit the expected hazards and a few he won’t forget. The hardest stretch, he said, was riding into Flagstaff at sunset as elevation rose, temperatures plunged, and sleet turned his pant legs to ice. The hardest night arrived later, in Amarillo, when sleep wouldn’t come and memories did.
“I finally took the bike out for a night ride just to clear my head,” he said.
Nigh didn’t plan to write a book. He carried a blank journal, then began dictating notes into his phone at gas stops.
“It was just me and the helmet,” he said. “Hours to think.”
Midway through the trip, he started expanding those notes each night. The story took shape after he reached San Diego and spent a month talking it through with family and friends. Back in Fayetteville, he turned those conversations and notes into a first draft, then several more, with help from “tough, honest readers.”
Agents told him his niche, a literary, true-to-life travel memoir from an unknown, would be a tough commercial fit. He self-published, keeping control of the voice, cover and layout. Sales came first from Amazon; then, after connecting with City Center, from word of mouth. “Hank and Diane have been incredible,” Nigh said. “They love books, culture and people. That shows.”
The Parfitts say the format matters.
“Some folks freeze at a microphone,” Hank said. “But sit them at a table in the shop, let people come and go, and the conversation becomes natural.”
The idea, he said, is to make it easier to ask the real questions—about process, fear, rejection, revision and why the work matters.
Diane sees another benefit.
“A lot of people are journaling now,” she said. “Some of those journals become books. Some shouldn’t and that’s fine. But everyone can learn to read like a writer: What makes this book work? How does this sentence move me? That’s how you find your own voice.”
As for younger readers and writers, the Parfitts plan to keep children’s programming in the mix.
“Parents have a responsibility to foster reading,” Diane said. “A strong children’s section, a read-aloud on Saturday, that can change a home.”
Nigh says the book is less about mileage than perspective.
“The irony of a cross-country trip is learning you don’t have to go far to change,” he said. “There’s magic in your own backyard if you look for it. You can meet someone extraordinary next door.”
One of his clearest memories is not from the bike, but a sunset paddle on the Pacific in Santa Barbara.
“That was a turning point,” he said. “Letting go of the past. Feeling grateful for the bruises and the beauty.”
Would he do it again?
“Absolutely,” he said, grinning. “Maybe with an equally questionable bike. Maybe north through New England and Canada, then back down the West Coast. But I won’t take a trip just to write a book. I’ll take a great trip, and if it becomes a book, it’ll let me know.”
He’s already drafting a new project, personal essays about growing up religious in America. Whether he self-publishes again or goes the traditional route will depend on the work, he said.
“I learned a lot about both paths. The heart of the book matters most.”
“Chat with an Author: Dylan Nigh” runs from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 20, at City Center Gallery & Books, downtown Fayetteville. No appointments or RSVPs. Just drop in. Free and open to the public. Hank and Diane Parfitt will be on hand to talk books, reading and the store’s plans to keep building a place where stories and the people who tell and love them belong.
“We’re here seven days a week,” Hank said. “Because readers deserve a place to gather. That’s not going away.”
“And writers,” Diane added. “We’ll keep supporting them one conversation at a time.”

(Photo: Dylan Nigh sits on his new motorcycle, a 650 Interceptor. Nigh will be the first author at City Center Gallery & Books' "Chat with an Author" series. Nigh's debut book, "A Completely Devastating Thing I'll Probably Do Again," is available at the bookstore. Photo courtesy of Hank Parfitt)