Where in the world have the days gone this week? To (nearly) finalizing the website pages for The Language of Light – for which the paperback will be released June 28, yes. To signing off on ad copy and choosing airline flights. To a nice chats with Kelly McNees, who is a journalist doing a piece for the University of Michigan Alumni Magazine (and has published a terrific novel herself, The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott), and Karen White, who is the actor recording the audio version of The Four Ms. Bradwells. To finalizing an essay for Amazon.com. To conversations with my publicists and editor and agent, and emails with marketing.
I had a great book group chat with a P.E.O. group in Chapel Hill, at the end of which they invited me to do an event with them after my reading at Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh – which I’m told is a looovely store. We’ve also added events going into June and July now, including readings at A Great Good Place for Books and at the Los Altos Country Club (with Michelle Richmond!). We’ve got others in the works, including something in Chicago that will perhaps be coupled with a chat with students at the University of Chicago, and a Palo Alto Library event, perhaps during National Library Week. And I now have my first radio interview on the Four Ms. Bradwells calendar.
I had coffee yesterday with one of my very favorite Bay Area Booksellers, Margie Scott Tucker of Books Inc., about a lot of things, including an event I’ll be doing at their wonderful Berkeley Store. It was a delightful respite, and a nice chance to begin to imagine taking my book out into the world and connecting with readers.
I’ve also had a great email interchange with Caroline Leavitt (Pictures of You), with whom I’m doing a joint presentation at the Gaithersburg Book Festival, as well as with some of the other authors who’ll be there. And I had coffee with mystery writer Cara Black, who gave me a short tutorial on how mysteries are marketed (since The Four Ms. Bradwells will be an alternate selection for the Mystery Guild).
I also took a few pauses, though, to feed my writerly and readerly soul. Saturday, I attended a PEN Oakland gathering to hear Jane Smiley speak; her A Thousand Acres is one of the best books I’ve ever read, and A Private Life is wonderful as well. Lots of wonderful writers there! Tuesday, I heard Tatjana Soli read from The Lotus Eaters, an incredibly moving book. Thursday I went to a photo exhibit with my photographer-pal Adreinne Defendi. Her work is absolutely stunning, and I am just thrilled that one of her photos will appear in the paperback of The Language of Light.
Now it’s the weekend. Perhaps I’ll get some writing done? One can hope. – Meg
