Book Launch Re-cap: A Guest Post from Melanie Sumner

The Ghost of Milagro Creek launched at the Georgia Center for the Book in Decatur on July 7^th.  In Atlanta, I ran into the actor Robin Bloodworth, an old friend from high school.  In addition to giving me a few tips on reading — breathe from the gut and don’t be embarrassed to change your voice when a different character begins speaking — he agreed to read some of the of the male voices in my passages.  Thirty years ago, Robin said he was going to be an actor, and I said I was going to be a writer, and there we were at the mic.  While in Atlanta I also did a segment on the TV show, Good Day Atlanta.  All these years of university teaching have made it easy for me to talk to an audience about a book, even my own.

July 10^th, Reading at Barnes & Noble in Rome, GA.  Sell-out!  I signed fifty-nine books off the table and another stack for the store.  When asked to do an impromptu reading, I was hustled to the children’s section where there were seats, albeit small ones, for the audience.  I read the passage in which Mister and Tomas meet at the bridge over Milagro Creek to fulfill their suicide pact.  Afterward, my twelve-year old daughter admonished me for cussing in the children’s section.  I should have heeded her warning because this became an issue on the Leonard Lopate show in New York City.

July 13^th, Signing at McNally Jackson in NYC .  We had a nice crowd and even lured the guests in the bookstore café to the event.  I’ve been setting my laptop up at the readings and playing the booktrailer on youtube before I begin.  After the signing, the woman behind the coffee bar called me over and asked me about the story.

Something strange about this tour — people are so curious about Taos, New Mexico and the cultures portrayed in my fictional barrio that they think of the book as nonfiction.

July 15^th, The Leonard Lopate show.  I had a chance to look over Mr. Lopate’s notes, written by his assistant, who happened to be from Marietta GA, while waiting to go on the air.  I was looking for questions that might trip me up, and a found a couple.  In addition to have a middle-aged tendancy to blank on names, I sometimes, for no apparent reason, freeze.  I might, for instance, forget the titles of my previous books.  One little snafu — while reading an excerpt from the book, I said the f word.  Actually, my character Tomas Mondragon said it, but anyway, since the show was live, a small panic ensued.  So, if you heard a blank on the air…

Now I’m on a train to Sag Harbor for some beach time with my family.

-Melanie

Barnes & Noble in Rome, GA

McNally Jackson in NYC

At The Leonard Lopate Show

BEA 2009

I came to work today in my “Reading Is Sexy” T-shirt, dragon knee-socks, and USA sweatband. I led the office in some stretches and then we laid out the buffalo wings and the guacamole. Why, you ask? Well, because it’s Day 1 of BookExpo America (we like to call her “BEA”)–the Super Bowl for book lovers–and I am pumped.

What is BookExpo America? Glad you asked. It is the largest book publishing fair in the US of A. Publishers set up booths and exhibits, and authors, librarians, and book retailers mix, mingle, and buy. Think County Fair meets Comic-Con (with fewer sword fights).

Is Algonquin there? Is that a serious question? Booth #4259, people. And if you’re lucky enough to be in New York this week, come by and visit! I know that, among other things, the Algonquin booth has some galleys of Jonathan Evison‘s West of Here. There are also a lot of great author events in the next few days:

Tuesday May 25th-

• 4:30-5:30 Editors’ Buzz Panel with Chuck Adams (RM 1E13)

Wednesday May 26th-

• 11:00-12:00 Signing (Pictures of You) with Caroline Leavitt (Algonquin Booth #4259)
• 3:00-4:00 Authors (fiction) of Editors’ Buzz Panel with Jonathan Evison (Downtown Stage)
• 4:15-5:15 Signing (West of Here) with Jonathan Evison (Algonquin Booth #4259)

Thursday May 27th-

• 10:00-11:00 Signing (Peep Show) with Joshua Braff (Algonquin Booth #4259)
• 11:00-11:30 Signing (I Thought You Were Dead) with Pete Nelson (ABA Lounge, RM E107 and E108)
• 11:00-12:00 ALTAFF From Writer to Reader Panel with Joseph Skibell (RM 1E17)
• 2:00-3:00 Signing (A Curable Romantic) with Joseph Skibell (Algonquin Booth #4259)

So stop by and say hello! If you can’t make it out to BEA, you can always throw yourself a private little BEA party. Just make a name tag, go to your local independent bookstore, and say “What’s new and exciting in the world of books!?” I promise you won’t be disappointed.

-Susannah

I got a chance to speak with Smith after the reading about writing good fiction and she had some pearls of wisdom for us, here on the Algonquin Books Blog.

1. It’s about the long haul. Smith spoke a little bit about the way her writing has changed over the years. Where she used to play to the “ta-da” moment in a story, she now recognizes the value of time– that a good plot stretches beyond the last page.

2. The causes need an effect. You can write a really fantastic sequence of events, but they don’t mean anything unless they effect someone.

3. Raise the stakes. Not only do events need to lead to change, but the change has to matter. Good fiction captivates the reader and rewards with a strong pay-off.

4. Laugh. “Secretly, this is a very serious book,” Smith said (laughing). “Humor is an important way to admit that.” A good sense of humor is instrumental to being able to bear those big, serious issues that can be so hard to write about.

5. You don’t know what you know. Smith read from Eudora Welty at the beginning of the evening. Afterward, we talked about the mentor who first exposed her to Welty–a teacher who set her up on a “blind date” with the author, which inspired her to pursue writing. But not just any writing. Writing in her own voice, about personal topics. “You don’t know what you know,” Smith said, but whatever it is that you do know, it’s sufficient.

So thank you, Lee, and thanks to Flyleaf Books–maybe we can all hang out again this coming Saturday night? Karaoke?

-Susannah

As a little drum roll, I’ve got some of the critical acclaim for Smith, below. These reviews are right on–her collection of short stories is smart and funny and soulful and I cannot WAIT to hear the stories read by the woman herself. (In fact, maybe I’ll have her sign a copy for my mom for Mother’s Day … not that I haven’t gotten her a present yet… )

“Smith’s character-driven tales are funny, touching, and resonant, with a quirky honesty. A southern-fried charmer!” —Family Circle

“Smith’s heroines find strength in the moments that push us all forward.” —People Magazine, four-star review

“ ‘Mrs. Darcy’ is a remarkable story, as are others in this collection that spans decades of Lee Smith’s work.” —Charlotte Observer

“With her trademark Southern charm and wicked humor, Smith draws us into the lives of people she’s about to fling off a cliff without so much as a polite “oops.” It’s all for the best, though. On the way down, they get to know parts of themselves they’ve never met before.” —Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“Lee Smith has long had a reputation as a master of the short story, and her new collection, Mrs. Darcy and the Blue-Eyed Stranger, galvanizes that reputation … Smith offers the grit of the domestic scene, the power of the written word, and the transcendent beauty of women as friends, lovers, daughters and mothers. We fall under the spell of her delicious Southern cadence, and we care for her characters, especially at the moment when one distilled event irrevocably alters everything. At the end, we are there, celebrating their strong and certain victories of the heart.” —Minneapolis Star-Tribune

Randi Davenport,

It’s a wonderful interview!  To find out more about Randi’s memoir, and to read an excerpt from the new book, visit her website.

McCorkle gave a wonderful reading. A good author does not always a good speaker make, but she’s engaging and warm and immediately puts the audience at ease–like maybe we’re old friends. She read the story Magic Words, which is one of my favorites. It’s told from four points of view, which have been melted together in a meditation on what it truly means to say “please” and “thank you”. McCorkle described the format of the story as a compressed “landscape of a novel”; packing the punch of 200 words into 25. (Now, I’m going to link you to the full text of this story, but I recommend going out and getting the book, because the stories work together quite nicely and, if you like this, I guarantee there’s more in the collection you’ll want to read. Magic Words.)

Afterwards, she took the time to field a few questions. I was most interested in her advice to young writers, seeing as she’d done her first-ever reading on that same campus about thirty years earlier. “The more you write, the more you write,” she said. It’s not about waiting for the perfect story to spring from your head, fully formed, it’s about putting in the time, each and every day, and developing a craft. Sounds like a lot of work, but the post-reading queue of people waiting to have books signed is a testament to the fact that the woman obviously knows what she’s talking about.

-Susannah

Head over to Maria’s website to learn more about the book, and check her tour schedule to see if she will be tangoing at a bookstore near you!

After her event at Village Books in Bellingham, WA, Maria joined the local tango community at a Valentine's weekend "milonga" (social dance) that went well into the night.

At Idlewild Books in Manhattan, Zoe and Musa (of the band ZUM) performed a tango demonstration, then hopped on stage to play some amazing tunes.

The Meat Hook in Brooklyn celebrated both meat and tango – you can't get much more Argentinian than that!

And of course, being Brooklyn, everything was local and organic.

Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, VA, is hosting its first-ever Twitter Book Club tonight at 6 p.m. Everyone can participate, no matter where you live! You won’t have to leave the house–or even change out of your pajamas–to join a lively discussion about the current #1 New York Times bestseller, A Reliable Wife.

Kelly (@RVABookChik), owner of Fountain (@FountainBkstore), will be the facilitator. The hashtag is #fountainreads.

Log into your Twitter account on February 1 at 6:00p.m. to participate.

If you don’t have a Twitter account, its easy (and free) to set one up:

• Create a Twitter account if you don’t already have one.
• Go to www.tweetchat.com, sign in with your Twitter username and password
• Enter fountainreads into the hashtag search box

That’s it!  For more info, check out The Book Ladys Blog, who is partnering with Fountain Bookstore. You can also enter there to win a free copy of the book!

Newbies will be given help, so don’t be shy. And if you are local to Virginia, go to see Robert Goolrick, author of A Reliable Wife, live at Fountain Bookstore on February 11th!

Check out the photos!

This spider has woven a welcome to the Wicked Plants exhibit!

The leaves of the Rubber Tree, native to the Amazon jungle, produce the sticky latex used in pencil erasers and tires. But in the wild, its ripe fruits explode with a loud crack, sending cyanide laden seeds several yards in every direction. Watch out!

Oleander is popular in gardens, prized for its red, pink, yellow, or white blossoms. But this highly toxic shrub contains oleandrin, a cardiac glycoside that brings on nausea and vomiting, severe weakness, irregular pulse, and a decreased heart rate that leads quickly to death.

Chrysanthemums are very popular in gardens, and their blossoms have been used in teas and for medicinal purposes. But, the plants can cause a severe allergic reaction. Some people may develop skin rashes, swollen eyes, and other symptoms.

So consider yourself warned, and now, go warn others!

-Katie

More than 300 people lined up to have their book signed

This Tuesday was Coach Williams’ first book signing event for Hard Work; A Life On and Off the Court, hosted by McIntyre’s Fine Books at Fearrington. The event was held in The Barn, the gorgeous event space at Fearrington Village. Over 300 people came out to buy copies of the book and have them signed by Coach Williams. A very special thank you to Missy McLamb from Fearrington Village for sending us these fabulous photos of the event!

Coach Williams signed books for well over an hour

Check out that National Championship ring!

Coach’s second event last night, at The Bull’s Head Bookshop on the University of North Carolina campus was also a hit! Read about it in the Daily Tar Heel, and watch this great video recapping the event!

Coach’s next event will be Tuesday, November 10 at Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh, NC. For a list of all of his upcoming appearances, check out the website.

And don’t forget, if you can’t make it to an event to have your book signed in person, you can still enter for a chance to win one of 5 signed copies, just by leaving a comment, through Nov. 13.

-Katie