Being All Authory...

So most of the time I am sort of an imaginary author. I write books and do my online stuff and the degree of separation from reality is solid enough that it doesn't seem quite real. I am playing at being an author. But then weekends like THIS weekend happen... and it makes me feel both more real and more like a fraud...

Lemme e'splain...

We have a local bookstore owner who is FABULOUS. I think most of you know I am normally fairly awkward—definitely don't have the personality to cold call and invite myself places, but Robin Agnew of Aunt Agatha's Mystery Bookshop has approached ME and invited me to do book releases and be part of local book events.

So this weekend was the Kerrytown Bookfest. For those of you not familiar with Ann Arbor, Kerrytown is a little downtown shopping square where the farmer's market is on Saturday and the shops are the most Ann Arbory in town (think intellectual hippies), and Ann Arbor is a pretty bookish place—TONS of bookstores, publishers, binders, artists, and peripherally related stuff.

And Robin invited me to moderate a panel... Mysterious Sense of Place...

What this meant for ME was a FABULOUS excuse to read some GREAT books in preparation. The authors were Erin Hart, Cara Black, and Libby Fischer Hellman, ALL of whom I recommend! Man, did I have fun reading!

From Cara Black, I read Murder Below Montparnasse and Murder on the Ile Saint-Louis. Aimee Leduc is the detective and she is SUCH FUN! These books, too, hit exactly the tone I really would like to aim for in my mysteries. The cozies are a blast, but these, while they maintain a bit of zany and humor (in fact quite a lot) has more serious situations and crimes—there is politics and corruption and real life issues—I finally have a series to refer to when I get to selling What Ales Me (which I intend to do very shortly—just one final cleaning needed)

From Libby Fischer Hellmann I read her book that just came out this week, Havana Lost, and thought it was great—it takes place over thirty years and I loved the contrast of pre-Castro Cuba with modern Cuba. It is sort of a Mafia Family saga more than a mystery—suspense. And then I am mid-book on A Bitter Veil, a story about an American girl who falls in love with an Iranian grad student. The two of them marry and go to Iran just as the Shah is deposed... Only half done on that one, but enjoying it.

And then I fell IN LOVE with Erin Hart. Her books take place in the bogs of Ireland and pair an archeologist and a pathologist to find out what they can about these OLD bodies, but there is ALWAYS a parallel modern crime to go with the old 'crime'--I love that—the parallel thing. It is like the James Michener books of locations a bit, only an added layer of modern mystery. They're delicious. I am mid-book for Haunted Ground, which was her first (and was inspired by a true 'finding a perfectly preserved head of a red-haired woman in the bog). The other, the one I read first, is The Book of Killowen and I ADORED it, probably all the more because at the center of the story is a manuscript and the 1000 year old body is a scribe (and it brought me to believe in a past life I was probably a scribe, but that's for another day)--anyway, the writer in me can't resist books about books, and the double mystery, new and old, was fantastic.

[note my buy links are Indiebound—conversation Saturday really got me thinking about what we authors DO around here... promoting indie bookstores is a good thing--more on that later]

So ANYWAY... I moderated the session about sense of place, touching on why they'd chosen the places they did and how they instilled the stories with it to the extent that place was almost a character... these amazing authors were SO nice. Session went well... Dinner party Saturday night went well (I got to talk to Libby and Cara quite a bit there)... so much wisdom and talent...

And then there is me. Always awkward.  Anyone else feel that way when you rub elbows with such talented, amazing people? There are these alternating moments of 'look at the company I earned' and 'I AM UNWORTHY!'

A very cool experience, in any case...

Good Stuff

So people are DOING good things and I've had a few good things HAPPEN, so I thought I'd share a little.

FIRST: My Buddy Leigh Moore has self Published The Truth About Faking!!!

Leigh has ALL KINDS of stuff going on. She has a book coming up through traditional publishing in December, called Rouge which I'm very excited about. But she also has a book that had made the rounds via agent subbing. It had positive feedback, but no full-out bites. Her agent, when they got through that process, recommended she self-publish it, so Leigh decided to take on that MAMMOTH task.

This is a book I had the honor to read in one of its middle iterations. It's a great contemporary young adult tale, focused on romance, but with more real-life issues at the heart of it—questions about how we see ourselves and others... and how others may come across to us when we don't know the whole story. It is a coming of age of sorts, as Harley believes with her whole heart she wants one thing, and finds out over the course of the book just how little she understands about what matters. We grow with her and can appreciate her change in perspective.

I definitely recommend it and wish Leigh a ton of luck! She is doing a guest post here next week, but I thought I'd give a shout before that.

Buy Link: http://www.amazon.com/The-Truth-About-Faking-ebook/dp/B00960QOSW

The poster he did combining three of his covers

ALSO WIK: My Buddy Joris Ammerlaan has put out his shingle for Bookcovers and Promotional Materials!

Joris is super talented and has done several covers for me. And now he is wanting to actively get into the book cover, promotional materials market, so if you are shopping for a book cover designer, be sure to go over to his site and give his stuff a look. I've known him since he was a wee lad and can totally vouch for his work ethic, professionalism, reliability, and character.

ALSO ALSO WIK: Michigan's Season Opener

Saturday my friend and Couch to Keg buddy Jackie invited me to go to Michigan's first home game with her. It was PERFECT early season football weather—65 with a breeze. And the game was against Air Force Academy, and there was a military appreciation theme throughout, which was AWESOME. During the National Anthem a bald eagle was released from the top of a press box and circled the field a few times to land down on his handler on the field. I got teary. Bald eagles are so amazing... it reminded me that my daughter and I had seen one just perched on a dead tree by the side of the freeway in Montana. Very cool. Then, as the National Anthem was ending, a stealth bomber did a fly-over—WOW those things are weird.

Looks like a Sci Fi movie, eh?

And of course the writer in me imagines how PERFECT this set-up is... 112,000 people all in one place, easy to block the entrants... some alien space ship could just beam us all up to populate a whole new planet... or something. But whatever the case, it was a GREAT event. I really enjoyed it. Thank you, Jackie!


FINITE: Kerrytown Bookfest (first 'event' as a published author)

And finally, yesterday was the Kerrytown Bookfest in Ann Arbor. Ann Arbor has a Farmer's market on the weekend in a section that might be thought of as oldtown—it is the original town square area with brick streets and what NOW are very trendy, high-end shops. The farmer's market occurs outdoors (though the strips of wide sidewalk are covered)--anyway, after the farmers packed up and went, the bookstores and publishers in the region unloaded.

I was really pleased with the high number of little bookstores there really still is in the area. Manymore than I'd thought. Most of them are for niche markets, including the one I was there to sign for, Aunt Agatha's (a mystery bookshop). I was signing with three other authors in my slot, all of them more famous and successful than me (I was the only one with only a single book, and all the others had hard covers). It was nice to really see how it was done, though. Hank Phillipi Ryan was next to me and a real pro. (she is actually Harriet and I LOVE that she is called Hank—she said it was from a college friend that that originated)

My favorite surprise was when I arrived, I found February Grace waiting to meet in person! It was a complete surprise and was wonderful! I love meeting author friends in person, but I think this was the first totally unexpected meeting like that.


So here is hoping the good stuff keeps going for all of us! Have a great week!