Well, this is all very nice. The good news keeps coming. I’m very happy to report that SETTING FREE THE KITES has been chosen as “one of the top ten books published this month that librarians across the country love,” through the Library Reads program. This news makes me particularly delighted because I am passionate about libraries. I have a beautiful …
SETTING FREE THE KITES is an INDIE NEXT PICK!
Tuesday night’s dinner in Cambridge, MA was spectacular, and it was such a pleasure to meet some of the finest booksellers in Boston, Cambridge, and the Cape, and to learn about their stores. There was much food, drink, talk, gossip, and laughter long into the night. All of those sybaritic chickens came home to roost, however, when I had to …
Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Greetings again from the road. We had a delicious meal yesterday night at the wonderful Scales restaurant on the wharf in Portland. (If you are ever in the area, and like seafood, for the love of God, go. It’s spectacular.) I had lobster bisque followed by a baked whole fish and was in heaven. The company was pretty awesome, as …
Portland, Maine.
I’m in one of my favorite places: Portland, Maine. The reason I’m here is that this evening my lovely publishers are hosting a dinner for some of the town’s booksellers (Portland has a disproportionate number of excellent bookshops for its size, which is one of the reasons I love it.) Tomorrow we drive down I-95 to Boston and do it again. …
Lordy, it’s January.
As I write this, I’m sitting in a hotel room near St Louis airport, about to get on a plane to Philadelphia. Later this week I’ll be taking a train from Philly to New York, and then flying to Portland, Maine. Then I get to hire a car and drive (with the lovely Katie from Penguin, who is organizing all publicity for …
Tour Dates!
I’m looking forward to a busy two weeks at the end of February and start of March, when I’ll be criss-crossing the country to promote SETTING FREE THE KITES. I love going on tour, exhausting though it can be. I love meeting readers old and new, and I especially love getting to visit lots of wonderful independent bookstores. The dates that …
SFTK is a Midwest Connections Pick!
Great news to share – I’ve just learned that SETTING FREE THE KITES has been chosen as a “Midwest Connections Pick” for next February by the Midwest Independent Booksellers Association. A GOOD AMERICAN also received this honor and so I am doubly thrilled to have been selected once more. Midwest booksellers are excellent people – I met with a ton of …
It’s Only Rock and Roll, But I Like It.
Here’s an extract from Setting Free the Kites: Every Tuesday evening my parents went out for their weekly bridge game. Liam took their absence as license to play his music even louder than usual. On one such night, Nathan and I were sitting on my brother’s bed while he lectured us about music he hated – which was pretty much …
Swag!
It’s a jungle out there in publishing land. With so many books being coming out these days, publishing houses spend a great deal of time working out how to get the attention of booksellers and other industry people. Nobody can read more than a tiny fraction of all the titles that are published each week – so how do you convince …
All Change
I have three jobs, each of which requires a different kind of dress code: Novelist [cardigan, tatty T-shirt, trousers if you’re lucky] Attorney [suit, tie, cufflinks, etc.] Book Festival director [er, no idea, but definitely not 1 or 2] It’s not at all uncommon for me (like today and tomorrow) to have client meetings and festival meetings in the same …