Katie Crouch, author of Girls In Trucks, had the audience in stitches at her book signing at Davis-Kidd in Nashville tonight. She related her story of learning the shag while in Cotillion as a young girl. Moving to England and hearing young men talk about “shagging” while she was a 22-year-old ESL teacher, she enthusiastically joined in the conversation and shared her “shagging” stories with them…not understanding the wildly different connotations that word has in the Charleston, SC vs. London.
The delightful book club from Dickson, they call themselves the “Tuesday Book Club,” attended the book signing. I first met some of the women at Susan Gregg Gilmore’s signing of Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen at Davis-Kidd in February.
Quinn Dalton
, award-winning author and PR guru, created a wonderful author event for the third year in a row in Greensboro, NC. It was a benefit for Planned Parenthood.
Patrons sat at various tables and the authors moved every ten minutes from table to table so that guests could meet and talk with the writers in a somewhat intimate setting.
Quinn jokingly calls it “Speed dating with authors” and it really works!
There were many fine authors of fiction, non-fiction, children’s literature and poetry. The few authors who circulated through my table include:
- Susan Gregg Gilmore, Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen (of course!)
- Virginia Boyd, One Fell Swoop
- Fred Chappell, former Poet Laureate of North Carolina
- Jill McCorkle, Creatures of Habit
- Andrea Selch, Startling; Poems
- Ellen Bryant Lloyd, Freckles and The Great Beach Rescue (with lots of darling products for children!)
- Jim Schlosser, The Beat Goes On (a very interesting man who has dedicated his life to all things Greensboro)
- Doris Iarovici, American Dreaming and Other Stories
The concept is the same as the dinner with authors at SIBA. It’s a terrific idea for other cities to replicate for a unique and “thinking” not-for-profit event. Bravo, Quinn!
It looks like I’ve posted a hodgepodge of of thoughts today. Actually, I’ve just imported the blogs I’ve written over the last week from my old blog to this new one. Please peruse down the blog list for recent information. Thanks!
I’m so excited about the advance reader copy that arrived in my mailbox today! Susan McBride’s first YA book, The Debs (Delacarte Press) is dressed in a delightful preppy pink and green cover. As frothy and delicious as the cover looks, the back warns, “The heat is on down South!” I can’t wait! I’ll let you know what transpires. The book doesn’t go on sale to the public until just in time for school to start — August 26, 2008.
I feel pretty certain that learning wasn’t meant to be fun when I was a kid.
Ugh — how children are coddled today!
I just KNOW that a whole generation of kids — especially boys — are going to know a heck of a lot more than their parents ever forgot about American history because of this one book. The Adventurous Deeds of Deadwood Jones is Holes with a whole lot of meat. That takes nothing away from Holes — I loved the book and the movie!
There’s a special promotion going on in a few select parts of the country in which history and English teachers are getting a leg up on teaching the facts by assigning this as 2008 summer reading. Then the award-winning author, Helen Hemphill is going to spend some time with these classes in the fall, talking to them about her book and the research that went into it.
Most middle schoolers are going to have to wait until October, 2008 to get swept up in the adventure — it won’t be in book stores until then. But, some librarians are going to get a chance to see the advance reader copy later this week at the Texas Library Association event.
If you are within hollerin’ distance of Bowling Green, KY this week-end, be sure to stop in to the Southern Kentucky Book Festival and have your funny bone tickled by Virginia Boyd. The author of One Fell Swoop will be signing books all day and will also be on a panel called Case Solved!: Murder, Mayhem & Mysteries at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday. It’s not just what she says, but how she says it that makes me want her to keep going every time I hear her tell a story.
Not that her book is one laugh after another, there’s a bit more to it…On a hot August afternoon in 1977, Regina Clayton caught her husband with his secretary. She sent him to his Maker with the help of a Colt .45, then sent herself as well.
Everyone in Riley, North Carolina, knows the story. Everyone in Riley has a story of their own. And that, of course, is the real story.
Because in a town like Riley, the past lives close to the present and the future. And everything can change in one fell swoop.
Get her to tell you about her next novel — I’ve been dying to read it (no pun intended) since she talked about it at Southern Festival of Books last fall.
The line-up of authors for this year looks terrific and includes Mitch Albom, Tuesdays With Morrie, among many other fine literary voices.
Let’s celebrate with a Dilly Bar!
Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen climbed into the Southern Independent Book Association best-seller list for the week of 3/30. That just goes to show what good taste in literature the folks south of the Mason-Dixon line have!
There’s a gentleman in the Northeast that is the purveyor of good taste in literary fiction (and literary non-fiction for that matter) who has committed to tell the world about this gem of a book. But, I’ll save that for another post, when I’ve got a date to provide.
Susan Gregg Gilmore was interviewed by a journalist she has admired for years, John Siegenthaler, for the television show Word on Words, scheduled to air May 18. I was in the control room with Producer Jonathan Harwell during the taping and was impressed by how prepared his whole team was for the interview — everybody knew the book inside out.
Tonight I’ve been looking for YouTubes that promote books.
I’ve found one that is really terrific: The History Book by Humphrey Hawksley: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mb7hTOuYCgg 
But, I’ve mainly found pretty boring interviews. You don’t need any examples, you know what I’m talking about…public access television interview prototypes that have found their way to computer screens.
I’ve got to say that this John Grisham interview about Playing for Pizza posted by Barnes & Noble for its “Meet the Writers” series is good: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDG8nRek19Y&feature=related
And this short promo is nice: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKPyZliG3w8
What got me thinking about pairing YouTube with books? The funny video that made the rounds about 18 months ago: Medieval helpdesk with English subtitles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQHX-SjgQvQ
Humor can be married with book promotions on YouTube with terrific success sometime fairly soon. I have complete faith in the creative class.
Joshilyn Jackson appeared with Susan Gregg Gilmore a couple of weeks ago on Thacker Mountain Radio near Square Books (the wonderful independent bookstore) in Oxford, MS. She is a wonderful literary voice. The Girl Who Stopped Swimming is her latest book to get rave reviews. The author is obviously not only a gifted writer , but also generous with fellow novelists. She posted a terrific Q&A with Susan on her website, check it out: http://www.joshilynjackson.com/mt/archives/000858.html