The first day lasted about 20 hours, from start to finish. Granted, I happily added three hours to that, having dinner with Lionel Shriver after our joint reading.
In fact, I’m happy about the whole day. I saw TMP people at every stop — I even did the secret handshake for Lois — and Sandra’s comments about pub date shook an idea loose in my fogged head. In the absence of old pub date traditions, whatever they were, why not create new ones? I would be inclined to go back to Book Crossing again. The day was often hectic, but there was only one stressful moment — thanks, Yellow Taxi, especially for hanging up on me when, after calling for the third time, I dared to ask how you defined “shortly” — and all the events were wonderful. Hard to single out any venue, but it was nice to see the SRO crowd at B&N, because it’s where my sister works.
And Shriver and I, IMHO, were complementary readers, despite not talking beforehand how two such different writers might mesh onstage. She read from The Post-Birthday World, choosing the passages about contentment (which, as Shriver noted, may be one of the hardest things to write about) and I found much to admire anew in a book I already love. I read a dialogue-heavy passage about movies, including my — um, Tess’s — rant on male weepies.
Off to New York.
ETA: This was, against all probability, a 2-W day.
I believe that WHAT THE DEAD KNOW has made the NY Times bestseller list for mass markets, at #19 — but that means it’s on the printed list.
I saw that in the post while dining on breakfast in Brunswick. Congrats on your wifely anonimity!
Next time I will remember the handshake.
Oh that’s really too bad that people see things that way. The two other couples that I can think of who are both writers share close relationshops.
Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini jump to mind and Nicola Griffith and Kelley Esckridge. I’m friends with these last two and they’ve written contributions to a book called Bookmark Now-Writing in Readerly Times, edited by Kevin Smokler. All of the witers who contributed came into age professionally in the last decade. Their pieces are about the writing life, living with another author. They wrote their piece together and it’s called As We Mean To Go On. Very good stuff.
I heard from Jack Bludis that he saw you at your signing yesterday or was that early this morning, who can tell you are making so may stops.
Didn’t Joe Strummer play with The Pogues for a while before he went on to The Mescalero’s?
“under ducting in the nefarious zone, the CIA is on the phone” from Mondo Bongo one of my favorite JS songs.
I hope your tour goes well all the way through and that you never get separated from the things you need. Oh and that you sell lots of books.
Sly
Secret handshake?? Maybe I’ll learn it at P&P
The Pogues adventure was front and center in the Post’s Reliable Source.
Yes, but you’d have to be a regular visitor here to know I was there. The other gentle lady and I were identified only by our spousal roles.
Loved your reading in Philadelphia — complemented (and contrasted with) Shriver’s fascinatingly. D’you ever think of doing a blog post refuting the alter-kocker in the audience who said recent fiction has no Great Characters in the tradition of Joyce and Tolstoy? You could go over the past fifty years, starting with Humbert, and ask your readers to add examples!
Josh,
Thank you for the comments about the Philadelphia reading. As for the gentleman who (unwittingly, I think) essentially told us that we suck — I honestly don’t think he meant to be rude. I try to mock only myself in these parts, although I make exceptions when someone is exceptionally unkind. And even then, I’m careful to make such people impossible to identify.