Rachel Simon's Blog, page 3
July 25, 2011
Home, Home On The Road: Visiting Book Clubs By Skype and Phone
Now that summer has arrived, I'm taking a break from the relentless pace of the last few months and am living a life of solitude, silence, and deep concentration. But with The Story of Beautiful Girl proving so popular among book clubs, I've also been visiting groups across the country – from the comfort of [...]
July 7, 2011
Jennifer Weiner Praises The Story of Beautiful Girl on The Today Show
I'm so excited! This morning, mega-authors Jennifer Weiner and Harlan Coben appeared on The Today Show to recommend their Books Not To Be Missed For The Summer – and Jennifer raved about my book! Here's what she said. "Great title, great cover. Sad book. Two people who are institutionalized run away from this terrible place. [...]
July 1, 2011
I Love Book Clubs
I don't belong to any book clubs. But I sure do love being in them. I grew up in the pre-book club era, when people who read books didn't think in terms of gathering once a month in a living room with a dozen friends, food, wine, and maybe a set agenda, and then spending [...]
June 21, 2011
You Wore Costumes To Do Author Readings? Really?
Yes, I did. For the first three books of my career – the books that preceded my first bestseller, Riding The Bus With My Sister – I wore fun, whimsical costumes to do author readings in bookstores. In fact, during these early years of my career, from my first book, Little Nightmares, Little Dreams (1990), [...]
June 16, 2011
What Do You Mean, You're Not On Book Tour? Don't You Travel All Over The Place?
For the last nine years, since Riding The Bus With My Sister came out, people have said to me, "Boy, your book tour is lasting a long time!" or "Don't you get tired of being on book tour?" For the last month, since The Story of Beautiful Girl came out, people have said, "Please come [...]
June 1, 2011
My Silly, Salty, One-Of-A-Kind Celebration For Becoming A New York Times Bestseller
For the last two weeks, since The Story of Beautiful Girl hit the New York Times Bestseller list, people have asked how I'd celebrate. Would I dine at an extravagant restaurant? Throw a party? Go on a shopping spree? I said no, I wasn't really planning a celebration. But in truth, the celebration I had [...]
May 25, 2011
Hitting The New York Times Best Seller List: The Story of Beautiful Girl, Week 3
If you've ever wondered what it's like to find out that your book has gotten onto the New York Times Best Seller list, you've probably imagined fireworks, or parades, or, at the very least, a singing telegram. You probably didn't imagine this. It was a week ago, a Wednesday evening. My novel, The Story of [...]
May 18, 2011
Picking Up Speed: The 2nd Week After Beautiful Girl's Launch
The second week in the life of The Story of Beautiful Girl has been demanding, stimulating, exhausting, full of happy developments with the book, full of friends old and new, full of events public and private, and overflowing with unbelievable excitement. First, the BIG, BIG, BIG news: This evening, exactly two weeks after publication, I [...]
May 10, 2011
Lift Off: The First Six Days After Beautiful Girl's Launch
So how's it been going? How's it been going in the six days since Grand Central Publishing published The Story of Beautiful Girl? That's what people keep asking me – though they phrase the question in one of these three ways: 1. What's been going on? 2. How are you feeling? 3. How are sales [...]
May 4, 2011
What A Long, Great Trip It's Been – A Photo Thank You For Being On It With Me
Today, May 4, 2011, my new novel, The Story of Beautiful Girl, hits the shelves. The journey to publication has been a thrilling adventure which I've chronicled in this blog for the last year. I'm posting a photo card below to thank you for joining me on this journey. It includes pictures you know from [...]
