Alex George's Blog, page 5

The First Rule of Book Club is that… oh, never mind.

Groucho Marx once said that he would never want to belong to any club that would admit him as a member, but my guess is that he was never in a book club.

I love book clubs. I’ve visited an absolute ton of them over the years to talk about A GOOD AMERICAN. Some I’ve attended in person, and many more I’ve attended either by telephone or Skype. (I think the most remote book club I spoke to was in Abu Dhabi.) It’s always a good time. If you would like me to join your book club to discuss SETTING FREE THE KITES, I’d be happy to do so. Just drop me a line here giving me the details. If I can fit it on my schedule, I’ll do my best to make it happen.

“And to think we started as a book group.”

Anyway, three interesting pieces of news on this subject:

My lovely publishers have put together a Book Club Guide for SETTING FREE THE KITES. It includes some questions about the book to get the conversation going, and an interview with yours truly. You can download a free copy by clicking on this link. There’s also a playlist of some of the songs included in the book. If you’re on Spotify you can also go here to listen. (Fair warning: it’s not quite as easy on the ear as the soundtrack for A GOOD AMERICAN.)
Next: Penguin have also announced that they are giving away 10 spanking brand-new hardcover copies of SETTING FREE THE KITES in a book club sweepstake. If you’d like to enter and win those copies for your book club, you can enter the contest by entering here. The closing date is February 28.
And finally, there’s a new kind of book club where people just gather in one place and read quietly to themselves. It’s called, perhaps unsurprisingly, Silent Book Club. Penguin have put together a “starter pack” of six great titles, including KITES. You can enter to win this rather excellent prize by going here.

In other news I’ve begun to pack for the book tour, which means I’ve begun to pick out the books I’m taking with me. And I’m already in a heap of trouble.

 

Getting Close…

Somehow, the launch of SETTING FREE THE KITES is now less than two weeks away. After the excitement of having the final book delivered and subsequently eaten by the neighbors’ dog, I’m pleased to report that a couple of days later three boxes of pristine, undigested books appeared on my doorstep, looking as delightful as I could have hoped for.

I have been running around like the proverbial headless chicken trying to tie up as many loose ends as I can before heading out on tour on April 22. What with my law practice, arranging a million things for the Unbound Book Festival, finishing my next book, and doing interviews for this book – well, it’s a busy time, to put it mildly. How does that saying go? I can always sleep when I’m dead.

Last week Barnes and Noble announced that SETTING FREE THE KITES was one of their Best New Fiction Picks for February, which was very nice news. And, on the subject of Barnes & Noble, that’s where I’ll be officially launching the book on Tuesday February 21, at the store in Columbia, MO. I’ll be giving a brief reading and signing books, and there will be cake, and live music, and friends, and other good stuff. I’d love to see you there!

Magic Moments.

The road to publication is a long one, paved with many moments that (if you’re lucky) linger long in the memory. One of the most precious, which is often memorialized in writers’ social media posts, is the moment when the finished book is delivered to your front door. This is always close to the end of the process. Prior to this point there have been loose leafed manuscripts, early uncorrected reading copies, and galleys – but there’s nothing quite like holding the final product in your hand for the first time. It’s a moment to be treasured. When I lived in London I used to take my books out for lunch. I sat them on the other side of the table and just stared at them while I ate. It’s that kind of moment. You’re filled with both awe (I wrote that!) and apprehension (I wrote that!). The shit, as the saying goes, is getting real.

So, there’s that wonderful moment, one for the scrapbook. And then there’s what happened to me this weekend.

On Saturday, my neighbors appeared at my front door, looking as if someone had died. It transpired that the UPS man had mistakenly delivered a package addressed to me to their house. Their puppy Mabel – a lovely dog, if a bit squirrelly at times – took it upon herself to open the envelope and see what was inside. This is what was delivered to me that morning:

With it was the remains of a note from Jake, my editor, saying how he hoped I would be delighted with the enclosed copy. I assured my neighbors (who are also lovely, and not at all squirrelly) that this was no big deal, that it was only a book, there were plenty more where that came from, etc., etc. This morning I explained what had happened to Jake, and he has gone off to see if he can find another copy to send me. (These were bindery copies, hot off the press, and not part of the regular print run.)  There’ll be a fresh one arriving soon. People have commiserated with me, but there’s no need. I’ve waited this long, what’s another couple of days?

Anyway, not to be denied my moment, I posted the above picture to social media, and, oh the jokes. My favorite was from another Amy Einhorn alum, the lovely Suzanne Rindell, who wrote: “Geez Louise, who does that Mabel think she is — Michiko Kakutani???”

One Month To Go…

In exactly one month’s time, SETTING FREE THE KITES will be published. After all this time, it’s a little difficult to wrap my head around the idea. I delivered the first draft of the novel to Amy Einhorn, my then-editor at Penguin, almost exactly three years ago. That’s right. Three years. Since then much has happened. Amy left for pastures new, I got a new editor, and – partly as a consequence of that – the book got a substantial rewrite. It’s all good though. We wouldn’t have the book we have now if it had happened any other way. But, still, you know. Three years.

You would think, wouldn’t you, that with such a long time to prepare, I’d be completely ready for publication. Well, yes. About that. Not so much. The reviews are rolling in, the interviews have begun (Huffington Post last week, which was fun) and we’re putting the final touches to the tour plan. But (and perhaps this is a good thing) I’m too busy to be especially anxious: I’m still running my law firm, pushing ahead with plans for April’s Unbound Book Festival, and trying to finish the new book.

A few random bits of news:

We’ve added another stop on the tour. I’ll be at the wonderful Left Bank Books in St. Louis on Tuesday, March 7. It’s such a great store, and I can’t wait for that.
Goodreads are giving away another 25 galleys of the book! You can enter the draw up until midnight on February 1 by going here. Good luck!
The audiobook of KITES is in production as I write. The book is being read by a well-known and much admired reader of audiobooks, Ari Fliakos, who recently performed Nathan Hill’s bestseller, THE NIX.I’m looking forward to hearing him read it.
We’re making plans for a great launch party on February 21 at Barnes & Noble in Columbia. It should be a lot of fun – we’re hoping for (among other things) live music and CAKE. If you’re in the area, please do stop by. I’d love to see you before I set off on my travels. The event starts at 7.00 p.m.

Book Trailer.

It’s been a strange weekend here in Columbia, MO. We were promised the mother of all ice storms on Friday. School was canceled early Thursday afternoon, the grocery store shelves were bare, people were stockpiling candles… and then nothing. Tomorrow, people whispered.  And then nothing. Well, OK then, Sunday, went the word. It’s now Sunday. And guess what?

Because we’d been told that nobody would be able to make it down their driveway, let alone out into the real world, we had canceled all plans, which left us all at something of a loose end. Which is why I made this little movie. It’s been so long since I’ve published a book that the whole process has changed beyond all recognition from five years ago. Back then, it seemed like everyone made a book trailer. These days, not so much. I’m still not entirely sure what the point of them is – but it was fun to do. It was lovely to be reminded of the wonderfully generous things writers I admire hugely were kind enough to say about my book. And any excuse to listen to my friend Richard’s music over and over again is always welcome.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it.

SFTK is a LIBRARY READS pick!

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 framed picture on my desk. The image is a silhouette of an open book, whose pages have been drawn with feathers, so that they look like the wings of a bird. Next to the picture is a quotation from Jorge Luis Borges, which reads: “I have always imagined paradise will be a kind of library.” It’s a sentiment I love. Libraries are wonderlands, places of enchantment – and, yes, if you’re a bookish sort, something of a paradise.

I’m especially fond of our local library, the Daniel Boone Regional Library. It’s a warm, stimulating, vibrant place. I wrote the opening chapters of A GOOD AMERICAN tucked away at one of the desks on the second floor. I’ve attended countless seminars, meetings, books sales, and discussions there. (I’m giving a talk there about the new book on April 6.) My daughter and I visit almost every week. She’s eleven, and loves to disappear into the Young Adult section, finally emerging with a stack of books almost as tall as she is. It’s cheerful and always busy, full of families, smiling staff, and people chatting happily at the tables of the little café just inside the front door.

Not entirely coincidentally, we live a ten-minute walk away.

A good library can be the heart and soul of a community. After the terrible events that unfolded in Ferguson two summers ago, one of the most heart-warming stories that came out of that awful time was about the Ferguson Municipal Public Library. The director of the library (and its sole full-time employee) had been in the job for all of five weeks when Michael Brown was shot. As turmoil unfolded on the streets, he understood that the city needed the library more than ever, and he courageously kept the doors open when most of the public facilities in the town shut down. It became a sanctuary, a place of calm and safety. When the public schools closed, an improvised day care center was set up there, where children went to learn. After the violence was over, the library helped heal the community’s collective wounds by creating “Healing Kits”, backpacks with information about civil rights history, resources for coping with emotional trauma, and a teddy bear. (Residents could read what they needed and return the backpacks – but they got to keep the teddy bear.) In recognition of all this, the Ferguson Municipal Public Library was named U.S. Library of the Year in 2015.

All of which is to say: libraries are about so much more than just books. They are a crucial part of the community that surrounds them, and a reflection of that community. If you’ve not been to your local library lately, do yourself a favor and pay a visit. There are whole worlds waiting for you inside those doors. A library card is better than a passport. Wherever you want to go, there’s a book to take you there.

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 haul myself out of my unreasonably comfortable bed just a few hours later to drive the rental car to Logan airport in time for my early morning flight home. I spent most of the afternoon in a daze and finally fell into bed in the early evening. It felt as if I’d just flown in from Australia, rather than the East Coast. I must be getting old.

All the talk in Columbia is that we’re expecting to be hit by a massive ice storm this evening, which promises to bring everything to a halt for days. The lines at the grocery store were long as worried shoppers were buying provisions in anticipation, apparently, of a zombie apocalypse, rather than a meteorological event. The fun thing about ice storms, apart from the fact that the only safe form of transport is a Zamboni, is that it’s not uncommon to lose power when the ice freezes on power lines. Naturally I tend to regard such storms as excellent excuses to stay tucked up nice and warm at home, and to do nothing but read and write.

In happier news, I’m delighted to report that SETTING FREE THE KITES has been selected as an Indie Next pick for March (NOT February, as I had originally written.) This is a list that is generated every month by the national collective of independent booksellers, Indiebound, who poll their members about the new titles they are most excited about selling. Only twenty books make the cut, so it is a huge honor to have been chosen again (A GOOD AMERICAN was also chosen in 2012.) It promises greater visibility for the book in stores, which is wonderful – but from my perspective, it’s the vote of confidence from the booksellers themselves that means the most. Books need champions, and there are no better champions than the people who hand sell titles in independent book stores. I’m looking forward to saying thank you to as many of them as possible when I set out on tour next month. In the meantime, I’m going hunker down and wait for all that ice.

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 well – booksellers from three of Portland’s wonderful independent bookstores, Print: A Bookstore, Sherman’s, and Letterpress Books.

Today Katie and I drove from Portland to Cambridge, MA, stopping on the way to see my friend Don, who owns the finest specialist cookbook shop in the country, Rabelais Books in Biddeford. Don knows more about food and drink than anyone else I know by a country mile, and so whenever he recommends somewhere to eat, I always pay attention. That was how we found ourselves here:

The Palace Diner is flat-out wonderful. The menu is small, but everything is prepared to perfection. If you are ever traveling up I-95, do yourself a favor and stop in Biddeford for lunch or breakfast. I had a tuna melt which, several hours later, I am still thinking about. We made it to Cambridge in good time and this afternoon I strolled along Mass Ave to Harvard Square. For some reason all the snow seems to make more sense in New England than it does in Missouri.

Tomorrow I return to Missouri, where wife, children and dog await me – although I wouldn’t like to speculate in what order of anticipation. Then real life, or what passes for it these days, begins again in earnest.

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. It’s such a privilege to go on these trips and meet people who sell books for a living. Talk about being among one’s people!

I flew in from New York this morning and, as always, the view of the Maine coastline as we came in to land lifted my heart, all the more so since this time there was a ton of snow on the ground, which gave the view out of the airplane window an exotic, otherworldly feel. One of the reasons I set SETTING FREE THE KITES in Maine is that I love the place so much. We try and make it up here at least once a year. I first came here eight or nine years ago – the precise year escapes me, but my daughter was tiny – and I can still recall from that first visit a peculiar sense of arriving home. It didn’t make any sense at the time, and still doesn’t now, really, but I know it to be true. Some truths may not make a lick of sense but they are, as somebody once wrote, self-evident. I’m happy to be here.

Also, just a reminder that the Goodreads giveaway of galleys of SFTK is still going on, but not for much longer. It ends at midnight tomorrow. If you would like to enter your name into the drawing to receive one of twenty-five free copies, go over here and sign up. (And while you’re there, you could always, you know, add the book to your “Want to Read” pile.)

Stay warm! More anon.

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 the book) to Boston. So, planes, trains, and automobiles. In the Northeast. In January. What could possibly go wrong?

This trip is part business, part pleasure. In Portland and Boston I’m going to be having dinner with booksellers to talk about SETTING FREE THE KITES, which I am looking forward to hugely, although it’s still apparently not quite sunk in that, after all this time, publication is fast approaching.

I’ve just got back from a very relaxing few days in Southern California with my kids. We stayed near Joshua Tree National Park, which was astonishingly beautiful. I woke up (as usual) at five every morning and wrote for several hours while my children, who are champion teenagers (even though only one of them is actually a teenager) slept until late morning. Somehow, I am getting perilously close to finishing a first draft of the new novel. It’s set in Paris on one day in 1927, and I am already somewhat in mourning at the prospect of being done with it. I love waking up each day and spending a few hours in Paris. Anyway, here are a few photos from the trip.