Alex George's Blog, page 8

Paperback Writer

… A rather obvious title for this post, but if you lived with two Beatles-obsessed children, as I do, you would forgive me.

It’s difficult to believe that it’s been nearly a year since A GOOD AMERICAN was published.  In the past twelve months I have visited wonderful bookshops across the country, been invited to literary festivals, done countless radio and TV appearances, and spoken to scores of book clubs, both in person and via Skype (the furthest away being Abu Dhabi.)  And I’ve signed God-knows-how-many actual books.  The novel has sold very handily in the US (and, if amazon is to be believed, also appears to be a bestseller in Italy and Spain.)  It was named one of the best books of 2012 by Library Journal and BookPage.  Best of all, during the past year I have met hundreds of fantastic people – booksellers, writers, and readers – many of whom I am now proud to call my friends.

And now, wonderfully, I get to do it all again.  The paperback of A GOOD AMERICAN is released two weeks today, on February 5.  My author copies were delivered last week, and they look spectacular.  Penguin have done a total redesign of the cover, which I think is stunning.  Just in case you haven’t seen it yet, this is what it looks like:

I got word last week that pre-orders have been healthy enough that they have already had to go back for a second printing, which is wonderful news.  There is in fact some more great news about the paperback, but I am under strict instructions not to share it just yet.  (Soon, I promise.)  I’m also delighted and proud to report that the book has again been named to the Indie Next paperback list for February 2013.

We have some events lined up to promote the paperback launch – at present the plan is to stay relatively local, although as I discovered last year, these things can change very quickly.  The first event will be at the Barnes & Noble in Columbia, at 7 p.m. on Thursday, February 7 – on the off chance that there is anyone in mid-Missouri who hasn’t yet heard me speak about the book, I’d love to see you there.  As an added incentive, also in attendance will be a wonderful writer friend of mine, who will I am sure sign her brilliant and mega-selling novel for you, if you ask nicely.  More details to come.  I’ll also be reading at Left Bank Books in St. Louis on March 7, and am appearing at the American Booksellers Association Winter Institute, where the book has been chosen as the “one read” title for the convention.  I’m really looking forward to meeting all the booksellers and authors who will be there.

Finally, I just want to thank everyone who has been kind enough to get in touch with comments and praise (and criticism!) over the past year.  I always say that writing books is a very lonely business, and it means so much when people take the time to write and share their thoughts.  Pushing a novel out into the big, wide world is an exciting but often stressful experience; hearing from readers and friends makes it all worthwhile.  So, please – keep in touch.

Cheers!

 

What’s Important

I’ve spent the last two weeks without a computer.  And I lived to tell the tale.

One morning my cherished MacBook Pro would not wake up.  I took it into the local Apple retailer and they confirmed that the hard drive had committed ritual hara-kiri the previous evening.  Luckily all of my law firm documents and my novel-in-progress were backed up to dropbox – this at least prevented me from bursting into tears on the spot.  But it was massively inconvenient, all the same, not least because this month has been insanely busy at work with clients wanting to make the most of inheritance tax loopholes before the country takes a massive swan-dive off the edge of this fiscal cliff.  I muddled through until Christmas using two old computers, my iPad, and a box of colored rubber bands.  All a little Heath-Robinson, and occasionally infuriating, but what needed to get done got done.  I’ve actually been too busy with law stuff to write a word of my book.

Then last night I got my machine back.  The shop had proudly told me that they had managed to recover everything they needed from the little white box that sits in the basement of my house, so I was looking forward to business as usual.  Only when I turned it on did I realize that they have replaced my laptop’s hard drive with that on my Mac Mini, which I use only for playing music.  Gliding smoothly over the gross negligence and mind-boggling stupidity of this, I have spent much of my waking hours since then trying to reconstitute my computer as I knew it.  I have had to sync stuff, re-boot things, re-install software, you name it.  Things are more or less back to normal, but I have lost thousands of photographs, even more emails, and many, many documents.

But here’s the thing.  This is all highly aggravating, but I’m still here.  I didn’t lose a word of the new book, and I have the tools I need to sit down again and write.  And that, in the end, is really what matters.

I am off to snowy Maine tomorrow (in actuality, not merely in my imagination!) where we will spend four days in a small cabin by the sea.  I am going to read a lot, and write a lot, and go for long walks on the beach in the snow.  I am hoping to find inspiration and a renewed energy to launch myself back into this novel.  The paperback of A GOOD AMERICAN is coming out in February, and I’ll be posting here about events for that in due course.  In the meantime, my best wishes to you all for a peaceful and happy new year.

Best Review Ever

It’s December, which means it’s time for everyone with an internet connection to post their Best Of the Year lists.  I’ve been fortunate enough to see A GOOD AMERICAN crop up on quite a few of these.  (This one from Booklist was especially pleasing, if only because of the author who came immediately below me.)  I was also especially pleased to appear on this list by Amanda from the always smart and hilarious blog Dead White Guys, as I’ve never had my book reviewed in Haiku form before.

But actually the most pleasing encomium I’ve received lately was from an entirely unexpected source.  The children were with their mother last Friday and so, as occasionally happens when I am not constrained by the dietary peccadilloes of small people, I decided to treat myself to some spicy Chinese food.  Having spent the entire day being a lawyer in a town called Clinton, I felt I had earned it.

(A brief digression.  Missouri has some of the best town names ever.  There is a place west of the capital, Jefferson City, called Bland.  It is on the way to another town called Gerald.  But on Friday, as I was driving to Clinton, I saw a sign to a town called, I shit you not, Tightwad.  For realz.  Anyway.)

So, yeah.  Chinese food.  The place I tend to go for my take-out is a well-known restaurant south of town called Peking.  The lady who owns the place is quite a character.  She presides over the dining room in a wonderful, slightly eccentric way, bellowing down the telephone at people calling in with orders and chatting with customers while they eat.  I’ve been going there for years, and while this lady always recognizes me, I never had any clue that she knew who I was.  At least, until now.  On Friday I walked through the door, and she took one look at me and said, “I read your book!”

My response to this news, whenever I hear it, is usually a confusing conflagration of pleasure and apprehension.  I’m always delighted to learn of new readers, of course, but then I never know what’s coming next.  What came next, in this instance, did not bode well.

“I read it by accident,” she told me.

“By accident?” I said anxiously.

She nodded.  ”I was in the bookshop and I picked it up.  I liked the title.  Then I looked at the author photo and saw it was you.  I recognized you.  So I bought it.”

This is something they don’t tell you on How-to-Market-Your-Novel websites: eat more Chinese food.

“And so what did you think?” I asked.

Just then, of course, the telephone rang and I had to wait while she took an order for Crab Rangoon and General Tso’s Chicken.

“I liked it,” she said when she put the phone back down.  ”I liked the family’s work ethic.  That’s like us, you know.  You got that just right.”

And only then did it occur to me: I was speaking to the matriarch of an immigrant family who had come to mid-Missouri and opened a successful restaurant.  And I realized that I couldn’t ever really hope for higher praise.  She’s Jette.  There’s all the difference in the world between telling stories and actually living those same stories.  In the end, I was just making stuff up – but this lady had actually lived it.  That she approved of what I had done meant the world to me.

A few minutes later, when my food was ready, she brandished the brown paper bag at me and said: “Order for Alex.”  I beamed.  After nine years, she finally knows my name.

Sign o’ the Times

There’s a well-known legal axiom that when in court a lawyer should never ask a question to which he or she doesn’t already know the answer.  I am sure that an analogous rule applies to authors’ posting reviews of their books on the internet – it’s probably not a good idea to do it unless you know what the review says.

But what the hell.

Here’s a video I found of someone called Jim the Librarian giving a review of A GOOD AMERICAN in sign language.  I’ve written in the past about the strangeness of hearing someone else narrate the words I’ve written (for the audiobook) and of picking up a book with my name on the cover and not being able to read a word of what’s inside (foreign editions.)   Watching this, though, was a whole new brand of weird.  I don’t know sign language, and I can’t lip read, so I’ve really just been watching Jim’s wonderfully expressive face as he talks about the book, without knowing what on earth he’s saying.  Trying gauge someone’s opinion of a book on the basis of facial expressions alone is a new experience for me.  It’s equal parts surreal and frustrating, with moments of anxious hilarity.

I’m pretty sure he wasn’t that crazy about it, to be honest.

My favorite moment is at about the 4:15 minute mark.  The look on Jim’s face is absolutely priceless, but I’m not entirely sure I want to know what he’s talking about.

 

A GOOD AMERICAN chosen as “One Institute, One Read” Title!

I’m delighted and beyond excited to announce that the American Booksellers Association has picked A GOOD AMERICAN as its “One Institute, One Read” title for the forthcoming Winter Institute 8, which takes place in Kansas City next February.

This, not to put too fine a point on it, is a pretty big deal.

ABA is the organizing body of independent booksellers throughout the United States.  Indie booksellers have already shown amazing support for A GOOD AMERICAN, voting it the #1 Indie Next List pick for February, and I am so proud that the book has been chosen for this new honor.  A copy of the novel (which will have just come out in paperback) will be sent to every attendee prior to the convention, and everyone is encouraged to read it before they get to Kansas City.  Then I get to stand up in front of a room of people and lead a discussion about it.  Since this will be a room full of some of the cleverest and best-read people in the country, yikes.  Other authors speaking at the Winter Institute include Sherman Alexie, Malcolm Gladwell, and Daniel Pink, so I am in rather stellar company!

There was already a fun connection between the book and Winter Institute 8, when, back last February, the wonderful Rainy Day Books in Kansas City issued a challenge to all independent booksellers, offering to award a scholarship to WI8 to the bookseller who handsells the most copies of A GOOD AMERICAN.  I do hope I’ll get to meet the winner of the challenge and thank them personally.  Indie bookstores remain the heart and soul of the publishing industry in this country and we all owe an enormous debt to those who work so tirelessly and passionately in them.

And so people.  If you haven’t visited your local independent bookstore recently, you should.

A copy of the announcement from ABA is here.

The Waiting Game

My friend Joe Wallace has been a busy man lately.  He has been baking souffles, reading a great deal, traveling a lot, and posting the occasionally provocative and entertaining opinion on Facebook.  (Since he is one of the warmest and most engaging people on Facebook, this is an excellent thing.)  Why has he been so busy?

Because he has been waiting.

His latest rewrite of his new novel (his first novel, Diamond Ruby, is a wonderful read and I (and my son) recommend it highly) has been with his agent for the past few weeks and he has been waiting for her to read it.  Consequently, as he put it to me last week, he has been in a “writing interregnum” of late.  I know the feeling.  It’s a terrifying prospect when you finally deliver your manuscript to someone – anyone – else.  You might (then again you might not) believe that what you’ve produced is half decent, but what the hell do you know?  You’re only the author, and so are probably the least qualified person on the planet to have an opinion.  And while you wait for the verdict to be handed down, it’s almost impossible to sit down and concentrate on doing any more writing.  Hence Joe’s soufflés.  (Me, I just work on beating my daughter’s high score on Doodle jump.)

I am rather in this position myself right now, albeit to a lesser degree.  I have only four chapters of my new book written – and, for the first time, they are now being read by someone other than me.  I am anxious to know if the idea that has been bugging me for the past year is even remotely interesting to anyone else, or if I need to go back to the proverbial drawing board.  Of course, this is a very different proposition to dealing with  a finished manuscript.  Even if my Trusted First Reader doesn’t like what I’ve done, I should be able to incorporate her thoughts and comments and (with luck) improve the book as a result.  In other words, her feedback is part of the on-going process.  As such, it is less terrifying than the kind of binary choice that Joe has been contemplating over the past few weeks: essentially a yes or no answer to the question – will his agent like it?

But even so, the act of offering up my efforts for the first time remains frightening, even six novels in.  I’ve written in the past about the boundless promise of an empty page, the hope that springs from a story still untold.  It’s only now, when my manuscript is in the hands of someone who is unburdened by my own optimistic delusions, that all that hope and promise is in mortal danger for the first time.  And I’m one of the lucky ones – my TFR is smart as hell, fantastically well-read, very sympathetic, and best of all, she’s a published writer herself.  I will discover what she thinks later today.  At least she has promised me that we won’t be having any conversations like this (thanks to the always hilarious Laura Zigman for the video):

By the way, Joe finally heard from his agent a couple of days ago.  Her first words?

“I. LOVED. IT.”

 

 

Paperback Writer.

Oh, the shame of it.  It’s been four months – count ‘em! – since I last posted an entry on this blog.  It’s been so long that the wordpress site refused to believe that I was who I said I was, and it took me a while to work out how to get on here at all.  There were cobwebs, virtual and otherwise, everywhere.

Anyway, here I am, back at the coalface, and hopeful that I will be a better blogger/correspondent in the coming months.  The only excuse I can offer is that I’ve been wrestling with my new book, to the exclusion of just about everything else.  It has been a long and occasionally painful process, not helped by the fact that this has been a crazy year for me on the personal front, which has sometimes made it difficult to focus as much as I would like, or indeed write at all.  However, the worst appears to be over.  (Ah, ever the optimist.)  For a long time I was struggling as the new characters simply refused to materialize, no matter how gently I tried to coax them on to the page.  I think I have that sorted (for the moment, anyway) and so I’m hoping that things will go more smoothly now.  The initial chapters are with my trusted first reader, and now I am anxiously twiddling my thumbs, waiting for the verdict.

Happily there is also still a great deal going on with A GOOD AMERICAN.  I continue to be invited to many wonderful book clubs, both on Skype and in person, to discuss the book, and have always been greeted with wonderful generosity and warmth.  Next month I am attending the Louisiana Book Festival in Baton Rouge, and a few days later will be appearing at the conclusion of the Capital Read program in Jefferson City, MO, which has chosen A GOOD AMERICAN as their featured book this year.

There is also some other very exciting news in the wings about the book that I am presently under stern editorial instructions not to announce, but watch this space.

In the meantime, the US paperback of A GOOD AMERICAN will hit the bookshops on February 5, 2013.  I wrote here about the five physical incarnations of a book.  We can now add a sixth.  The brilliant designers at Penguin have come up with a brand new cover for the paperback, which I am happy to share with you all here for the very first time, at the top of this post.  As you’ll see, it’s quite different from the hardcover design, which I still adore.  I love this, too, in a totally different way (note the clever use of red, white and blue.)  Hope you like it, too.  Do leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Memorial Day Weekend Update

Over this long weekend I have all three days on my own – the children are on a float trip in the Ozarks with their mother – and a long list of domestic chores to get done in that time, to say nothing of (I hope) further progress with the new book.  In the spirit of prevarication that I cling to so dearly, however, I thought I’d knock out this blog post first and update you all on what’s been going on.

So, yeah.  Busy times.

On Friday I was delighted to discover that A GOOD AMERICAN was featured on NPR’s Morning Edition as being a recommended read for this summer.  Here’s the link.

The Gaithersburg Book Festival last weekend was a blast.  It was wonderful to meet writer friends old and new.  My son has an annoying habit of referring to friends that I only know online as “friends” – he draws heavily ironic inverted commas in the air with his fingers. Well, now he has less chance to mock me, as I met a bunch of people I’ve been speaking with in the virtual world for ages.  It was especially good to meet and talk books with fellow Amy Einhorn author Siobhan Fallon, and I loved meeting the delightful Sarah McCoy and Orange Prize short-listed Madeline Miller (good luck on Tuesday, Madeline!)  I also met many other writers, and had to stagger home with my bag bulging with new books.  It was particularly good to meet Gregg Jones, whose book on Theodore Roosevelt and America’s misadventures in the Philippines I can’t wait to read, and Tom McNeal, whose novel, To Be Sung Underwater, is presently bewitching me.  And of course it is always wonderful to see Eleanor Brown, whom I adore.  I rather wish she didn’t live in Colorado, though.  It really is most inconvenient.

Anyway, here are a few photos for you:

Eleanor, Siobhan and me at the night-before party.

Just before going on stage.

 

With Sarah McCoy, readings done!

After the festival was over I had a wonderful meal with yet another delightful author, Erika Robuck, whose novel, Hemingway’s Girl, is being published by NAL in September.  Erika was kind enough to give me an Advanced Reading Copy of her book, and it is next on my list.  I cannot wait.  It looks fabulous.

Finally, here’s a fun thing.  I am involved with a wonderful non-profit organization here in Columbia, MO, called the Voluntary Action Center.  It provides various essential services to low income families across the local area.  On Tuesday we had our annual fundraising event.  One of the auction items was the chance to appear (by name only, I should add) in my next novel.  The idea is that the winner will get to read an early draft of the book and then choose which minor character they wish to bear their name.

I thought this was a pretty neat idea when I first suggested it but as the day approached I became increasingly apprehensive.  What if nobody wanted to appear in my book?  By the evening itself I was a ghost, pale-faced with terror, bracing myself for humiliation.  At least, I told myself, it was all in a good cause.

As it turned out, I needn’t have worried.  The final price bid was $1,600.  I was absolutely delighted.  Although as someone said to me afterwards, “This had better be a very good book!”  Well, I’m working on it.

 

Gaithersburg Book Festival

One of the very best things about publishing a book is being invited to events where one can meet readers and other writers.  I’m particularly excited for this weekend, which is the Gaithersburg Book Festival, a hugely popular event in Maryland which brings dozens of writers from across the country to talk about and read from their books.  The line-up of authors is dazzling (if also a little daunting,) but I cannot wait to go and be a part of all the festivities.  From 3.20 to 4.00 on Saturday I get to stand on a stage (in the F. Scott Fitzgerald tent, which I heartily approve of) and talk about my book and then take questions from the audience.  Not long ago the prospect would have filled me with apprehension but after the past few months I’ve come to really relish these gigs.  Nobody has thrown tomatoes – not yet, anyway.

I’m especially looking forward to meeting my fellow Amy Einhorn Books stablemate Siobhan Fallon, whose book, the rapturously received You Know When the Men Are Gone, was one of my favorites from last year.  And I also can’t wait to see my friend Eleanor Brown, whose debut The Weird Sisters has been on the New York Times bestseller list since it came out in paperback in February.  In addition there are lots of other wonderful writers whom I have become friends with on twitter and Facebook, whom I am anxious to meet – Sarah McCoy, Madeline Miller, and Erika Robuck, to name just three.

If you live in the Maryland/D.C. area, please come along and say hi.  I’d love to meet you.

PS:  While we’re on the subject of literary festivals, I’ll also be appearing at the Louisiana Book Festival in Baton Rouge this October.  If you’ve read A GOOD AMERICAN you’ll understand why this makes sense… more details to come as I get them.

Writer, C’est Moi. (Finally.)

An interesting thing happened the other day. The kids and I decided to take the puppy for a walk around our new neighborhood. Dog walking is an excellent way to meet new people – if you are accompanied by a cute dog and two (equally cute) small children, you are generally not considered too much of a threat, even if you do speak with a funny accent – and we were hoping to get to know some of our new neighbors.  Sure enough, not long after we started, we met a lady coming in the opposite direction down the sidewalk with a gorgeous yellow labrador.  We introduced ourselves and chatted a bit while my daughter rapturously petted the labrador.   The lady, whose name was Kathy, was very kind.  She asked the kids all sorts of questions – what school they went to, what they liked to do, all that good stuff.  And then suddenly she looked at me and said, “And what do you do?”

I blinked and said, “I’m a writer.”  And then, half a second later, I added, “and an attorney.”

Kathy nodded briskly and on we went with the conversation.

It was only later, as I was thinking back to the exchange, that I began to wonder why I felt the need to add that I was an attorney.  And then it struck me: even now, with A GOOD AMERICAN published and out in the world and doing just fine by all accounts, it still makes my toes curl to describe myself as a writer.

I’ve read many pieces over the years about what it means to be a “writer” – as if they are a wholly different species.  Everyone has their own definition.  Some prefer vaguely philosophical formulations, based upon how a person thinks, or views the world.  Some impose more concrete criteria, such as whether a person is published, or earns sufficient money to quit their day job.  Others have simpler ways of looking at it.  One of my favorite articles (which everyone should read, by the way) is by J. C. Hutchins, railing hilariously (and truthfully) against the expression “aspiring writer”, a phrase he hates.  As he puts it: “If you’re writing, then you’re a writer.”

I would agree wholeheartedly – except insofar as it applies to me.  I’ve published five novels, for God’s sake, and yet still I hedge, qualify, apologize.  The genesis of this raging inferiority complex lies, I suspect, in thirteen years of spousal (now ex-spousal) disdain for my writing and my writing career.  But all that is behind me now, and it’s time to lay claim to what’s mine.  So, here’s the plan: the next time someone asks me what I do, I’m going to look ‘em in the eye, and tell them – proudly – that I’m a writer.  And I’ll try to keep my toes straight.