Clifford Garstang's Blog, page 36

2019 SIBA Discovery Show

[image error]

I had the pleasure of attending the Southern Independent Booksellers’ Alliance 2019 Discovery Show in Spartanburg, SC this past weekend. It was fun to meet lots of publishers, booksellers, and other writers.

Frankly, I wasn’t sure what to expect, having never been to another SIBA event. On Friday, I attended a few interesting panels–one focused on Pat Conroy by writers who have contributed to a volume in his memory called Prince of Scribes. Another panel was moderated by Charles Frazier who is behind the Cold Mountain series from Hub City Press.

Most of my time was spent on the tradeshow floor with a representative of my publicist, JKS Communications and with Regal House Publishing, the folks bringing out my next novel (coming spring 2021). But I was also constantly looking for opportunities to talk to booksellers about my recent novel, The Shaman of Turtle Valley.

[image error]The Shaman of Turtle Valley

But the main reason to be at the event didn’t occur until Sunday’s “Moveable Feast,” an event during which 25 writers had an opportunity to meet with a hundred or so booksellers. Each of us had 90 seconds to make a pitch to the whole room while they ate lunch (the authors ate ahead of time) but also got to meet with 6 tables of booksellers and spend 5 or 6 minutes with each. That was actually fun and I hope I made a connection with at least a few bookstores and will try to appear there in the future. Then, after lunch, the authors moved to tables outside the ballroom to sign our books for the booksellers.

Prague

For no particular reason, I recently visited Prague. I had never been there before, and I love walkable, historic cities, so . . . I went. It was a fun trip. I got an AirBnB flat near the city center and started walking around even on my jet-lagged arrival day.

The city is divided into four zones: Old Town (including the Jewish Quarter) and New Town (which isn’t particularly new, but emerged after the Old Town) on one side of the river and the Castle Quarter and Lesser Town on the other. They all have lots to see.

I didn’t spend much time in museums–there was the Mucha Museum, which I enjoyed, and the Kafka Museum, and a tiny museum devoted to Dvorak–but most of the time I walked. I also took a couple of day trips to smaller cities near Prague to see historic attractions (the Ossuary in Kutna Hora, the Terezin Concentration Camp) and also signed up for some local “Experiences” on AirBnB that were quite fun. One was a dinner in a chef’s home; another was a beer & tapas pub tour; a visit to a master violinmaker’s workshop; and a concert at the main concert venue along with a tour of that building.

Speaking of Kafka, he’s a real presence in the city. Besides the Kafka Museum, there are several statues of him, a plaque marking his birthplace, and more. As it happens, just before I left home I found a book called Conversations with Kafka by Gustav Janouch and read that in Prague since it refers to numerous streets and buildings in the city.

While there is great art in the city, the real story is its architecture (I took a tour with an interesting young man who focused on that)–Roman, Gothic, Rennaissance, Neo-Gothic, Art Deco, Art Nouveau. The city also has quite a good public transit system and once I got the hang of it I was zipping around on the subways and trams when I got tired of walking.

Very glad I went. Enjoy some of my pictures!

[image error][image error][image error][image error][image error][image error][image error][image error][image error][image error][image error][image error][image error][image error][image error][image error][image error][image error][image error][image error][image error][image error][image error][image error][image error][image error]

1455 Literary Arts Summer Litfest

[image error]

I had the pleasure of attending the inaugural 1455 Summer Litfest in Winchester, VA in July. 1455 is a new literary arts organization with big plans—a residency space, arts center, and a program of year-round literary events. For now, it sponsors the Handley Reading Series at Winchester’s Handley Library (where I appeared last month), and put an enormous amount of energy into this festival, which, from my point of view, came off swimmingly.

I wasn’t able to be there for the kickoff readings on
Thursday night, but I attended all but one of the panel discussions on Friday
at Winchester’s Bright Box Theater (conveniently located right next to the
Winchester Book Gallery, the fine independent bookstore that handled book sales
during the festival) and all the panels on Saturday. The panels were excellent.
Some highlights:

Tom Kapsidelis and Douglas Rogers spoke on The Art of
Political Engagement and their books about the Virginia Tech shooting and a
coup in Zimbabwe, respectively. Matthew Davis of the Alan Cheuse International
Writers Center at George Mason University moderated a fascinating panel on The
Personal Impact of Global Affairs featuring Yeganeh Torbati from ProPublica,
Mike Miller from the Washington Post, and Pauline Kaldas, author of a memoir
about her journey as an Egyptian American. Winchester was home to both Willa
Cather and Patsy Cline, and a panel on Saturday morning presented Melissa
Homestead, a Cather scholar, and John Lingan, author of a book about Winchester
that looks at Cline’s relationship with the city. In the afternoon, we heard
from Jeanne McCulloch and Robert Anthony Siegel about their memoirs in Family
Affairs. The last panel of the day featured three fiction writers, Karen E.
Bender, Louis Bayard, and Julie Langsdorf, talking about their recent books.

The event didn’t feel like a first-time affair. It ran
smoothly, was nicely organized and well-attended. Stay tuned for future
programs by 1455, including next year’s LitFest.

2019 Reading — August

I’m not sure why, but I only read five books this month. Possibly because the book club selection this month was a slog.

[image error]Beautiful Country Burn Again by Ben Fountain

Beautiful Country Burn
Again by Ben Fountain is a book I wish I hadn’t bothered with or spent
money on, but it was my book club’s selection for this month. Fountain, a
former lawyer and a fiction writer, is a clever stylist, but I disagree so
strongly with his views that it was hard to continue reading this. In my
opinion, Hillary Clinton would have made a fine president. I thought she was
the most qualified candidate in recent memory, with sound policy positions.
There is no acknowledgment that she would have been a much better choice than
Trump, only criticism that she should not have been the Democratic Party
nominee. He seems to be of the opinion that the only way to save the country is
to burn it down, which is what Bernie would have done. I don’t buy it. I belong
to the Realist wing of the Democratic Party.

[image error]Sometimes We’re All Living in a Foreign Country by Rebecca Morgan Frank

Sometimes We’re All
Living in a Foreign Country by Rebecca Morgan Frank is a fine collection of
poetry published by Carnegie Mellon University Press. I’ve known Morgan, as she
is called, for a long time (from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, I think) and
we run into each other now and then, at AWP or elsewhere. Earlier this year she
was in Charlottesville for the Virginia Festival of the Book and I was glad I
was able to hear her read along with two other poets—one familiar to me, one
not. Anyway, I enjoyed the poems in this collection, which aren’t as concrete
as some other collections I’ve read recently. Instead, these poems tend to be
almost surreal, allowing the speaker’s imagination to soar, taking the reader
along.

[image error]Blue Hours by Daphne Kalotay

Blue Hours by
Daphne Kalotay is an engaging and surprising read about a writer who, as a
young woman right out of college, moves to New York City and meets a wide
circle of new friends, including a group of men and women with whom she shares
an apartment. So far, it feels familiar, despite the compelling drama that they
experience separately and together. But then, twenty years later, the writer
receives a package of letters from one of her old roommates, a woman who has
been kidnapped in Afghanistan while doing aid work there. The narrator and the woman’s
ex-husband go in search of her, discovering a lot about themselves in the
process. The writing is beautiful and ties the two halves of the book together
with consistent imagery.

[image error]Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by JK Rowling

Harry Potter and the
Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling is the second book in the Potter series.
I listened the first one as an audiobook a few years ago and it was
entertaining enough, so I thought I’d give Book 2 a try. Again, entertaining
and wildly imaginative. Harry returns to Hogwarts for his second year of wizard
school, but he is plagued by a voice threatening to kill and various classmates
turn up petrified. Eventually, he realizes that the source of the problem is in
the Chamber of Secrets. Even without the help of Dumbledore and Hagrid, Harry
is able to save the day.

[image error]Prague Summer by Jeffrey Condran

Prague Summer by Jeffrey Condran was thoroughly enjoyable, especially because I’m about to travel to Prague myself. The story is about Henry Marten, a rare book dealer in Prague, and his wife Stephanie, who works at the US Embassy there. They receive a visitor (a stranger comes to town!), one of Stephanie’s old roommates from Washington. In the course of showing her around the city, the purpose of her visit becomes clearer. I enjoyed getting a glimpse of the city and also the rare book business.

2019 Reading–July

[image error]Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver

Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver is the story of a house. Or two houses. Specifically, it’s about Willa Knox, a writer whose family has inherited a house in Vineland, New Jersey, that is literally falling down. Her family’s pretty decrepit, too, in a fairly typical way. A parallel narrative gives the story of an earlier occupant of a house at the same address—it was falling down then, too—and in the present time Willa does some research in which she learns about this man, Thatcher Greenwood. In the present, Willa’s family faces various struggles, some related to the condition of the house, some the state of healthcare, some climate change, some the state of journalism in the 21st Century, some the challenges facing educators in higher education. The story set in the 1870s addresses some of the same  issues, specifically the opposition scientists faced to Darwinism, the privilege of the rich and powerful, rampant materialism, etc. While I ultimately enjoyed the book, it was more of a struggle for me than Kingsolver’s books usually are, possibly because of the two narratives that seemed unconnected at first.

[image error]The Cycle by Michael Kaiser

The Cycle by Michael Kaiser is a good companion to another recent read, Kaiser’s Strategic Planning for the Arts. While the latter book goes into more detail on planning (handled in this book in just one chapter), The Cycle gives a fuller explanation of the virtuous cycle that is touched on in a single chapter of Strategic Planning. For Kaiser, the Cycle is the process by which an arts organization develops programming, markets the programming (and the institution), thereby building “family” (patrons, donors, volunteers, etc.), which generates revenue (earned and contributed), that allows for more programming. It’s not a complicated concept, but each part of the cycle has its own complications and Kaiser has good advice for programming, marketing, and the maintenance and growing of the family to keep the whole wheel spinning. (Given the substantial overlap in the two books, I’m not sure I’d recommend reading both; either one would probably be sufficient.)

[image error]Leopard Lady by Valerie Nieman

Leopard Lady: A Life in Verse by Valerie Nieman is an impressive short novel in verse by a friend and fellow Queens University MFA Alum. The book tells the story of Dinah, born into chaos in 1935 and raised as part servant and part daughter by a foster family until she joins the circus as an attraction. Most of the poems are in Dinah’s voice—brilliantly capturing her vernacular—but some are in the voice of the Professor, the man who comes to care for her. The poems deal with a variety of issues that are pertinent to the time period and even now, including racial discrimination and exploitation of women.

[image error]Restless by William Boyd

Restless by
William Boyd is one of the most enjoyable spy novels I’ve ever read, right up
there with LeCarre’s best. It begins in 1976 with a single mother beginning to
learn about the secret life her mother led during World War II. The mother,
sensing that someone is watching her and may be trying to kill her, begins to
give her daughter installments of a memoir about her life as a spy, recruited
in France by the British Secret Service and then posted to the United States.
Her unit’s goal, as it develops, was to push the US to join the war against
Germany because it was felt that the UK was going to lose without them. We
learn all about her activities—lots of interesting and credible cloak and
dagger stuff—in sections that are interspersed with the daughter’s more
ordinary life, dealing with her young son, her students (she teaches English to
foreign students while she is ostensibly completing her thesis in history), and
her odd houseguest, the brother of her son’s father. Very well done.

[image error]The Low Passions by Anders Carlson-Wee

The Low Passions
by Anders Carlson-Wee is one of the poetry collections I picked up after a
reading at Powell’s Books in Portland, OR. The jacket describes the book as
“explosive and incantatory,” and that’s a fitting description. The poems are
always powerful, touching on themes of gratitude, survival, and family.

[image error]Swing Time by Zadie Smith

Swing Time by Zadie Smith is a jumble, and I think its disjointedness detracts from the narrative and certainly undermines its forward momentum for me. The narrator in the present is working for Aimee, an Australian/International pop star, but she’s obsessed with Tracey, her childhood friend, a dancer who has performed in shows on the West End stage in London. The reader knows from the prologue that the narrator has returned to London from New York after some apparent scandal, but the nature of it isn’t known until near the end of the book. In the meantime, we relive the events of her life—a jumble of flashbacks to her childhood with Tracey, more recent recollections of her own parents, and the most recent experience working for Aimee, in particular as Aimee seeks to build a school for girls in The Gambia. These threads do come together somewhat in the end, but it still feels as though Smith was telling three different stories about this narrator rather than one novel.

[image error]Shortest Way Home by Pete Buttigieg

Shortest Way Home by Pete Buttigieg isn’t your typical political manifesto by a candidate seeking higher office. Buttigieg, as everyone knows by now, is the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and the book is about how that came to be and how he has succeeded in that role. It’s written in a pleasant, conversational voice, and while it doesn’t feel boastful, one does come away with admiration for “Mayor Pete.” He’s clearly smart, equally interested in promoting people and business, speaks several languages, plays piano, etc. And while there is some discussion of his relationship with his husband, that’s a small part of the book. Here are some other things I learned from the book: (1) When he was an undergraduate at Harvard, he participated in the Institute of Politics, which is housed at the Kennedy School of Government, where I earned a degree in the ‘90s. I was also on campus in late 2000, during his first year (I think) when I attended an executive program. (2) When he worked for McKinsey, his office was in Chase Tower in Chicago. When I worked in Chicago in the ‘80s, my office was also in Chase Tower, except it was called One First National Plaza back then. And it was in that building, in the early ‘90s, where Barack Obama met Michelle when she was an associate and he an intern at my old law firm. (3) He feels about Mike Pence, with whom he had to deal during Pence’s time as Governor of Indiana, the same way we all should—revolted.

TSOTV Reviews

Two reviews of The Shaman of Turtle Valley appeared last week. One was an article in Virginia Living for which the author interviewed me. I don’t believe the article is online, but I’ll post a jpeg of it below.

[image error]

The other review is at PeaceCorpsWorldwide, a website devoted to news about the Peace Corps and Returned Peace Corps Volunteers. I was especially pleased to see this review because my interest in Korea–which is at the heart of the novel–began with my Peace Corps service there in the 1970s.

The reviewer, also an RPCV, says “Garstang has an imaginative creative  talent of weaving various threads of the story together to create a beautiful tapestry.”

Read the full review here: The Shaman of Turtle Valley — Review.

2019 Reading–June

At this rate, I will have read close to 80 books by the end of the year, probably a record for me. On the other hand, I’m not getting much writing done, so maybe I should ease up. In any case, I did read some excellent books in June, and here they are:

[image error]Tap Out by Edgar Kunz

Tap Out by Edgar
Kunz is one of the best poetry collections I’ve ever read. I think poetry, even
more than other art forms, either speaks to you or it doesn’t. These poems come
from a dark place, a hard-scrabble place, and many of them deal with the poet’s
fraught relationship with his father. While my childhood was less of a
challenge than Kunz’s seems to have been, I can certainly relate. These poems
speak to me. I picked this book up in March at a reading Kunz gave at Powell’s
Books in Portland OR. He was the first reader and with his first poem I was
hooked.

[image error]The Thin Light of Freedom by Edward Ayers

The Thin Light of
Freedom by Edward Ayers was my book club’s selection for June, in large
part because one of the main elements of the book is the story of what happened
right here in Staunton VA during the civil war and in the early reconstruction
period. The book, which follows up Ayers’s previous book In the Presence of Thine Enemies, focuses on our Shenandoah Valley
county as well as a Pennsylvania county just north of the Mason-Dixon line and
shows the real impact on real people of the conflict. Instead of describing the
bigger-picture issues, we read about how the citizens of those communities are
affected. While that’s all very interesting, I’m not sure I’d care much if he
weren’t talking about this particular community. Also, the documents he
presents here—the letters and newspaper articles—make it clear that the war was about slavery (and white supremacy),
despite Confederate apologists’ claims to the contrary.

[image error]Moonglow by Michael Chabon

Moonglow by
Michael Chabon, a faux memoir, is puzzling at first, because it isn’t clear
where it’s going. Mike Chabon, the narrator, is interviewing his grandfather in
the last days of his life, recording the old man’s story beginning with how he
met Chabon’s grandmother, then backtracking to his experience in World War II
in a special unit that was pursuing Nazi rock scientists, then moving forward
again through the mental illness of the grandmother and finally to the
grandfather’s life as a widower. Along the way, the reader is treated to the
extended metaphor of the moon, rockets to the moon, seeking refuge on the moon,
etc., which was the grandfather’s own controlling story. One imagines Chabon
puzzling over how to tell this story. It could have been a straightforward
narrative, without Chabon’s authorial intrusion or the bits about his
interaction with the grandfather, or Chabon’s mother, for that matter. But the
choice he made allows for a layer of reflection and reaction to the secrets
that the grandfather reveals and those that Chabon uncovers after the grandfather’s
death.

[image error]The Journey to the East by Hermann Hesse

The Journey to the
East by Hermann Hesse is an odd little book, but reading it reminded me of
why I loved Hesse’s work from an early age. The book is narrated by H.H. who,
as a young man, joins the “League” and participates in that organization’s
Journey to the East. The journey’s ultimate goal isn’t clear and it seems to
wander through time and geography. After Leo, a servant, disappears, the
journey seems to falter and, or so H.H. comes to believe, the League fades
away. Years later, having gone through a period of despair, H.H. finds Leo
again and the truth turns the story upside down. While I was drawn to the book
originally—I’ve owned it for decades and probably read it for the first time in
college—because I assumed the “East” of the title was a reference to Asia and
the mix of religions that I knew Hesse was interested in—the title isn’t meant
literally. In German the title is Die
Morgenlandfahrt. “Fahrt” does mean journey, but “Morgenland” means, at
least literally, “Morning Land.” While the word is used to mean East, the more
direct translation of East is “Osten.” Morning Land, then, is probably more
than just East; in my view, it’s about returning to one’s origins.

[image error]Dreyer’s English by Benjamin Dreyer

Dreyer’s English
by Benjamin Dreyer is required reading for any writer. I’m not sure when I
became such a stickler for grammar, punctuation, and usage, but this book is
definitely my kind of book. Because I have read a lot and because I taught
Freshman composition for a while, not much of the book was a revelation to me.
Rather, it mostly confirmed my usage prejudices—the things I insist on in my
editing but often see handled incorrectly, even in printed books. Plus,
Dreyer’s style is fun.

[image error]Bee Season by Myla Goldberg

Bee Season by Myla
Goldberg begins as a story about a 9-year-old in a spelling bee, but it becomes
much more than that. As her aloof father, a Rabbi with an interest in
mysticism, begins to train her for the bee, she takes her own mystical journey.
At the same time, her brother, jealous of the attention his little sister is
getting, is on his own journey, exploring various other religions, finally
landing with a Hare Krishna group. Meanwhile the mother of the family is caught
up in her own brand of mysticism. We see her obsessively cleaning her kitchen
every night, but her compulsion goes way beyond that.

[image error]Long Drive Home by Will Allison

Long Drive Home by Will Allison is another good example of a structure I find appealing (similar to The Guest Room by Chris Bohjalian, which I read last year). The book begins with the main character making a mistake in judgment, one that readers can probably sympathize with. The consequences appear to be deadly, however, and so he lies about what he’s done—to the police, to his family, and to himself. But the universe doesn’t let him get off so easily, and various forces including his guilt and a police investigation began to make his story unravel.

 Out of the Desert by Betsy Ashton: In her new novel, Out of the Desert, Betsy Ashton has painted a portrait of the Mojave Desert that is part family saga and part social commentary. Even in its aftermath, the Vietnam War looms large, its effects lingering on the families of the lost, feeding deep rifts that take generations to heal. We also see the beginnings of the opioid crisis, pervasive racism, and the abortion debate. Through snapshots of members of an extended family, Ashton shows us a bleak reality for citizens of the desert, but also shows us what could have been. (This one’s not out yet.)

Big Apple Visit

[image error]#YeahYouWrite at Bo’s Kitchen and Barroom

Between two appearances in Virginia—see this post for details—I jetted (trained? railed?) up to New York City for a few days. The main purpose for the trip was another reading, which I did at Bo’s Kitchen and Barroom in the #YeahYouWrite series. This was a blast. There were five readers—Will Allison, Jonathan Durbin, Kelly Fordon, Myla Goldberg, and me—reading a wide variety of things. Kelly read a dramatic monologue adapted from one of her poems, Will and Jon read from novels they’re working on, and Myla and I read from our recently published novels.

[image error]

But the fun part came before and after the readings, when the series organizer, Lisa Kristel, debuted cocktails she designed for each of us. My cocktail—the “Straw Man”—was totally an inside joke that could only be understood by someone who had read my novel closely: vodka (a substitute for the Korean liquor soju), persimmon puree, lemon juice, and gochujang (or sriracha). Spicy! After the readings, we had a rapid-fire Q&A with Lisa asking lots of clever questions. The place was packed and appreciative and, as I said, the event was a blast.

The reading came in the middle of my visit, though. On
Monday night—my train arrived mid-afternoon—I went to see The Phantom of the Opera. Most theaters are dark on Monday nights,
so there weren’t a lot of choices, but the show—now the longest running show on
Broadway—is iconic and I’d never seen it, although I knew a few of its songs.
And I did enjoy the show, although it seems dated (it opened in 1988) and the
music all seemed the same. At this point it’s a tourist attraction more than
real theater.

On Tuesday I visited the Morgan
Library, which I’d never been to before. That was excellent. There were
special exhibits on Walt Whitman, Maurice Sendak, Hogarth etchings, and
varieties of the group photograph. Plus the library itself with Morgan’s
collection of amazing books, including 3 Gutenberg Bibles (one of which was
displayed under glass).

Because Koreatown wasn’t far away, I headed there for lunch
(dumplings at the Mandoo Bar) and to see if there was a Korean bookshop, which
there was. The reason I wanted the store was to confirm something I was curious
about, which, I’m happy to say, I was able to do. For the Tuesday night
reading, as I mentioned above, Lisa had designed a soju (소주) cocktail. She had suggested that we might want to
write a poem about our cocktail and, because ancient Korean poetry is relevant
to my novel, I chose a traditional Korean form, the sijo
(시조)—and note
the similarity between the two words, although they are linguistically
unrelated. Anyway, I wanted to be sure I knew the Chinese characters for sijo, as the form is related to ancient
Chinese poetry. When I lived in Korea in the 1970s and studied Korean, Chinese
characters were widely used to supplement the Korean phonetic alphabet, but usage
of Chinese characters these days has declined in Korea. So I was pleased
when the young Korean clerk in the bookstore was able to help me (although he
must have thought I was nuts). Anyway, the answer is: 诗调 (pronounced shi diao in Mandarin). Aren’t you glad you
asked?

With my language mission accomplished and my umbrella not
providing much protection from the steady rain, I went back to my hotel to rest
for the evening’s activities and to practice/time my reading to be sure I was
keeping it under ten minutes. The rain stopped and I walked from my hotel down
to Chelsea where I was meeting a friend for a drink before the reading. By the
time we left for Bo’s Kitchen, just a block away, it was pouring, but by the
time the event was done the rain had stopped again and I had a nice walk home.

Wednesday was big. From my hotel I walked down 9th
Avenue on my way to the Whitney Museum,
hoping to find a coffee shop on the way. What I found was the biggest Starbucks
I’d ever seen (Starbucks
Reserve) so I stopped there and had an amazing coffee and watched some
coffee being roasted. Then it was a short walk to the museum where I saw their
Biennial exhibit. I’m not a huge fan of most contemporary art, but I enjoyed
looking at everything on display there. Then I went back north a few blocks to
the Rubin Museum. The Rubin displays
Himalayan art—basically Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, and Northern India—so it was a
nice continuation of my visit to the VMFA’s Tibet exhibit from the previous
week. I loved my visit there and will plan to return. From there I headed south
and east to The Strand because there was a book I wanted to get, and then began
the walk back to the hotel. I considered taking the subway, which I enjoy, but
I also love seeing the sights and smells of the city and I had plenty of time.

After a rest, I met a friend for coffee, then I found a
place for pre-show dinner, and then . . . Hamilton. Because of the hype
surrounding this show, I was prepared to be disappointed, but I came away a
believer. Everything about it was stunning—the set, the lighting, the
choreography, and of course the amazing music and lyrics performed in
spectacular fashion. I’m so glad I saw it. (Tip: seats in the Front Mezzanine
are excellent because you can see more than you would if you were in the
orchestra seats.)

Next morning, after a New York diner breakfast, I headed for
Penn Station and the train ride home.

June Readings–Virginia

[image error]

My book tour in support of The
Shaman of Turtle Valley is more of a hit-and-run than a tour, as I
continue to make appearances now and then when the opportunity arises. I’m very
pleased with the reaction I’m getting to the book and am keen to reach more
readers with it.

[image error]Vall and Cliff at Fountain Bookstore, Richmond VA

I visited Richmond mid-month for a joint appearance at Fountain Bookstore with novelist and poet Valerie Nieman. This was fun for a few reasons. First, I went down early in the day and spent some time at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, where I’m an out-of-town member. I try to get to the museum a couple of times a year, whenever I’m in Richmond. I was especially keen to see the Awaken exhibit of Tibetan art, which was wonderful. Second, Richmond is a literary city, with an active community of writers, and I was hopeful that some of my writer friends would come out to learn about the book. And third, Val Nieman is an old friend—we both got our MFA from Queens University of Charlotte and have published books with Press 53.

We began by reading short passages from our latest books (Val’s new book, To the Bones, is from West Virginia University Press) and explaining what they’re about. Then, because the event was billed as a conversation, we asked each other questions: about the supernatural elements we’ve used, about the cross-genre nature of the books, about the importance of setting the books in the mountains, and, in my case, the juxtaposing of settings in Korea and Virginia. And then we opened the discussion to questions from the audience. The time went by fast because it was so much fun.

Kelly Justice, owner of Fountain Bookstore, is very
supportive of small press authors, which I appreciate. Some bookstores are
reluctant to host events with authors from small presses, but Kelly said in her
opening remarks that much good work is coming from the small presses, and those
presses and authors are very supportive of independent bookstores, so she wants
to return the favor. That’s the kind of attitude I really love in a bookstore,
so thank you to Kelly. She has signed copies of The Shaman of Turtle Valley in stock, so swing by the store to get
one, or order one online from her.

[image error]Handley Library, Winchester VA

Then, after a fun trip to New York—I’ll describe that in a separate post—I headed up to Winchester, Virginia, for an event at the historic Handley Library. What a beautiful building that is! The event was hosted and organized by 1455 Literary Arts (formerly known as Virginia Center for Literary Arts), which is slowly building a presence in Winchester, with plans for a festival, residencies, and a host of other activities. For our event, 1455’s founder and Executive Director, Sean Murphy, interviewed me in front of the audience (after I did a short reading), and asked me about the book, my varied career, and current projects. After a Q&A session with the audience, I signed books—sales were handled by Winchester’s Book Gallery, which has the book in stock for those who weren’t able to attend the event. (By the way, the 1455 Summer Literary Festival is coming soon—July 18-20—and has a great lineup of speakers.) I look forward to doing more with 1455 in the future.

TSOTV on the Road

Because The Shaman of Turtle Valley launched just before a busy summer travel season, I shouldn’t have been surprised to see pictures of the book following readers on their vacations. (Got a picture of you with the book, either at home or on the road? Let me know!)

[image error]Signing books at the launch party[image error]Cass takes the book to Ireland[image error]Phyllis thinks it’s a great beach read[image error]Donnette reads the book in Bordeaux[image error]June reads the book on a work break[image error]After reading, Maggie leaves the book in her guest room[image error]