Matt Ruff's Blog, page 40
March 1, 2012
In the home stretch
Fun fact: The men's room stalls at KUOW have posters telling you exactly what to do to survive in the event of an earthquake. I don't know if it was that or just the generally laid-back National Public Radio atmosphere, but I was relaxed and comfortable during my Tuesday afternoon conversation with Ross Reynolds, and I think it was my best live interview about The Mirage so far. You can listen to it here.
Tuesday evening Lisa and I went back to our old neighborhood indie, Queen Anne Books. Despite some bad weather we had a nice turnout for the reading, and Tegan Tegani gave me a wonderful intro. I also signed a ton of stock, so if you're near Queen Anne Hill and looking for a signed first edition of The Mirage, give the bookstore a call. (N.B. Queen Anne Books itself is still for sale. Limited quantity! Act now!)
My next event will be a reading on Saturday at the Tumwater Timberland Regional Library in Tumwater, Washington, starting at 2 PM. Then on Monday I fly to San Francisco for a final series of readings and signings in the Bay Area—the full schedule is here.
February 28, 2012
Reading at Queen Anne Books tonight at 6 PM
Just a reminder, I'll be reading from The Mirage and signing books tonight at Queen Anne Books on Queen Anne Hill, starting at 6PM. This will be my final Seattle-area appearance on my current book tour, so if you live in the city and have been meaning to catch my act, don't miss this last chance!
Also, as noted previously, Queen Anne Books is looking for a new owner, so if you come by tonight you can check out the property, meet the staff, and get a personally inscribed Matt Ruff novel. Bonus!
The Mirage week three recap
The big news of the week is that HarperCollins is ordering a second printing of The Mirage. Thanks to all the early buyers who helped make this happen! If you still want a first edition, you should track one down soon. (You could try one of the bookstores where I've recently appeared and signed stock, or come to tonight's reading at Queen Anne Books.)
Other highlights of the week:
Reviews
Details magazine blog — "Books we Like"
Paul Di Filippo for BarnesandNobleReview.com — "A book that will captivate upon an initial surface reading and trouble your certainties long after."
Essays and Interviews
Interview with Haroon Moghul for Religion Dispatches
Scorekeeping
#11 on the Pacific Northwest Independent bestseller list for February 12, 2012
February 27, 2012
Northern fever
Thursday night I felt the beginnings of a head cold coming on, which is just what you want when you're about to spend three days traveling and talking to people. Then on Friday, having arrived at the Bellingham Amtrak station, I decided to push my luck by boyishly sticking to my plan to walk to the hotel, even though it was clearly farther than I'd thought. The rain caught me about halfway there.
Not the best start, but after a nap and a dinner of pork dumplings, miso soup, and pseudoephedrine, I was feeling better. The audience for my reading at Village Books was very welcoming, and if I rambled a bit more than usual, they didn't seem to mind. Among the attendees was my friend Alma Alexander and her husband Deck (unless they were a fever-induced hallucination, in which case the waitress at the cafe we went to afterwards must still be talking about that weird guy).
The Chrysalis Inn where I was staying is right on the water, which is to say, it's right by the railroad tracks, so my dreams that night were punctuated by locomotive whistles. But by morning my fever had broken and that "head cold" was looking more like one of those 24-hour bugs that just comes and goes.
I caught the morning train up to Canada, breezed through customs, and spent the afternoon wandering around, reminding myself how much I love Vancouver (it's got a lot of the same elements that I love about Seattle, but configured in a way that feels very different). At 5:30 I got on the subway to go to the reading, and as I came back up above ground the clouds above the North Shore parted to reveal a giant snow-covered mountain range looming over the city. Unfortunately I didn't have the camera with me, but trust me when I say, Well played, Vancouver, well played.
The reading at Pulpfiction Books was great. A very enthusiastic crowd, and afterwards store owner Chris Brayshaw took me, the staff, and a few lucky audience members out for a feast at a nearby Vietnamese restaurant. Chris's sweetheart Lisa was also there, and it turns out that (a) just like me, Chris likes to cook strange things and (b) his Lisa, just like my Lisa, prefers not to be in the house for culinary experiments involving organ meats. So between that, anecdotes about their Maine Coon cat, and Lisa's war stories about her job as a defense attorney, we had quite the entertaining dinner conversation.
Coming home on the bus yesterday I had one more adventure. About twenty miles out from Seattle there was a bang that everybody assumed was a tire blowing and the bus heeled over to the right. The bus driver pulled off the highway, checked it out, and announced that the tires were fine, it was actually part of the bus's suspension system that had given way. "It's OK," he said, "we'll just toodle on into the station." Then he got on the radio with his dispatcher and had a conversation, which we could all hear, about whether it was safe to toodle into the station with a damaged suspension, or whether, ha ha, we might still blow a tire and end up rolling over. The upshot was that it was probably safe, and in any event the bus driver was now indemnified because he'd reported the problem, so we continued on, and after some tense maneuvering on the hill into downtown made it to the station without incident. I stepped right from the bus into a waiting cab, and before I knew it I was home.
So that was my weekend. Today I'm resting up. Tomorrow afternoon I'll be on the local NPR station, KUOW 94.9, from 12:40 to 1:00 PM. Tomorrow night I'll be giving my last Seattle-area reading at Queen Anne Books starting at 6 PM. If you haven't got your signed copy of The Mirage yet, come on down.
February 25, 2012
Reading tonight at Pulpfiction
I'm safe across the border in British Columbia, and tonight I'll be reading from The Mirage and answering questions at Pulpfiction Books in Vancouver, starting at 7 PM.
Tomorrow I head back home, and on Tuesday at 6 PM I'll be reading at Queen Anne Books on Queen Anne Hill. (For a full list of upcoming events, click here.)
February 24, 2012
Northbound
This weekend The Mirage book tour heads north. Tonight I'll be reading and signing at Village Books in Bellingham, WA starting at 7 PM.
Tomorrow night will be my only tour stop in Canada, a reading at Pulpfiction Books in Vancouver, BC. The reading starts at 7 PM, and then afterwards I believe we are going out for stir-fried bullfrog with mangosteens and other exotic local delicacies. Full report with pics when I get back.
February 22, 2012
Queen Anne Books is looking for a buyer
Patti McCall, the owner of Queen Anne Books, one of my favorite Seattle independent bookstores, has just announced that she is planning to sell the store:
Almost 14 years ago, Cindy Mitchell and I met with Randy and Alice to discuss the possibility of buying Queen Anne Books, sealing the deal July 31, 1998. It has been an amazing ride: Borders Books and Barnes & Noble were the 'big, bad, box stores'; Amazon was a new and far-reaching idea just beginning to take off; Tower Books was our nearest competitor; and there was no such thing as an e-book. After a couple hundred book club meetings, four amazing Harry Potter parties, countless author events and 14 Holiday Magics, I have decided it is time to turn over Queen Anne Books to a new owner — someone who will bring fresh energy and ideas to a business undergoing a radical and exciting transformation.
During the five years Lisa and I lived on Queen Anne Hill, Queen Anne Books was our local indie, and in addition to just being a wonderful bookstore, they were incredibly supportive of my career, handselling literally hundreds of copies of Set This House in Order and Bad Monkeys. Unfortunately, even with their help, I haven't quite reached the level of success where I can afford to buy the store myself, but hopefully somewhere out there is a well-heeled investor—Bill? Paul? Nathan?—looking for a new opportunity. It's a great business in a great neighborhood.
February 21, 2012
The Mirage week two recap
This week's highlight reel:
Reviews
The Oregonian — "It's bracing to read a novel that generates a fresh look at Our Troubled Times without the exhausted polemics and manipulative sentiments. In fact, The Mirage is a 9/11 novel we've been waiting for, audacious, funny and bold."
The Kitsap Sun — "The Mirage is a shimmering tour de force — an entertainment, a contemplation, and an indictment, all rolled into one."
BookPage — "It's no easy task to recreate the universe in its own, if slightly distorted, image, yet Ruff has succeeded handily, dizzying and dazzling the reader with a fantastic—and fantastical—story."
The Brown Tweed Society — "Characters worth caring about, real tension and suspense, and a wildly unexpected resolution…"
The Authors Speak — "Rarely do I call a book 'transcendent', but this one may be just that."
Essays and Interviews
Profile/interview for the Seattle Weekly's Spring Arts issue
Interview for Portland indie bookstore Murder by the Book
Guest blog post for the Seattle Mystery Bookshop
Other mentions
Foxmeadow Creative blog — "Judging books by their covers"
Scorekeeping
#9 on the Pacific Northwest Independent bestseller list for February 12, 2012
#3 on the Elliott Bay Book Company bestseller list for February 19,2012
Week one highlights here.
February 20, 2012
On Bainbridge Island
Nice reading at Eagle Harbor Book Co. yesterday. Lisa and I caught an early ferry and had lunch at Cafe Nola with our friend Ed Smith, then did some browsing before the event started. I wasn't quite ready to buy it, but I noted, with interest, Judith Schalansky's Atlas of Remote Islands, which has the awesome subtitle "Fifty Islands I Have Never Set Foot on, and Never Will." (N.B., Bainbridge is not on the list.)
I have the next few days off. On Friday I head north to Bellingham, WA, where I'll be reading at Village Books at 7 PM. Saturday I'll be at Pulpfiction Books in Vancouver, BC at 7 PM. (For a full schedule of upcoming events, click here.)
February 18, 2012
Last night at Third Place
Lisa and I had an epic journey out to Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park yesterday. Fortunately we'd decided to leave a little early, so when the taxi dispatcher told us there were no cabs available, we had time to race downtown and catch the 522 commuter bus. Moments after we boarded, the skies opened up in a torrential downpour that lasted until just before we reached the bookstore (the bus driver was hugging the curb the whole way, so I think we drowned several pedestrians en route).
Despite the weather we had a nice turnout for the reading. The audience included a fellow Cornellian who had a first edition of Fool on the Hill that I'd signed for him back in 1988. Twenty-four years later, I signed it again, and now that we've established the tradition I look forward to seeing him or his heirs at book signings in 2036, 2060, and 2084 (I think we'll have cake for that one).
In the more immediate future, I'll be reading at Eagle Harbor Book Co. on Bainbridge Island tomorrow afternoon at 3 PM. (For a full schedule of upcoming events, click here.)
