Erin Morgenstern's Blog, page 38

flax-golden tales: clandestine coffee

clandestine coffee

Suburban witches meet in secret. Or as secret as suburbia allows, with its nosy neighbors and their curious, narrow-eyed stares. Jokes are made about broom closets, but it is easier this way.

No Sabbat circles on soccer fields. They turn the wheel of the year in living rooms and basements, under the guise of book clubs or knitting groups. (Though they do have a proper book club that meets on alternate Tuesdays, and several of them knit.)

In October, post-trick-or-treating, when sugar-sated children are tucked in bed, they wander through the veil-thin night in ironically worn pointy hats. Using disguises to be themselves.

Though circles and spells are kept at home, concealed behind closed plastic window blinds.

Punctuated by spice cake and candy, gossip and mugs of coffee.

 

About flax-golden tales. Photo by Carey Farrell. Text by Erin Morgenstern.

 

 

mississippi

True confession: I sing the spelling of Mississippi to myself every time I type it.

I had never been to Mississippi before and I was fortunate enough to have wonderful weather for my visit, I wish I could conduct all of my phone interviews from porch swings.

Had a splendid, open windowed reading at Square Books, which featured the book tour's first bookstore kitty:

And then I had a long winding road trip from Oxford to Jackson, with a stop in Greenwood to sign stock at the lovely Turnrow Book Co. Then in Jackson I signed quite a few books at Lemuria Books before my fantastically circusy event. I tweeted the view from the podium and this is from the back of the room:

I tried to convince them to just leave the ceiling like that. And my blurry phone camera photos will not do all their exquisite circus signage justice:

Had a fantastic time and huge thanks to everyone who came out for events and worked so hard to put them together!

In Milwaukee now, clinging to my room service coffee before I get rolling on a day full of interviews and things.

paper circus

Am running around getting organized before heading to the airport later this afternoon, and look what just arrived, extremely well packed:

Original art from The Night Circus cover by Helen Musselwhite, gift to me from the lovelies at Doubleday. Love, all around.

tour catch-up post that is mostly odd photos

Hi Internet! I have been away and off and about and becoming far too intimately acquainted with airports.

I have had good intentions of blogging along the way but then my connectivity gets cranky and sleep seems so much more practical than blogging and then a week goes by, not sure how that happens.

A housekeeping note: am in the process of trying to overhaul the site a bit, giving news & reviews their own blogfeed rather than putting them all on this one. Still working on the best way to accomplish that.

I have been all over the place and I am not sure I can do a proper recounting of my adventures, so I will rely on the bits I managed to capture on my phone camera, which as you may know, takes better photos retro-cam style than it does normally.

One of my favorite bits from Odyssey Books in South Hadley, MA, their very own Wishing Tree:

And this has nothing to do with anything (well, directly) but I couldn't not capture this bit of found Shakespeare in Salem:

Llamas in Baltimore, from the very quick trip I took to the Baltimore Book Festival. (The Peabody Library is astoundingly beautiful, by the way.) I am not sure if they are drama llamas, but they probably are. I suspect most llamas have drama.

This week I spent several days in Toronto on the first of my international stops, got to break in my brand new passport. Everyone at Random House Canada was wonderful and I ate so much good food that I forgive them for putting me on tv. A lot. They had a lovely cocktail reception with cotton candy and tarot reading and magic, I signed books in bookstores and tried to wrap my head around being the kind of person who gets talked to on tv shows and failed, it was all very strange. I get to go back next month for the International Festival of Authors so I am very much looking forward to the return visit, I've been promised I will have more time for city exploring.

Geese in Toronto:

View from my hotel room in Toronto:

Home now for just over a day before the busiest leg of the tour begins. Next time I'll be back in Boston it'll be for a matter of hours before leaving for London. So far have spent my day off doing laundry and shopping for new dresses to add to the tour wardrobe rotation.

Also, in between Baltimore and Toronto I briefly stopped in NYC to hug all my Doubleday lovelies, and they gave me the stunning original paper art from the cover! It has been shipped to me, proper photos once I actually have it but it is truly lovely and it was such a sweet & thoughtful present. I am a very lucky girl to have found myself such a wonderful publishing family. They're all cute, too, I'm just sayin'.

There were also beautiful cookies and cupcakes and I got edible roses that I can't bear to eat:

Also, I cannot quite believe that tomorrow is October already.

flax-golden tales: witness to the crime

witness to the crime

They took countless precautions, accounted for every possible variation. Everything was meticulously plotted down to the last detail and after that they even waited until the weather was absolutely perfect. Clear and bright, with no wind to carry screams and convenient rain forecasted for the evening to wash any remaining evidence away.

Everything went according to plan, so smoothly that there were jokes made about the ease of the thing, that perhaps they over-planned. There were no mistakes, no missteps. The crime was carried out so quickly that there was not a single scream left hanging in the air by the lack of wind.

Of course, they also thought there were no witnesses, but the pigeon saw everything. No one saw the pigeon, as the pigeon was not an accounted-for variation in the weeks and months of planning.

Pigeons have no loyalties, and they keep no secrets. Before the rain came every bird in the city knew what had happened, their own plans already formulating.

 

About flax-golden tales. Photo by Carey Farrell. Text by Erin Morgenstern.

temporarily back in massachusetts

Massachusetts has welcomed me back with hair-frizzing humidity & pouring rain. I think it might be mad at me.

But other than the weather it is a lovely (if short) respite from living out of my suitcase. I had a fabulous event at Odyssey Books near my old Western MA collegiate stomping grounds on Thursday night, and last night was the kickoff of the Salem Literary Festival which was splendid, and I left with a new friend:

He is delightful and huggable and his informative tag says he enjoys long walks on the beach, cozy nights by the fire, and lengthy discussion about Chaucer. I love him. He needs a name, but I'm still pondering something properly dashing. He was made by the lovely & talented Hilary Emerson Lay, who also has fantastic hair.

Back in Salem tonight and then off for a very brief stop in Baltimore tomorrow. I'm actually doing laundry right now and I am far too excited about that.

flax-golden tales: glitter never fades

glitter never fades

She was warned, so many times. Cautioned in soft-spoken admonishments and harsh annoyed cries.

It is dangerous to play with such permanent things. Temporary matters make better playthings, providing no long-term damage.

But she was always an impulsive child.

The easily popped soap bubbles held no appeal, nor did water-soluble paints or erasable markers.

Only glitter served her purposes. Shiny, shimmering glitter that sticks and holds and never, ever lets go.

Now she is older and wiser and more conservative in her glitter usage, when she dares use it at all.

It makes one cautious, having a past permanently dusted with sparkling regrets.

 

About flax-golden tales. Photo by Carey Farrell. Text by Erin Morgenstern.

Book(ed) Passage

Had a fabulous time in California while on tour. And had just as much fun with this Q&A in advance of my California dreamin'.

 

Zack Ruskin: Your novel's been described as a fairy tale of sorts, and on your website, you list fairy tales as a major source of creative inspiration. What defines a fairy tale for you?

Erin Morgenstern: Oh, people ask me that and I tell them I don't really have a good, specific answer. I think there's something in that "once-upon-a-time" quality, where it has a really strong sense of story, and seems sort of timeless. I think with my writing in particular, I like the quality of those really graphic, pre-Disney fairy tales, dark and bloody, grim stuff that's gotten a little polished over time – the old school fairy tale stuff.

Read more: http://blog.bookpassage.com/2011/09/interview-with-erin-morgenstern-author.html

 

The Diane Rehm Show

 

Near the end of my first week of book tour, I stopped by The Diane Rehm show. Diane was out, but I had the chance to speak to the equally lovely Steve Roberts.

Listen here: http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-09-22/erin-morgenstern-night-circus 

While in Seattle

While I was in Seattle, I stopped by The Signed Page for a video interview with Shawn Speakman.

Watch here: http://paranormal.suvudu.com/2011/09/event-video-the-night-circus-by-erin-morgenstern.html