Luanne Rice's Blog, page 10
October 15, 2014
JFK Library/Boston Globe Panel on Immigration’s Humanitarian Challenges
BESTSELLING AUTHOR LUANNE RICE FEATURED IN GLOBE TALKS
ON IMMIGRATION’S HUMANITARIAN CHALLENGES
Luanne Rice, Paul Bridges, Jennifer Hochschild and Marcela García
Joined The Boston Globe & The Kennedy Library
to Offer Insight on the Human Face of Immigration Reform on October 7
(Oct.15, 2014) – New York Times bestselling author Luanne Rice participated in an all-star panel at Globe Talks: Immigration’s Humanitarian Challenges at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston on October 7. Rice shared her thoughts on the humanitarian challenges that undocumented immigrants face, based on her own professional and personal experiences. Video of the panel is available here on the JFK Library website.
Rice shares her passion for humanitarian challenges facing undocumented immigrants in her most recent novel, THE LEMON ORCHARD. Her experiences with the thousands crossing the desert near her home in Southern California, her volunteer work with immigrants and research for her latest novel, give her deep insight to a cause and issue currently being debated in our nation’s capital.
Rice was incredibly honored to share the stage with pre-eminent immigration experts Paul Bridges, former mayor of Uvalda, Georgia and winner of the 2014 John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award; Harvard Professor of Government Jennifer Hochschild; and writer and Boston Globe contributor Marcela García, who moderated the event.
While volunteering with the group Water Station in the Anzo Borrega desert, Rice saw firsthand the dangerousness of the treks through the perilously hot and barren desert. She discussed her character Roberto from THE LEMON ORCHARD, who was based on a real man she knew and who experienced that treacherous trek and the challenges of assimilating as an undocumented worker. Rice also shed light on what she learned about the extortion and sexual assaults by “coyotes”—human smugglers who bring immigrants over the border—and the post-traumatic stress disorder that often follows. She also talked about her own Irish descent, and looked at the similarities in immigration history that transcend culture, location and time.
Luanne Rice is the New York Times bestselling author of 31 novels that have been translated into 24 languages. In her latest book, THE LEMON ORCHARD, she crafts the story of an undocumented immigrant who lost his daughter in the desert when crossing the border in search of a better life, a scenario that is both heart-wrenching and all too real.
Globe Talks: Immigration’s Humanitarian Challenges took place on October 7, 2014 at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston and was co-sponsored by the The Boston Globe and the JFK Library.
About Luanne Rice :
LUANNE RICE is the New York Times bestselling author of 31 novels that have been translated into 24 languages. The author of The Lemon Orchard, Little Night, The Silver Boat and Beach Girls, Rice’s books often center on love, family, nature and the sea. Rice is an avid naturalist and bird-watcher and is involved with domestic violence organizations such as the Georgetown University Law Center’s Domestic Violence Clinic. Born in New Britain, Connecticut, Rice divides her time between New York City, shoreline Connecticut and Southern California. Visit Luanne Rice online at www.luannerice.com
THE LEMON ORCHARD ? Luanne Rice ? Penguin Books
On-Sale: May 27, 2014 ? $16.00 ? 978-0-14-312556-3 ? Also available as an e-book
October 14, 2014
Startled by the Blue
This marsh is part of Hubbard’s Point. Egrets roost in the trees, osprey build their nests on poles, fish and eels travel up creeks to spawn, and the banks are rich with blue crabs. At this time of year migratory birds pass through, and the brush is full of warblers.
One morning, walking along the banks at low tide, I found the most iridescent blue crab claw I have ever seen. I stopped and took a picture. I’m still startled by the blue.
October 13, 2014
Along the Way
This summer I spent many weeks on the road, on a book tour for The Lemon Orchard. I experienced many wonders along the way, but none more lovely and generous than the moment when I entered Elliott Bay Book Company in Seattle and was handed Sharon Salzberg‘s latest book, Real Happiness at Work, with the explanation that Sharon, on her own book tour, had seen that I would be there the following night, and had left me a signed copy.
It was such an act of kindness, and so welcome. I have long read Sharon’s work, and have attended some of her workshops on meditation and metta. Leaving me her book was a way of connecting, a way of putting lovingkindness for a fellow writer and traveler into serious on-the-road practice.
At the same stop, Denise came down from British Columbia to see me and brought a pound of Tim Horton’s coffee–we do love our coffee–and I was touched by her thoughtfulness.
At Warwick’s in San Diego, my friend and reader Rachel Hartwig not only traveled all the way from Las Vegas, but she brought an Aphrodite cheesecake from the Market Grill Cafe–along with plates and forks for everyone who attended the event. 
If that’s not love, I don’t know what is.
I have more stories, too. Countless tales, from every stop along the tour, of friends and readers who touched me deeply.
As you know, it’s not about things–even wonderful things like books and coffee–it’s about thoughts and heart. All through the tour, readers graced me with their presence. On summer nights when they could have been out in the fresh air, with their friends and families, by the water or in the back yard, they chose to come to bookstores and libraries to see me, and I am very grateful.
In Mercy of the Fallen Dar Williams sings about her compatriots on the road, their wisdom and big hearts. If we are lucky, we will meet and look after each other along the way.
October 12, 2014
Cats in Connecticut
This summer the cats and I spent several weeks at Point O’Woods. Maisie was born in Old Lyme, so for her it was a homecoming. Emelina and Tim, the kittens, had never been, so it was their first time there all together.
Being NYC cats, they’re used to the confines of a Chelsea apartment. Going to the country was summer vacation for them.
They enjoyed the view and sea breeze.
They found plenty of time for togetherness.
The kittens, especially Emelina, discovered their love of heights. 
And Maisie returned to one of her favorite spots, a place she used to sit with the old girls, Maggie and Mae-Mae, on the back of the loveseat next to the fireplace, proving that–indeed–you can go home again.
October 11, 2014
A chance to meet with writing students…
Speaking to students is one of my favorite things to do. There is something about meeting young writers, full of hope and ideas, and letting them know I believe in them, I know they can do it if they really want to. That seems to me to be the most important factor: desire. The desire to write, to express what’s inside, to complete a work of fiction or non-fiction, to want it so badly you won’t give up on yourself or the work.
When I was a child, my mother was getting her master’s degree in education, and she practiced on my sisters and me. She would have writing workshops each summer morning, and we’d sit at the oak table in our cottage at Hubbard’s Point. She’d tell us to write a story about crabbing at the end of the beach, or swimming out to the raft, or to compose a paragraph about the clouds in the sky, or something beautiful or ugly or enchanting or disturbing we’d seen that week. In that way, she helped us realize the dailiness of writing, the way our ordinary lives could add up to an essay or a story.
Years later I began holding writing workshops–one day each summer, never planned in advance, just when the spirit moved me–and I’d invite children from Hubbard’s Point to come to my house for a few hours of writing. Frequently the cats would join in, sitting on my desk (including Tim and Emelina, shown here in their favorite basket), and providing inspiration.
It is important to be steady and write every day–you must actually write and not just read about writing, dream about writing, or look online for other people writing about writing. You have to do it. And you have to train yourself to be good at it.
Thursday I had the privilege of speaking to Joe Monninger‘s English class at Plymouth State University. I met his students, told them what it’s been like for me, talked about research, heard their questions about ways of writing, possibilities of publishing. Outside, the trees were turning red and gold, maybe the foliage was at its peak, and the sky over the White Mountains of New Hampshire was brilliant blue.
October 9, 2014
Joe Monninger
We have known each other since 1980, or maybe 1981, we always seem to lose track, but we know it’s a long time. I first met Joe Monninger when we were living in Providence, Rhode Island. We’d get together with our spouses for long cozy dinners at their apartment on Transit Street or ours on Fox Point, and we’d talk about books we’d read, books we were writing, fly-fishing, places we wanted to travel, sharks, dogs, our families. I’d tell Mim stories–about my grandmother who’d grown up in Providence and who’d done tons of things that made for good tales.
Years later they lived in Vienna and we lived in Paris, and we visited them, and once met for Thanksgiving roughly halfway in Strasbourg, where we nearly drove off a mountain in a blizzard while visiting Haut-Koenigsbourg. Time went on, marriages ended, Mim died, Joe moved to New Hampshire, where he’s an English professor at Plymouth State University, I stayed in New York, and we both kept writing. Between us, we’ve written a shelf of novels, including one together, The Letters.
He’s a touchstone, that’s for sure. We love nature and tell each other what birds we’ve seen that week–he has cedar waxwings in the crabapple tree, I had a red-tail hawk in the park on Tenth Avenue. A shark story doesn’t occur on the planet without one of us alerting the other about it. He loves his dog Laika, I love my cats Maisie, Emelina, and Tim. We still talk about writing, and recommend books– Carson McCullers, Cormac McCarthy, John D. MacDonald, Robert B. Parker are a few, and we both love non-fiction about nature, adventure, exploration, and he’ll often slide a poem my way, and I’ll do the same to him. He’s one of my first readers, and I’ve been honored to be his. So many of his novels are favorites of mine, and I was so touched when he dedicated The World as We Know It to me.
Visiting him this week has been a great treat. What a New Hampshire idyll–a hike around Lake Tarleton, listening to owls in his back yard, watching the blood moon rise over the White Mountains, hanging out at Plymouth State, and spending time with his lovely dog Laika and kitty Foxy. I feel lucky to have such a great friend, and to have stayed close all this time.
*the photo behind Joe on his office filing cabinet is of Cheyenne–a TV character we both loved as kids, and it’s autographed by Clint Walker, the actor who played him, my Christmas gift to Joe a few years back.
** Joe is also a certified New Hampshire Guide, should you ever want someone to take you hiking or show you the secret fishing spots.
October 3, 2014
Globe Talks: Immigration’s Humanitarian Challenges
On Oct. 7 I will be joining a panel at the JFK Library in Boston to discuss undocumented immigrants & the humanitarian challenges they face. This came about because of The Lemon Orchard, but it started even before, with the undocumented families that inspired my novel. You can RSVP here: http://bit.ly/1sV5KWY
BESTSELLING AUTHOR LUANNE RICE JOINS GLOBE TALKS
ON IMMIGRATION’S HUMANITARIAN CHALLENGES
Luanne Rice, Paul Bridges, Jennifer Hochschild and Marcela García
Join The Boston Globe & The Kennedy Library
to Offer Insight on the Human Face of Immigration Reform on October 7
(Oct. 3, 2014) – New York Times bestselling author Luanne Rice will join an all-star panel at Globe Talks: Immigration’s Humanitarian Challenges at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston on October 7. Rice will share her thoughts on the humanitarian challenges that undocumented immigrants face, based on her own professional and personal experiences.
Rice shares her passion for humanitarian challenges facing undocumented immigrants in her most recent novel, THE LEMON ORCHARD. Her experiences with the thousands crossing the desert near her home in Southern California, her volunteer work with immigrants and research for her latest novel, give her deep insight to a cause and issue currently being debated in our nation’s capital.
Rice is incredibly honored to share the stage with pre-eminent immigration experts Paul Bridges, former mayor of Uvalda, Georgia and winner of the 2014 John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award; Harvard Professor of Government Jennifer Hochschild; and writer and Boston Globe contributor Marcela García, who will moderate the event.
While volunteering with the group Water Station in the Anzo Borrega desert, Rice saw firsthand the dangerousness of the treks through the perilously hot and barren desert. She will discuss her character Roberto from THE LEMON ORCHARD, who was based on a real man she knew and who experienced that treacherous trek and the challenges of assimilating as an undocumented worker. Rice will also shed light on what she learned about the extortion and sexual assaults by “coyotes”—human smugglers who bring immigrants over the border—and the post-traumatic stress disorder that often follows. She will talk about her own Irish decent, and look at the similarities in immigration history that transcend culture, location and time.
Luanne Rice is the New York Times bestselling author of 31 novels that have been translated into 24 languages. In her latest book, THE LEMON ORCHARD, she crafts the story of an undocumented immigrant who lost his daughter in the desert when crossing the border in search of a better life, a scenario that is both heart-wrenching and all too real.
Globe Talks: Immigration’s Humanitarian Challenges, will take place on October 7, 2014 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston. Immediately following the event, Luanne Rice will be available for book signings.
The forum is co-sponsored by the The Boston Globe and the JFK Library, and is free and open to the public. To register, visit the event’s website.
About Luanne Rice :
LUANNE RICE is the New York Times bestselling author of 31 novels that have been translated into 24 languages. The author of The Lemon Orchard, Little Night, The Silver Boat and Beach Girls, Rice’s books often center on love, family, nature and the sea. Rice is an avid naturalist and bird-watcher and is involved with domestic violence organizations such as the Georgetown University Law Center’s Domestic Violence Clinic. Born in New Britain, Connecticut, Rice divides her time between New York City, shoreline Connecticut and Southern California. Visit Luanne Rice online at www.luannerice.com
THE LEMON ORCHARD Luanne Rice Penguin Books
On-Sale: May 27, 2014 $16.00 978-0-14-312556-3 Also available as an e-book
July 8, 2014
Warwick’s
What a great night on The Lemon Orchard book tour! I am very thankful to Warwick’s Books in San Diego CA for welcoming me back again. This wonderful independent bookstore is a haven for readers and writers.
The evening started at dinner at La Valencia where I got together with dear friends (from left) Andrea Boyles, Mike McIntyre, and Phyllis Boyles. They live here in San Diego, and I was really overjoyed to hang out with them and walk over to Warwick’s together. Mike is a writer, and I’m a huge fan. 
I was thrilled and honored to see my friends from Water Station. They save lives by placing water in the desert, where migrants cross the border. I volunteered with them, and my life was forever changed. The work they do is very like that of Louella, in the novel. Armando, on whom the character Roberto was based, once told me that while crossing the border he dreamed he died of thirst. Then he dreamed of an angel who brought him water. That very well could have been the people who work with Water Station. From left: me, Paula Poole, John Hunter, Laura Hunter, and Brett Stalbaum.
Rachel Hartwig is an incredible reader, and I am so lucky to know her. She and her husband Mike drove all the way from Nevada to see me tonight. Not only did they travel a long distance, they brought cheesecake for everyone at the bookstore! What generosity. Here are Rachel and I with what was left of the delicious Aphrodite cheesecake from the Market Grill Cafe.
And here are Rachel and Mike: 
I loved meeting Deborah and Amy and their daughters Adilee and Madelyn. As Deborah wrote in a note to me, “Amy and I have been best friends since we were sixteen, living in Vacaville, CA. Over the years we have shared our love of books–mailing them to each other and sharing our favorite books and authors. Three years ago we were able to become neighbors after twenty-four years of friendship. Now our girls trade books too.” From left, Amy Josse, Deborah Walters, me, Adilee Walters, and Madelyn Josse.
Julia Jones (left) and Suzy Cox were college roommates at the University of Texas. They were wonderful to talk to; they wanted to hear the details of how I was inspired to write the love story between Julia and Roberto, and as sometimes happens at book signings, there was an incredible magic in line when I confided in them, and they in me, and we had a best friends moment.
Evelyn Goodwin and Phyllis Hansen, shown separately in these two photos, drove together from a town east of San Diego. They were so kind and supportive, and we had a chance to talk for a few minutes before the even began. 
I was thrilled to see my friend and fellow author Machel Shull tonight. It’s her anniversary week and I know she made a very special effort to come see me. Machel has interviewed me for her column in The Coast News, and I gave her a quote for her book. She is a wonderful, kind, dear person; it was really great to reunite at Warwick’s with her and Rachel–because this is where they first met, as my readers, now friends on Facebook and in life. And congratulations to Machel on finishing her second book–I’m sure it will be as insightful and soulful as her first. 
Mitch Little came! He was a great friend of my sisters and me when we were all young in Connecticut. We knew him from Essex and Fenwick, where his family had a house, so it was really amazing to see him and his wife Stephenie a continent away in San Diego. I spotted him in the crowd and would have known him anywhere. 
Group shot of old friends and new friends–the incredible people from Water Station and the UT roommates. From left, Brett Stalbaum, Paula Poole, me, Laura Hunter, John Hunter, Julia Jones, and Suzy Cox.
Here is Julie Slavinsky, Warwick’s director of events. She gave me this Warwick’s special label bottle of wine, but even more, she gives writers and readers a chance to gather, to exchange ideas, to support each other. She has such warmth and kindness–qualities that mean so much to writers on book tour. I am incredibly grateful to Julie and everyone at this great independent bookstore.
At the end of the event, we took an Ellen Selfie. I thank everyone who showed up–on a gorgeous summer night, in the resort town of La Jolla, when they could have been doing anything else–looking at the moon, walking on the beach, dancing the night away–but instead came to the bookstore to hang out with me. I had a great time, and it was because of you.
June 19, 2014
2014 Connecticut Governor’s Arts Award
On Saturday June 14 I was very honored to receive the 2014 Connecticut Governor’s Art Award for lifetime achievement in literature. The ceremony was held at the Yale University Art Gallery. My fellow honorees were Christopher Plummer and Tim Prentice, and Governor Dannel Malloy presented us with the award. My family was there, along with close friends, and we had a wonderful day. Mom and Dad, , I wish you could know about this!
June 10, 2014
#TheLemonOrchard Suggested Social Media
To promote to other book clubs:
Our book club is reading #TheLemonOrchard by @luannerice. Join us & share your thoughts! bit.ly/lemonCover
Are other book clubs out there reading #TheLemonOrchard by @luannerice? What do you think so far? bit.ly/lemonCover
Our book club’s favorite character in #TheLemonOrchard is XXX. What about you? @luannerice
Use #TheLemonOrchard Book Club Kit and you won’t be hosting your average book club bit.ly/lemonkit @luannerice
A conversation with author @luannerice, some discussion questions, and of course, cocktail recipes #TheLemonOrchard bit.ly/lemonkit
To promote to members of a book club currently reading The Lemon Orchard:
Stay hydrated this summer! Cocktail recipes inspired by Malibu’s Santa Monica Mountains bit.ly/lemonkit #TheLemonOrchard
What goes great with #TheLemonOrchard – a cocktail, of course bit.ly/lemonkit via @luannerice bit.ly/lemonCover
Was there a real-life John Riley? Read a conversation with @luannerice bit.ly/lemonkit #TheLemonOrchard
Did @luannerice spend much time along the Mexico-US border while researching #TheLemonOrchard? bit.ly/lemonkit
What actor(s) from Hollywood’s Golden Era did @luannerice base Lion Cushing on? bit.ly/lemonkit #TheLemonOrchard
Discussion questions, Twitter-ized:
Is staying in a marriage for the sake of children ever a good idea? #TheLemonOrchard bit.ly/lemonCover
How do Lion’s feelings for Graciela change the way you feel about him? #TheLemonOrchard
Is there an object you cherish because it belonged to a lost loved one? #TheLemonOrchard
How might Roberto & Julia’s story have turned out if Jack hadn’t become involved? #TheLemonOrchard
#TheLemonOrchard ends on an ambiguous note. Do you think Roberto & Julia’s story ends there, too? bit.ly/lemonCover
America is a land of immigrants. Did Roberto’s experience resonate with your family’s journey to America? #TheLemonOrchard
Do you think that most would-be immigrants have a clear picture of what life in the US is really like? #TheLemonOrchard
