A WINNING BID AND A BOOK CLUB IS BORN
A few weeks ago, I put a call out to my author and blogger friends asking them to write a guest post about a favorite book club moment. This following post arrived from Kathy Roberts, a devoted and talented book blogger from South Carolina. You can find Kathy on Twitter @bermudaonion and at her fab site, Bermuda Onion Weblog.
I must issue a disclaimer here! Kathy and I are friends. We met through books. And she is very generous in her words about me. My husband could give you a much more balanced perspective! But I love the way her book club came to be and wanted to share that with you.
When Nashville was devastated by catastrophic flooding last year, authors and other bookish people banded together to auction off items to benefit those affected by the tragedy. When I learned about the auction, I decided to check it out. I was excited when I saw Susan Gregg Gilmore was auctioning off a book club set of her upcoming book, THE IMPROPER LIFE OF BEZELLIA GROVE, plus an author visit or phone chat, and I decided to make a bid. After all, I had met Susan the year before and loved her, and her first book, LOOKING FOR SALVATION AT THE DAIRY QUEEN.
The Book Club's Inaugural Meeting in Kathy's beautiful home. (Kathy is wearing the sweater with the flowers on it!)
I was lucky enough to win the auction, and I found myself faced with a problem. I had a set of books, an author willing to visit, but no book club. I sent out an email to several of my friends and most of them agreed to a one time book club meeting at my house. I contacted Susan, set up a date, and then worried for weeks. What if my friends didn’t show up? What if no one read the book?
I worried in vain! Everyone read, and loved, the book and we had a fabulous book club. Susan was a delight and charmed every single person there. We talked about the book for two hours and then visited for another two and a half and it was like we had all known Susan forever!
We had so much fun, we decided to continue with our book club. We’ve met every month since, and have had an author call in via Skype, but I don’t think we’ll ever be able to top our meeting with Susan!
A BOOK CLUB TONITE!
Some have called me a road warrior. OK, my husband calls me that. But I think it’s a title I’ve rightfully earned. Since Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen came out in February 2008, I have traveled more than 30,000 miles to meet new readers and talk books. From Florida to Maine, from North Carolina to California, I have put in the miles to meet welcoming readers.
I’ve visited homes, bookstores, churches, schools, nursing homes and more. And it’s very fitting that I’m writing this post today as I prepare to get back into the car and drive from my house in Chattanooga to Dickson, TN, to visit with some of my book-loving friends.
Our meeting tonight will be at Reading Rock Books at 6:30 pm. The first book club I ever visited was in Dickson and hopefully many of my friends from that meeting will be there tonight.
READING ROCK BOOKS in DICKSON, TN
That was really a special time for me. This book club extended such hospitality and such warmth. Special foods, special drink, a special scrapbook made just for me. It was all so wonderful and touching, and I remain friends with Renee the powerhouse behind this club. In fact, she and I are meeting tonight an hour before the bookstore event just to do a little catching up.
All book clubs are different. Some read only the classics. Some only Southern Lit. Some talk little about the books and more about their lives. Some talk only about the books. Some travel to hear authors. Some serve elaborate meals. Some only cracker and cheese.
But they’re all wonderful and this is what I love about traveling. I have friends all over the country now. I don’t mean passing friends. I mean good friends. Friends who have invited me into their homes time and time again. Friends who share their life’s special moments with me.
Book clubs really are about much more than books. They truly are about lasting friendships.
So as I prepare to celebrate the paperback release of The Improper Life of Bezellia Grove (August 2), I’m making another call to book clubs. Let’s Talk! It’s the beginning of a great friendship.
AMY GREENE SHARES A TOUCHING BOOK CLUB MOMENT
When I was asked about my most memorable book club experience, one sprang immediately to mind. But since brevity isn’t my strong suit, I’ll start at the very beginning.
Not long before my first novel Bloodroot was released in the winter of 2010, my editor at Alfred A. Knopf introduced me to my publicist and said, “This is where you go from being a writer to being an “Author.” I soon discovered exactly what she meant. There’s more to having a writing career than the writing itself. There comes a time when the business of publishing enters the equation. Some aspects of the publishing world have been easier to adjust to than others. I found myself speaking for the first time to audiences of hundreds, being interviewed live on both radio and television, traveling for weeks at a time. As jarring as the transition was from being a writer, spending most of my time at home in Tennessee hunched over a notebook with pen in hand, to being an“Author,” expected to emerge from my cave once in a while and promote my book, I grew used to and even came to enjoy the events I was once intimidated by.
But there was one unexpected pleasure of “Authoring” that I embraced right away, no adjustment period necessary. From the start, I loved talking with book clubs. I was first approached by local groups, often with colorful names like The Book Divas and Wine, Women and Wisdom. Soon after, requests began to come through my publicist for conference calls with groups all over the country. In contrast to the nerve-wracking live interviews and the speaking engagements before large audiences, sharing an informal discussion of Bloodroot over the phone or over a meal in a reader’s home felt like taking my shoes off after a long walk. At first I accepted every invitation I received. I couldn’t resist, even though I should have been working on my second novel. I was fed so well in those first months after Bloodroot was released that I must have gained at least five pounds.
When I began editing my second novel under a deadline, though, I had to take a break from visiting book clubs and from other events whenever possible. It was time to return to my cave and put my nose to the grindstone. For a couple of months last winter, I rarely left the house, working up to twelve hours a day. There were still events on my calendar and I must admit that I dragged myself to some of them, reluctant to abandon my edit (which was turning out to be more like a rewrite) with a deadline looming.
Then one day I came up for air and checked my schedule to realize I had a book club meeting on the horizon, an invitation I had accepted back in the fall. I’d been looking particularly forward to this one, hosted by a woman named Edie from my hometown. When we met at a local fall festival we clicked right away. She was warm and funny and smart, and we had a lot in common. She told me about her blog, Life in Grace–“an eclectic mix of posts on cooking, homeschooling, faith, decorating and crafting”–and when I checked it out, I discovered that she’s a great writer as well as a delightful person. As much as I needed a break from the editing process, and a meal with Edie and her book group would provide one, I wasn’t in a good emotional place.
The writing wasn’t going particularly well at that moment, and when the writing isn’t going well, I’m not happy. I wasn’t sure how it would feel to visit a book club and talk about my work in such a tired and frustrated state of mind.
Amy with her friend Edie
Reminded of Edie and the upcoming meeting, I went to her blog for the first time in weeks. I was shocked to find there an outpouring of love and sympathy from her hundreds of followers and friends. Over the holidays, Edie’s lovely home on the lake had burned to the ground. I couldn’t stop thinking about the countless photos she had posted of the gorgeous art she’d made and of her remodeled kitchen, all the work she had put into making her home comfortable and beautiful. My writing woes seemed small in comparison to Edie’s loss. I was heartbroken for her, and sent my own note of sympathy. I doubted she would be ready to host a book club within weeks of the fire but, to my surprise, I received an e-mail from Edie saying that her neighbor had offered her home to use for the meeting and she’d like to keep our date. I was so touched, so impressed by her strength. On the way to the meeting, I passed the burned shell of Edie’s house. There was little left standing. I later learned Edie had passed by those ruins herself that morning for the first time since the night of the fire. I didn’t know what to expect, what her mood might be given what she’d been through.
When she greeted me at the door with shining eyes and a smile on her face, a weight lifted off my shoulders. I forgot about the work I had left behind on my desk, forgot my worries and fears that I would never finish my second novel. For the two hours that I spent with Edie and her friends, a group of women every bit as kind, brilliant, warm and funny as she is, I didn’t have a care in the world. We delved into some deep topics of conversation, but there was lots of laughter, too. I left there feeling like I’d been to church. The next day Edie wrote to say that our meeting had been a healing experience for her, and I feel the same way. Looking back on that unforgettable day, I can see how, more than a writer or an Author, I’m a human being. As much as I need time to write, I need fellowship. In the year and a half since Bloodroot was published, book clubs have provided a sweet source of that. So, to all those who have called to chat about Bloodroot or invited me into your homes, I hope you’ll accept my sincerest thanks in return.
BIBLIOSUE TALKS BOOK CLUB!
I met @bibliosue on Twitter. And then I meet Suzanne Weiner in person at the Books On The Nightstand retreat in Vermont this past April. She’s a great reader, blogger and friend and now she shares her thoughts about belonging to a book club!
One of my favorite things about belonging to a book club is that I am exposed to books that I would not likely select on my own. Sometimes I am disappointed with a particular choice – that happens with books I’ve chosen for myself, too – but more often than not I have been thrilled to discover something wonderful.
A recent selection at my book club at the Read Between the Lynes bookstore in Woodstock, Illinois comes to mind. The book was The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa, a novel about an aging math professor with only 80 minutes of short-term memory, his housekeeper and her son. I admit to not being too excited about reading it – on the surface it did not appear to have a story that would interest me – but because I strongly believe book group discussions are as good if not better when there are people involved who did not like the book, I read it with an open mind.
And I could not have been more wrong! The Housekeeper became one my favorite novels read in 2010. The writing is so simple and so beautiful, the story is the same; and I even found myself with a pencil and paper at hand attempting to solve some of the math problems described in the narrative (Oh to have had this book around when I was in school to make math more interesting!)
When it came time for the discussion, the novel was declared a unanimous hit; which even in our relatively small group is not common. Despite that, the conversation was lively and did not lack for topics to discuss – math (really – it was fascinating!), caring for seniors (comparing the Japanese culture with the West), the power of memory, the definition of family, just to name a few.
At the end of the discussion, a general question came up as to who selected this book for the group (we usually select the books as a group in the fall for the following year). Surprisingly, not one person admitted to recommending the book or remembered who did. It still remains a mystery, but we were all glad to have had this book present itself to us.
Be sure and visit Suzanne on her blog!
PAPER GIRLS WEAR PINK
I’ve asked some of my favorite authors and bloggers to write about their favorite book club moments. During the course of the next four months, I’ll be sharing these with you. (Hope you had a chance to read Kelly O’Connor McNees‘ posting from last Friday!)
Of course, it’s really not fair to ask of others something I’m not willing to do myself. Then again, I could talk on and on about my favorite book club moments. After traveling 30,000 miles visiting with readers, you bet there’s not just one!
But something special happened last week and I wanted to share this with you first.
I met Melissa Hagen Klug at the Books on the Nightstand Retreat in Vermont last April, an amazing weekend in and of itself and much more about that later. It deserves an entire post of its own.
Melissa loves Southern lit. OK, I liked her from the start. And she’s the Director of Marketing for Glatfelter a company that makes the paper for the books we read. What a perfect girl!
Last week I was traveling and did not notice this Facebook post right away. Needless to say, I was so touched when I saw that she and her wonderful co-workers (many of whom came to Vermont!) had participated in the AVON Walk for Breast Cancer in San Francisco. Their team was aptly called the Paper Girls Wear Pink, and they had named my daughters as one of the reasons they walked. I cried.
Melissa and the Paper Girls walk for my girls
My oldest daughter, Claudia, inherited a mutated BRCA 1 gene and underwent a prophylactic mastectomy with reconstruction in January. Claudia looks and feels great, and I am one very proud mama! Claudia has been a role model for many women of all ages, particularly her younger sisters. (for more about Claudia’s journey, check out her blog.)
Josephine, Alice and Claudia
We don’t know yet if my younger two daughters carry the same mutation. If they do, they will have their sister to look to for strength. And they will know that they are supported and loved by people like Melissa and her Paper Girl friends.
Melissa and all the Paper Girls Wear Pink and many others like them are the true blessings in our lives since we lost my husband’s mother to ovarian cancer and first learned of this genetic mutation. And it is through words, through books, that Melissa and I found one another and a very special friendship began.
Paper Girls Wear Pink
I am convinced more than ever that books do have the power to heal.
And please visit the Paper Girls Wear Pink web page if you’d like to learn more about their walk and the opportunity to give!
CELEBRATING BOOK CLUBS GUEST POST #1 with KELLY O’CONNOR McNEES
A few weeks ago, I asked a favorite novelist to share one of her best book club moments. Perhaps it was unfair of me to ask someone to chose just ONE. But here is the delightful response from dear friend and most talented writer, Kelly O’Connor McNees, author of THE LOST SUMMER OF LOUISA MAY ALCOTT.
The Glenview Book Club
This seemingly simple question—What is your all-time favorite book club experience?—is actually pretty difficult for me to answer. Over the last year or so, I’ve visited with dozens and dozens of readers in person and via Skype. Each time I’ve been thrilled with the generosity of these women and their insightful questions and discussions about Louisa May Alcott’s life and work. Of all the outreach we authors do to connect with readers—blogging, posting on Facebook and Twitter, writing guest posts for book blogs, reading and signing in bookstores and libraries and at book festivals—visiting with book clubs is my favorite. How can I choose just one “best”?
Celebrating the paperback release of The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott with Kelly in Chattanooga!
The most inspiring, dynamic club I’ve met recently has to be the ladies of a book club in Glenview, Illinois. Fate brought us together—and by fate, I mean I invited myself to their meeting. I can be surprisingly rude that way. A few members attended a reading I did at a bookstore in a nearby town, and as I signed their books, one of them mentioned their club was planning to read The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott for their next meeting. “Can I come too?” I asked, disregarding everything my mother taught me about manners. Fortunately for me and my pride, they were up for it.
Here is what I learned when I arrived: This club has been meeting for 30 years! Some of the original members have moved away, and new readers have joined, but the book club has been going steady for three decades. Can you imagine how many life events, happy and sad, this group has experienced over the years? Babies and weddings and funerals . . . I told them that they themselves, the story of their club, would make an awfully good novel.
Oh, how we gabbed! About Louisa and Little Women, about her “deadbeat” father Bronson, as one member put it, about how things have changed for women in the last 150 years—and how they haven’t. They told me about some of the books they’ve read over the years, the books they loved and hated, and the books they can’t remember. The hours flew by. Great quantities of wine and cake disappeared.
Kelly enjoying an evening with the Glenview Book Club
When I finally said my reluctant goodbyes and headed out to my car, I checked my phone. There were two messages from my husband. The first was from about nine p.m. He sounded cheerful: “Well, you must be on your way home now. See you soon!” The second came in around ten. “Hi, sweetie. I’m just getting a little bit worried. You’ve been gone a really long time. You can’t possibly still be at that book club meeting—can you?”
I quickly called him back to explain that, indeed, it was very possible! I have a feeling the husbands of these ladies have been leaving voicemails like this for years. What a great night!
Visit Kelly’s blog for updates about the novel and to read interviews with writers.
31 DAYS OF BOOK CLUBS AND BEZELLIA GROVE . . . a great big Giveaway and Celebration of National Reading Group Month
Bezellia Grove is growing up and coming out in paper on TUESDAY, AUGUST 2!
To celebrate, I’ve planned a special, and I do mean, SPECIAL, celebration and giveaway. Here’s the skinny:
All Book Clubs who choose THE IMPROPER LIFE OF BEZELLIA GROVE as one of their reads during the month of October will receive the following:
Free Skype, i-Chat or Phone Call with me.
Maizelle’s Pound Cake Recipe
Personalized Book Plates
Your Club Featured on My Blog and Author Facebook Page
Now for the GRAND PRIZE. Drum roll here . . .
The Book Club that meets during the month of October and hosts the MOST AUTHENTIC Southern Luncheon or Dinner with a 1950s or 1960s theme will receive the following:
Maizelle’s Pound Cake made by the author for the club’s November or December meeting
A Name of the group’s choosing (approved by the author) included in my third novel
A Skype, i-Chat, or Phone Call with Random House Sales Rep and Books on the Nightstand co-host Ann Kingman
Ann will highlight the best books of 2011 for book club reads and give you a peek into what’s coming in 2012
The Improper Life of Bezellia Grove necklaces that feature the new paperback cover (limit 12)
Advanced Reader Copies (limit 12) of my next book. Be the first to talk about it!
In addition to the above. I, along with a gang of my very favorite author and blogger friends, will be writing special posts all about and for book clubs on my blog from now until the end of October. During October, National Reading Group Month, you’ll find a little something everyday. Hence the name of the celebration, 31 Days of Bezellia Grove. You never know who will turn up so stay tuned!
Finally, you can schedule your club’s chat with me. Take a quick look at the calendar and pick an available date and then email it to me at susangilmore@mac.com. And don’t forget to support your local indie!
HOW WOULD I WRITE AN ENDING FOR JAPAN?
The images of destruction caused by last week’s 9.0 earthquake and tsunami in Japan keep streaming on the web and across my television screen. I’ve decided that it might just be impossible this time to find the words that would adequately describe this nation’s suffering.
But as a novelist, a simple thought keeps coming to mind: If this were fiction, how would I write the ending? Could I write an ending that would include resolution and hope for the Japanese people. Could I write a return to normalcy and how long would that take to rebuild homes, schools, and entire communities?
I do know that my story would include the students from the University of Calgary who held a bake sale to raise money for the relief effort and the Florida preschooler who is selling her own art, also to raise money. (To date, more than $300 have been collected.)
My story would include grand acts of humanity – governments and non-profits sending money, food, medical supplies and rescue teams. My story would include the smallest gestures – a warm hug for an elderly resident displaced from her home. Yes, in my story, not a day would pass without extraordinary efforts being made.
My story would include hundreds of millions of people around the world choosing to TEXT “REDCROSS” to 90999 for an immediate $10.00 donation to the relief effort that would appear on your next phone bill or going to AmeriCares.org, an organization that is already there on the ground in Japan, and making a donation.
My story would end with no one forgetting as the days go by and the images of destruction stream less often before us that the suffering in Japan, as in Haiti, will continue for a long time.
BUT THEN I KILL IT . . .
“The way I write, I have a novel in my head for a long time that I think about, and in those months it is so beautiful, so incredibly profound . . . The novel in my imagination travels with me like a small lavender moth making loopy circles around my head. . . . As soon as I start to put it on the page I kill it.” ~ Ann Patchett
A friend sent me this quote from Ann Patchett several weeks ago, and I have read it every day since. It perfectly describes the challenge, and possibly burden, I have been feeling lately when I sit down at my desk to work. Simply put, I have fallen in love with the characters walking through the pages of THE FUNERAL DRESS, and I desperately want to share their stories as honestly as I can. Anything less and I will feel as though I have failed them.
At times, I am bound by my words, so incapable of translating the images in my head onto paper. Then there are moments when it seems as though the words literally drip from my pencil onto the page. (Yes, I do use a pencil.)
Lorena Lane and Nolan King, among others in Cullen, Tennessee, have morphed from a figment of my imagination to nothing less than human – every day trusting me with a little more of their own stories. And every morning when I sit down at my desk to write, I wonder if I am up to the task, if I can take them where they need to go.
SEWING LESSONS AND EMBALMING ROOMS
People often ask me about specific characters in a book or the writing process, but seldom do people ask me about the research involved in developing a story. And this may very well be one of the aspects of the process that I love the most. For The Funeral Dress (the book I’m currently writing), I have already taken sewing lessons, interviewed several Sequatchie County residents, talked to local social workers and visited an area funeral home.
OK, I admit that when I walked into the embalming room, I felt anxious, very anxious. The smell, the tools, the stainless steel tables all contributed to a certain amount of sensory overload. But to tell the truth, the hardest thing I’ve done to date were the sewing lessons.
I’ve hemmed a skirt or two and sewn on a few buttons here or there in the past, but to make a dress, one that I could actually wear, well, that was an accomplishment. And the process was surprisingly emotional as I began to translate what I was learning to what my characters do. Two of the women in The Funeral Dress work at a shirt factory (based one that really did exist in Dunlap, TN).
The seamstresses in my book are all women, and all are assigned one specific task – sewing a collar, hemming a dress, etc. These women do the same task, day after day, year after year. In fact, a woman who makes collars is simply called a collar maker. A woman who hems a dress is called a bottom hemmer. All of this is rooted in truth, in the true stories of the women who tirelessly worked at the Dunlap Shirt Factory.
The remains of the Dunlap Shirt Factory
It’s so often in the research that my characters become people, so real that there are moments in the day when I forget they are not. I feel their pain and their joy, and it’s that part of the writing process that feels the most vulnerable and the most intimate for me. It is that perfect moment when I loose myself in the story.
