Read my latest newsletter!
November 25: I just got word from my United Kingdom editor that "Hannah's Dream" will be released in the UK on February 4. The publisher, Piatkus Fiction (a division of Little, Brown) will partner with Howletts & Port Lympne Animal Parks/The Aspinall Foundation, a safari park that houses the largest number of elephants in Britain, to promote the book. How cool is that?
Oh--and I bought my plane ticket to Boston so I can meet the incredible staff at the Borders Express in Hanover, MA. Can't wait to meet everyone! I think a signing is in the offing on Saturday, January 23. I'll give details as we get closer to the time. Happy Almost-Thanksgiving!
November 6: I'm honored to be a guest blogger for Author Online! It gave me the perfect opportunity to sing the praises of book groups.
November 1: I'm finally coming out of my bronchial haze, though my ribs will hurt for weeks to come. I'm attending a book group meeting that's focusing on "Hannah" today at 12:30 here in Bend--looking forward to it!
This bit of information is just in from the Borders Express in Hanover, MA: these remarkable women have hand-sold--wait for it--FIVE HUNDRED COPIES of "Hannah's Dream" in the year-and-two-months since it was released. You guys ROCK. I'm disappointed that I don't have a date to come visit you--my latest hope is to tie it in with the release of my next book, "Seeing Stars," next March or April. (The book comes out March 23, and I'm already trembling.)
October 23: Still dragging bronchitis along with me, I just returned from a four-day trip to Redmond and Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington. On Monday I met with members of the Jefferson County Community Read organizers to finalize plans to meet with students and adults to talk about "Hannah's Dream" and writing in the spring (I'll post event dates when I know them).
Then it was on to meet with a book group at the incomparable Paulina Springs Books in Redmond (thank you, as ever, Brad and Cynthia, for being such gradious hosts and literary advocates), where I met with a lively group of current and retired teachers and school administrators who came in spite of an onslaught of H1N1 in their classrooms.
On Tuesday night I met with my last Multnomah County library reading group (through a terrific program called "Pageturners"), this one in the Hollywood District of Portland. I'm so sorry to see these meetings end--it was an excellent experience, and I met some amazing people. As ever, I'm a book group junkie.
In Seattle on Wednesday I was privileged to serve on a panel with fellow authors Garth Stein ("The Art of Racing in the Rain"), Jamie Ford ("Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet"), Stephanie Kallos ("Sing Them Home") and Jim Lynch ("Border Songs") at the incomparable Third Place Books. The event was organized by the National Womens Book Association in honor of National Reading Group Week, and was moderated by the uber-librarian and literary goddess Nancy Pearl, who has read every book ever published in any language, and has written about them in "Book Lust," "More Book Lust," and "Book Crush." The event was attended by some 250 people and talk--and a good deal of laughter--focused on writing, book groups as reading venues, and why on earth we writers do what we do. An excellent time was had by all, and I can hardly wait for next year.
A quick visit with my daughter Kerry, who is a freshman at Evergreen State College in Olympia, and then I limped home, crawled into bed and slept for 13 hours straight. Now to get my lungs sorted out!
October 7: I just learned that Hannah's Dream has been selected as the community read for Jefferson County, the county adjacent to ours here in Central Oregon! Could I be more proud? Nope! I'll be doing three days of events in either March or April of next year, at about the same time that Seeing Stars, my next novel, is released. Sounds like 2010 could be a busy year!
September 21: Okay, this beats all--I now have a fan site (see box above)! God no, I didn't set it up myself. A wonderful woman named Catherine Hedges read Hannah, became a fan, and offered to put up the site. In her words, "Your book has so very many great messages in it, I'd love to see as many people read it as possible :)" I am humbled and honored. Catherine has a long and extraordinary history as an animal rescuer. Learn more
April 12: Hey, Los Angeles--I'll be coming to see you soon! I'll be on tour in the LA area from
May 14 - May 18. We're still adding events to the calendar, so check back again if you'd like to come see me. I'll be visiting a number of bookstores in the Willamette Valley in a couple of weeks, too.
Oh, and here's some amazing news. As of December 30, more than 52,000 copies of Hannah have been bought. How cool is that?
Good lord! March 18: Could I possibly be more tardy in updating this page? Not likely. Since I last updated my news a lot's happened:
- I've been featured several times on AuthorMagazine.org by wonderful Bill Kenower, who is an excellent interviewer, as only a fellow writer can be;
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Hannah's Dream will be published in Holland, the UK, Germany, Serbia and Croatia
- I've been appearing in independent bookstores throughout Oregon and Washington
- I've been a guest on a half-hour segment of Vicki St. Clair's arts program on public radio program (listen to it);
- I signed a new contract with Harper Perennial for my next novel, called Booking Hollywood, which is about child actors;
- I've participated in nearly two dozen reading group meetings and discussions, which I love to do;
- I've continued to keep in touch with the amazing booksellers at Borders Express in Hanover, MA, who have hand-sold nearly 300 copies of Hannah's Dream;
- And I'm now being represented by a wonderful publicist who's going to keep me on the road and in independent bookstores throughout the Pacific Northwest and hopefully in Southern California, as well.
December 23: The Bend Bulletin featured an interview with me today.
December 12: The Newport News-Times featured Hannah's Dream in an interview.
December 10: Still on the PNBA bestseller list!
December 3: I'm now #8 on the Pacific Northwest Independent Booksellers Association (PNIBA's) trade paperback bestseller list for the week ended Nov. 30!
November 26: Here's something I'm very proud of: I've made the Pacific Northwest Indie Bookseller's bestseller list for last week, coming in at #14 paperback fiction.
November 24: Well, I'll be damned. A terrific woman named Joey has built a Hannah's Dream fan site on MySpace! She and three of her colleagues at a Borders Express in Hanover, Massachusetts, have made it their personal mission to promote Hannah's Dream until it becomes a bestseller. I think they might pull it off, too! Why not join, while you're there?
November 7: I just received the dual good news that HarperCollins has ordered a third printing of Hannah's Dream, bringing the total number of copies to more than 108,000, and Thondike Press will bring out a large-print edition of Hannah!
October 13: Did you know that thanks to the efforts of the Women's National book Association, October is National Reading Group Month? Now you do. I am honored to be on a panel about book clubs and all-things-bookish, to be held at the University of Washington's
University Book Store at 7 p.m., on Oct. 20. I must confess to feeling a little like actress Ellen Page (Juno) at the Oscars: my fellow panelists are impressive, to say the least: Nancy Pearl (Book Lust, More Book Lust and Book Crush, Sasquatch Books), Nancy Horan (Loving Frank, Ballantine), Stesha Brandon (University Book Store), Mary Ann Gwinn (The Seattle Times, Book Editor), Cheryl McKeon (Third Place Books), and Rebecca Willow (Parkplace Books). If you're in the nearest time zone, why not come?
October 9: Amazing! I just showed up on two bestseller lists for paperbacks: I'm #6 in the Fort Wayne, Indiana Borders, and #9 at an independent bookstore in Chagrin Falls, OH!
And I'm floating between #65 and #85 on Amazon's bestseller list for literary fiction. (They seem to count anything under #101 as a bestseller, at least in its category.)
October 8: Listen to my interview on Internet radio program The Creative Mind with Eric Spencer
October 2: Listen to my interview on "The Diane Rehm Show"
September 30: Watch a segment about HANNAH on KATU-TV (Portland, Oregon)
September 5: I've been invited to be a guest on NPR's "The Diane Rehm Show" in very early October! (I'll post the exact date once I know it.) Better yet, the show's guest host will be Frank Sesno, an old college friend who's currently director of The George Washington University's Public Affairs Project and CNN special correspondent. We'll have an entire hour to ourselves, including call-in opportunities.
