Book Tour Whirl

Photo by Vinnie Iuppa

I have been so busy with traveling and book tour that I've neglected my blog. I'm going to use this post to catch up with readers on where and what I've been doing after the launch of Every Last Secret and what's in store for the future. Then I'm returning to the previous format of a post on literary mystery novelists early in the week and one on books of interest by writers of color later in the week. It will be a couple of months before I have the time to resume my series on juggling book promotion and writing, though. Look for more posts on that in late June-early July.


This is a photo of the beautiful cake my oldest son gave me for Every Last Secret's launch. Moist chocolate cake inside and a most delicious icing, or so I've been told. I was busy and never got to taste it. But others said they really enjoyed it.

Photo by Valerie Bonham Moon

Early the next morning after my book launch, Ben and I took off by train for Malice Domestic 2012, a national mystery conference that takes place annually in the DC area. While there, I participated in the New Authors Breakfast and then moderated a panel called "Have Gun Will Travel: Mysteries Set Out West." In the weeks before the conference, I've introduced my blog readers to the fine writers on this panel, but here's a photo of all of us as the panel was taking place. This panel was a big hit with the audience laughing along with us as we played out a humorous give-and-take over the merits of the West as a setting for a book.

  On Sunday, it was my turn to be a panelist and hand the reins over to moderator Judy Hogan for "Well Schooled in Murder: Academic Mysteries." This was another well-attended panel with lots of audience participation. Judy did a fine job of moderating, and we panelists had a lot of back-and-forth over various aspects of universities and high schools as a setting for mysteries.

Later that afternoon, Ben and I took the Metro back to Washington's Union Station and entrained for Kansas City. Train travel is such a civilized way to go from place to place, especially now that air travel has become so frustrating, that I found myself wondering how we ever allowed ourselves to be convinced to give it up.

Once returned to Kansas City, I did two radio interviews and prepared for a very busy weekend. Last weekend, I first gave a talk and signed books at the Sisters in Crime meeting at I Love A Mystery Bookstore in Mission, KS.

Photo by Clarence Simmons

 We had a SRO crowd and it was great fun. Lots of interesting questions and feedback from the group assembled. We sold lots of books, and that made the I Love A Mystery staff as happy as it made me. 

Here are photos of the lovely display the I Love A Mystery staff arranged for this event 

Photo by Clarence Simmons

and of the crowd as Gwen Ervin, president of Border Crimes/ Sisters in Crime, introduced me.

On Sunday, I did a three-hour book signing at Books A Million in Kansas City, KS, and then rushed across the metro area for the launch of a wonderful anthology of poetry by three Puerto Rican poets who are mother, daughter, and granddaughter, Woven Voices: 3 Puertorriqueñas Look at Their American Lives (Scapegoat Press). I edited this book, weaving the three poetic voices into a conversation with one another, and it's been a private passion of mine for some time now. It was such a joy to see Gloria Vando and Anika Paris reading their own poems and those of Anita Velez-Mitchell, 96-year-old mother and grandmother at The Writers Place in Kansas City, Missouri.


Now, I'm off to get ready for another reception and book signing this evening at the Ruiz Library in Kansas City, MO. See my earlier post about this great event. 


Until next week, have a great time!

AWP Recap--Part One

I got back from the AWP late Monday, but I came back sick and got sicker once home. So I haven’t managed to dig through all the email and mail and haven’t put up a blog post. Since I’ve received many photos from AWP, I thought I'd put up a little illustrated recap (which will take two days and blog posts). Then, on Monday, I will review Fred Arroyo’s new book of short fiction for the Books of Interest by Writers of Color series, getting back on track.

We got into Chicago late Wednesday afternoon and checked into the Hilton, picked up our registration for the conference, and began setting up the book tables. Ben had the two BkMk and New Letters tables to set up. My publisher and book table partner, Luis J. Rodriguez, and I set up the combined Tia Chucha Press/ Scapegoat Press table.

Here, my friend and publisher, Luis J. Rodriguez, and I sit down at the finished Tia Chucha Press/Scapegoat Press table. Once the AWP authorities chased us out of the book fair, we left for a nearby restaurant, Rhapsody, for the 25^th anniversary dinner of Tia Chucha Press authors. 

 

It was great to see old friends like Carlos Cumpian and LJR and to meet new ones such as Michael Warr, Patricia Smith, Patricia Spears Jones, Dwight Okita, and Luivette Resto. We had lots of fun and carried on until late. HIGHLIGHT: Patricia Spears Jones giving a “reading” of the rather pretentious dessert menu that had us in stitches. I have got to attend one of this woman’s poetry readings!

Here I am with Patricia Spears Jones, lovely NYC poet.

Next morning, the conference was on and the book fair opened. I was excited because we were displaying our newest Scapegoat Press book, Woven Voices: 3 Generations for Puertorriqueñas Look at their American Lives. I edited this anthology and am very proud of it. There’s really no book like this out there on the market.

The gorgeous cover got lots of attention from passersby, and a surprising number stopped and let me tell them about this unique book, which is a conversation in poetry among three members of a gifted Puerto Rican family—grandmother Anita Vélez-Mitchell, mother Gloria Vando, daughter Anika Paris. The book began to sell steadily, reviewers asked for copies, and I was a happy camper--even though I was missing all the conference panels.

I missed all the panels I wanted to go to because I was caught at the book table. I didn't make a panel until my own on the last day. 

There was a Celebration of Tia Chucha Press, my publisher.

Here’s Luivette (“I live in LA, but I’m from New York”) Resto after the Celebration of Tia Chucha Press.

 

My friend Francisco Alarçon was on a number of panels I would love to have attended but had to miss.

Still, thousands of people came through the book fair, and I had a chance to talk with many of them. Such a wild variety of people! What a feast of character for a novelist! Of course, it helps that I believe so strongly in all the books I was selling, both Scapegoat's and Tia Chucha's.

Thursday ended with Luis coming to take my place so I could hurry over to the Ragdale reception where I was a co-host. I'll post photos from that and the rest of the conference tomorrow.

Catching Up—Las Comadres, AWP, Woven Voices

Las Comadres is a 25-year-old national organization that brings Latinas together through email, teleconferences, and in person to engage in dialogues around culture and other aspects of life. They have a national series of teleconferences in which their members all around the nation discuss books they've read with their authors--Las Comadres Conversations With...   

And Every Last Secret has been selected for one of these conversations in May!

This is a real honor, and I’m very excited. This is a great organization that's doing such essential work in many ways, but especially promoting reading and literature this way. So I’m really looking forward to my teleconference with these bright, inquiring Latina minds!

Right now, I’m getting ready to head to the Associated Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) national conference for a crazy, hectic week. I’ll be co-hosting the Ragdale reception on Thursday evening at the Cliff Dwellers, and I hope to read at the Guild Complex/Tia Chucha Press reading afterward—if I’m not too physically worn out by then. Then, on Friday night, I will read with the Latino Writers Collective and  Proyecto Latina at Columbia College Chicago in one of the off-site readings. With our great Chicago friends, the damas of Proyecto Latina, we hope to put a distinctive Midwestern spin on this national celebration of the written word.

I will also be on a panel with fellow Latino Writers Collective members on Saturday from 3:00-4:15 pm that will discuss our experiences with offering writing workshops to the children of migrant farm workers. This has been such a fruitful and satisfying project for the Collective, and the feedback says that we’ve really made a change in these young people’s lives. We’ll talk about how we started and how other groups could do something similar in their areas.

I will be working at the Tia Chucha Press/Scapegoat Press table (B12, like the vitamin) in the bookfair much of the time I’m at the conference. I’ll have ARCs of Every Last Secret with its gorgeous cover top show off to any of my friends who visit me.

 I hope everyone will also check out the dynamite new book I edited—Woven Voices: 3 Generations of Puertorriqueñas Look at their American Lives. This book braids a conversation of poetry among three very different but truly related poets, Anita Velez-Mitchell, grandmother and mother, Gloria Vando, mother and daughter, and Anika Paris, daughter and granddaughter.  

Ruth Behar, author of An Island Called Home: Returning to Jewish Cuba says, “Woven Voices is like no other poetry book! Here is a gorgeous trio of poets, a grandmother, daughter, and granddaughter who share family ties, a common Puerto Rican history, and the twists and turns of a diasporic journey. Each speaking in her own unique voice, Anita, Gloria, and Anika write with honesty and tenderness about the big themes of home and mortality as well as about everyday lessons and losses. Read the poems together and separately and you'll find yourself singing along, entering a world of beauty and truth you didn't know existed.”

On Thursday here in the Literary Mystery Novelists series, you can read an interview with Rhys Bowen, author of two current mystery series plus an earlier one that have won many awards. An extra bonus if you’re jones-ing for a Downton Abbey fix—one series is set in that time period among Britain’s aristocracy.

Then, on Monday, we’ll return to the Books of Interest by Writers of Color series, and midweek I’ll try to post another installment of the series on Juggling the Two Jobs of Writing Novels and Promoting Books.