by Sandra Gulland | Jun 11, 2008 | Adventures of a Writing Life |
I was honored to be the first guest author at a Nicola’s Books luncheon in Ann Arbour, IL. It was such a lovely event that I predict that people will be clamouring to come. Nicola, in the blue dress at the front, is a vibrant book-passionate woman, which accounts for how wonderful her busy bookstore is, and how lovely the staff.
I had wonderful chats with the readers after. One, Anna, told me that it was her grandmother’s crypt that’s mentioned in the last story in Alice Munroe‘s The View from Castle Rock. Another, Helen, related the story of her father, who was born in a sod house in Rosetown, Sasketchewan.
by Sandra Gulland | Jun 11, 2008 | Adventures of a Writing Life |
A charming mother and daughter pair came to my reading in West Chester, PA., so I found it sweet to meet yet another mother and daughter at my reading at wonderful Schuler Books & Music on 2660 28th Street SE in Grand Rapids, MI.
Here is Joy and her daughter Laura. They both read and wept over Josephine B. “I warned her!” Laura told me.
by Sandra Gulland | Jun 11, 2008 | Adventures of a Writing Life |
I have a Quakerish perception of Philadelphia, so I was astonished to find skyscrapers there—beautiful ones.
by Sandra Gulland | Jun 9, 2008 | Adventures of a Writing Life |
I had the day off yesterday in Philadelphia, the leisure to regroup: shop for small essentials, attend to laundry, nails & toes. I even checked out the spa in the hotel (very nice). Chipped away at a mountain of email. Had a wonderful tuna and mushroom risotto lunch at the Continental, a hip retro restaurant not far from my hotel. The risotto was almost as good as my husband’s.
Richard calls every morning. He’s at the cabin on the lake, and I can almost feel it—the trees in the breeze, the summer sounds of children playing. I’m longing to be there! I’ll have four days back home at the end of this week.
This week: West Chester, Grand Rapids, Ann Arbor, Chicago. Seven events, three new hotels, three airplane flights and a number of very long drives. And temperatures in the 90’s! This week will be a test.
by Sandra Gulland | Jun 8, 2008 | Adventures of a Writing Life |
In the middle of the night last night I was awoken by a very loud voice repeating over and over to GET OUT OF THE HOTEL IMMEDIATELY. Fire alarm! I’m on the top floor, but fortunately there are only eight. Sleep-numb, I stagger to the closet and pull on some clothes and grope for shoes. I think to grab my room key (but not my purse, my passport) as I go out the door, joining all the others looking for the stairs, and then following the stream of people going down and down and down. I wish I had my camera then to click the spiral of stairs, all the hands on the rails. Or my video to capture the erie sound of all the feet on cement, but no voices, everyone in earnest, just getting out. I sniff the air: no smoke.
Outside, we stand around, groggy with sleep and zinging with adrenalin. David Sedaris, also on book tour, is staying at this same hotel. I wonder if he is in this crowd, thinking funny thoughts. Fire trucks arrive but nothing happens. False alarm. Everyone staggers back to their rooms. I make a note for the future: to have my essentials right by the door.
