{Ad for The Shadow Queen in the New York Times Review of Books!}
Publication swirl: ups, downs, ups! A book tour entails a heady combination of fatigue and exhilaration. The challenge is not to come down with a cold. (Grrrrr.) Plus snow (!) today in Toronto, which I hope doesn’t affect the turnout at the reading tonight at A Novel Spot in Etobicoke.
My task today is to prepare for the talk/reading—my first full-on one. I never take this type of thing lightly. I think I have it basically plotted out, but I’ve not timed or honed it. That’s going to take time.
Plus, I need to get my talk printed out. This is surprisingly difficult on the road. I’m tempted to get a travel printer—but this would add to my already overly-bloated luggage.
Some guest blog posts I’ve written on my Blog Hop Tour:
Getting around to it—on why I became a writer, for Meg Waite Clayton’s blog.
Interview with Margaret Donsbach on HistoricalNovels.info. (Margaret asks great questions.)
The Page 69 Test: I love page 69 of The Shadow Queen. I plan to use this scene in my talk tonight.
What I’m reading now: Are you a Penelope Fitzgerald fan? I am!
I was pleased with this review from The Free-Lance Star: Real life characters inhabit intriguing story, which concludes: “A remarkably different and very interesting historical read.”
There have been some excellent reviews on Amazon.com that please me very much.
Highlights from the tour so far:
• The woman in North Vancouver who named her daughter Josephine after reading the Trilogy. She had a beautiful book her daughter had made a drawing in, and she asked me to sign the page opposite. I wish I had taken a photo.
• Moderator Jen Sookfong Lee at the “Enlivening the Past” panel in North Vancouver asking me if I’d brought my clown nose. (No, of course not—but it does make me wonder if I could pull off a reading wearing it. Doubtful!)
• Dinner in North Vancouver with writers Mary Novik and Roberta Rich. Shop-talk pals!
• The best highlight from tour so far: seeing my daughter and her wonderful family in Toronto. The wee-ones are growing!
