Van Jones, author of the Green Collar Economy, with Kyle Design artist Kyle McKeown Mansfield

Writer's Money Clip - A "Think Positive" Reminder for Aspiring Authors

I once again attended the Book Group Expo in San Jose, CA in October 2008 and absolutely loved it! What a wonderful experience for any book lovers, book collectors, writers, authors, readers or book group members. It gives you excellent ideas for book group reading lists and discussion questions. And they have books for sale and book signings with the authors afterward – all in one place!

There are so many great ideas flying around, so many like-minded people, so many fascinating authors. These writers are really smart, well-informed, opinionated, insightful and very funny – I think that’s why they are so successful.

The Book Group Expo is structured as such: Discussions of a particular theme or topic, referred to as “salons“, are set up with a moderator and three or four writers in a living room type of setting in small conference rooms. The feeling is quite intimate and open, much like our own reading group meetings, which comfortably encourages many questions from the audience and a free exchange of thoughts and ideas. Just like a book group, just on a slightly larger scale without being intimidating, as I assume is the organization’s intention. Well done!!

Book Group Hip Flask - A little something to facilitate the easy flow of ideas

As an artist myself, it is oddly enlightening to be on the other side of the attention. I love these artists’ works, so it is interesting to gain a deeper understanding or at least just some insights into what the authors had in mind and how they approach the creative process. I just want to drink in everything these creative individuals have to say – learn from it, incorporate ideas into my own approach to work, enjoy their pieces more.

I always appreciate customers who take the time to let me know they love my work, and would have to assume the same of other artists whose work requires solitude. (Although book tours and signings might be too much at once – I am lucky because I get encouraging gems from customers nearly every day – quite often just the little boost I need when running a small business feels overwhelming.) So I ran to get in line after the each salon was finished to get my book signed and better yet, have a brief chance to talk with the author.

Of course, being part of a book group myself, it is a wonderful opportunity to get ideas for new books to suggest at our next meeting. Some of the authors and books that really impressed follow.

Solar Homes Business Card Case - Solar Energy and Green Building Techniques are among the many solutions we can implement today to fight global warming.

Van Jones, Author of The Green Collar Economy: It is so reassuring that brilliant people are putting their minds to work on resolving the looming issue of global warming. I’ve been to other lectures that left me so discouraged, but Jones lays out ways of dealing with the issue now and what needs to be worked on. I left the lecture hopeful, and expressed that to him later. Hope is VERY important. We can’t get discouraged or dwell on the negative, especially when there really are solutions NOW. And don’t be fooled by those serious photos of him online or on his book jacket – granted, he writes on a serious topic – but he has a great smile and is quite friendly and approachable.

Engraved Bookmarks - If you enjoy reading, then you'll love using a beautiful bookmark which can be personalized with designs, colors and engraving.

Terry McMillan, Author of The Interruption of Everything: You can’t help but be drawn to her. She is funny, real, insightful (and lives here in the San Francisco Bay Area!) On the creative process, she has experimented with typing with her eyes closed so that it removes a layer of analyzing between her brain and her writing, just to allow it to flow without editing it. I loved Waiting to Exhale and How Stella Got Her Groove Back, so I can’t wait to read her latest one.

The salon was “Woman, Be Wise: Strong Writing, Strong Women“. Authors included Toni Mirosevich, Kathi Goldmark, Susanne Pari as well as McMillan. We laughed the whole way through the salon session with her and the other authors. (Talk about a “feel good” experience! I pitched her book at my group and it was selected for our February reading selection.

Kate Jacobs, Author of The Friday Night Knitting Club: I’m currently reading her book for my January reading group selection. There is something special about having listened to an author discuss her characters before reading the book – it somehow makes the characters seem more familiar or real. On whether she works with a set outline when writing a book , Kate described her process as something like being in a car on a road trip with all of her characters and having a general direction in which they are headed, but not knowing ahead of time what twists and turns or detours they might take. Her latest book is Knit Two.

Three Dog Hard Glasses Case - Protect your reading glasses with these crush-proof eyeglass cases

Other authors that were very funny and entertaining were Garth Stein – The Art of Racing in the Rain (a story written from a dog’s perspective that sounds great), Andre Dubus III – House of Sand and Fog and The Garden of the Last Days (for which he had to do research at strip joints (!)), and Mildred Armstrong Kalish – Little Heathens (about growing up on an Iowa farm during the Great Depression), Annie Barrows – The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I could go on and on!

Join Book Group Expo’s mailing list so you’ll know when the next one is. (Previous one was in June 2007, so if varies every year.) If you go, bring a friend and enjoy the day!

Please visit my website Kyle Design for more unique Book Group Gift Items, Business Card Holders, Hard Eyeglass Cases, Dog Lover Gifts, Unique Bookmarks, Engraved Money Clips, Gift Ideas for Authors and Writers. We create affordable gift items in hundreds of cool designs and a range of gorgeous colors, plus offer engraving services, too.

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I met Michelle Gagnon at the Book Group Expo…somehow we got to talking about Tana French and how awesomely good her books are, and I was like, how could I not like her books since I like her as a person so much? HA! That’s silly reasoning, eh? Lucky for me I was RIGHT!

In fact, as a sidenote, I met so many cool authors at the Book Group Expo, authors who I  thought I’d totally be friends with if only they knew how truly geeky I really am…Diana Spechler, Michelle Gagnon, Garth Stein, Carol Fitzgerald (not an author but totally cool!), Lauren John (again, not an author but really cool!), Andre Dubus III (lots of people thought he came across as arrogant, I thought he came across as well read. I would LOVE to take a class from him (he’s currently on the adjunct faculty at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, where he teaches general writing, fiction, and directed study courses)), Rabih Alameddine…and those are only the authors I had a chance to talk to! (This paragraph was the inspiration for this post.)

ANYWAY, back to the book. This story features Kelly Jones, who works for the FBI in the Behavioral Science Unit. She helps find killers, and in this case she’s searching for a serial killer. The story gets tricky when she realizes that she’s hunting two  killers, one experienced and one novice, but WE know the novice is also hunting the experienced one. Oh, and then there’s all kinds of snarky goodness between these two local cops, and one of the local cops is hiding something and slowing down the investigation, but we don’t know why…and the goodness continues like that all through the book.

And! I liked the lack of cliches! Yes, let’s stop the predictable cliches that are in every book! Thank you, Michelle, for not having the cliche that I thought was coming. I love you!

The story is told from alternating points of view: we have Kelly; the experienced killer; and the novice killer. I love it when authors write this way, because then I get to be omniscient, but I wasn’t really omniscient with Boneyard  because the author just gives you a wisp of what the killers are up to, enough to get in their brain, but not so much that you’re not surprised when the killers do something psychotic-like. You just get enough information to know the experienced killer is an upstanding member of society with a wife and kids and the novice killer has psychological and delusional problems and isn’t mentally stable. Most creepy!

The book was good! It was a great mystery? thriller? whatever you call it, it’s a murder mystery, and pretty darn good. I love these kinds of books because I can just go along with the story, I don’t have to think too much, and I get plenty of adrenaline rushes. These books are my guilty pleasure that I go back to so I can relax and just enjoy a good story. Because what’s better than rain outside the window and you in a hot bath reading a mystery/thriller? NOTHING, THAT’S WHAT.

Rating: 86 out of 100

Dear book bloggers, book readers, and book club members,

In case you don’t already realize it, you are the future of the book publishing business. Where once it was seen as an exclusive club of intellectuals in New York, the reading public now rules, and that was never more evident to me than at Book Group Expo in San Jose in late October.

I think it all started with Amazon customer reviews, which at first the publishing world pooh-poohed as inconsequential. Now, everyone understands that they are one of the main ways people choose books to read. Publishers are embracing readers in ways they never have, now that they have a “voice” and can communicate with other readers. Book bloggers are the natural extention of that, and are welcomed with open arms into the book publishing community, as Jill and Trish and others noticed at Book Group Expo. I would say they were actually courted by authors and publicists alike. I attended a cocktail party thrown by Carol Fitzgerald of Book Report Network, a powerful force in the publishing biz, and loved  how diverse the group there was, including publishing people, authors, and yes, bloggers! My author friends all want my contacts in the blogging world, and my publisher is delighted that I’m on blog tour with TLC.

So readers, bloggers, book club members, thank you. Thank you for reading the books that don’t get all the marketing dollars, and for telling others when you like them. Thank you for taking the time to organize, to blog, to reach out to authors. We appreciate you all so much, and with your help, we can continue to do what we feel we must: write the stories that help us come together and talk about important issues, discover who we really are, or just spin a good yarn and forget about the economy and issues of the day.

You rock my world . . .
Jennie

Jennie Shortridge and her book Love and Biology at the Center of the Universe, her 3rd published novel, is currently on a virtual book tour with TLC Book Tours (view the schedule HERE).

I know you probably read about my adventures at the Book Group Expo. I certainly wasn’t as detailed as Wendy (second and third) or Jill, and I’ll be telling you more, I promise! But here’s a little to tide you over.

After the Expo, Garth Stein, author of The Art of Racing in the Rain (stay tuned for my review and a giveaway of his book (signed!) which I loved), wrote a guest post over at Book Club Girl about the Expo. And GUESS WHO HE MENTIONED! AND GUESS WHAT HE SAID!!

Go read it here. You can’t miss me.

How cool is that?

AND THEN, I got an email from the Book Group Expo saying what a wonderful event it had been and how they’re already working on next year. They included pictures, and I clicked on one because, who knows, maybe I could see the back of my head, and GUESS WHOSE FACE I SAW?? ME! Okay, so go HERE and you’ll see in the collage of pictures a picture in the lower left corner. Click on it to enlarge it, and the person standing in front of the audience is me.

Just in case your clicker finger is broken, here’s the picture:

The moderator had asked how many people are in book groups, to which the majority of us raised our hands. She then asked if anyone wanted to share their experience of being in a book group, the people in your group, etc. No one raised their hand, and I was sitting in the front row, so my hand tentatively went up. She called on me and I started talking to her and the other panel members when she said, “Turn around and talk to the audience.” I practically staggered backward when I saw how many people were in the audience, but I went ahead and told my experience of trying to start a book group and failing FOUR TIMES.

So this is me bragging that Garth Stein mentioned me on a blog post and a picture on the front page of the Book Group Expo has me talking to the audience. I try not to brag because I don’t think it’s polite, but I just couldn’t help myself.

Oh, and by the way, I look *ahem* heavier in the picture than I am in real life. But I’m not complaining.

I just got back from the Book Group Expo in San Jose. It rocked. Mostly.

I got to meet (and chat with!) Andre Dubus III (House of Sand and Fog and The Garden of Last Days), Jennie Shortridge (Love and Biology at the Center of the Universe), Garth Stein (The Art of Racing in the Rain), Diana Spechler (Who By Fire), Kathleen Kent (The Heretic’s Daughter), Brunonia Barry (The Lace Reader), Michelle Richmond (The Year of Fog and No One You Know), and Annie Barrow (The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society).

The Book Group Expo had a bunch of “Literary Salons” where certain authors were on a panel with a moderator, and theoretically the moderator would moderate for 15 minutes, and then open up the discussion to audience questions for 45 minutes. BGE tries to set itself apart from other panels with the amount of audience participation, but most moderators talked for 30-45 minutes, rather than the touted 15. The success of a panel definitely depended on the amount of preparation that the moderator put into it. Apparently, all you need to be a moderator is to be an author yourself and you have to read the books of your panelists. I have news for you, BGE: An author does not a good moderator make. Some authors were good moderators, but not all. Hopefully they’ll do a little better prep with their moderators next year.

Some highlights:

I met softdrink at the Expo. We’d arranged it beforehand, but I was a little nervous, wondering what I would do if we didn’t really click. I totally shouldn’t have worried because we got along great. We’re even talking about going to the LA Times Festival of Books.

I was talking to one author, Michelle Gagnon (I’m linking to a part of her website that has her picture because I think she’s super cute) (we were talking about In the Woods and The Likeness, which we both LOVED), when this woman walks up and starts talking to Michelle because this woman thinks she knows Michelle from somewhere. I’m holding The Little Giant of Aberdeen County, and the conversation comes around to this book and the woman says that she has that book coming to her in the mail. It doesn’t come out until January, so I figure she’s GOT to be a blogger. I asked her if she was a blogger, and she said yes, so I asked where she blogs, and she said caribousmom!! I was like OMG NO WAY I’M TRISH FROM HEY LADY!!! (if you could please imagine me saying that in a very high-pitched-I-haven’t-graduated-high-school kind of way) That was so cool. She has great pictures on her site…I left my camera in my car in my haste to gather up all my books, so her pictures will have to do. Though I am lifting this one picture of all of us:

From left to right: me, softdrink, Michelle Gagnon, and caribousmom.

Softdrink and I had cocktails with a bunch of people, but I ended up mostly talking to Garth Stein. Here’s a picture of him:

Pretty hot, yeah? Hang on, don’t go anywhere. I have to tell Garth something, because he may stumble upon this post (don’t think I didn’t make cards and hand them out to anyone who made eye contact with me).

*clearing throat* Um, yeah, Garth? You may or may not want to continue reading. Not that it’s inappropriate, I just feel kinda weird. I don’t know if you want to read about me dissecting the behavior of the women who would talk to you. But if you do want to read about that, then by all means, please continue. Either way, though, just know I agree YOU WERE TOTALLY SCREWED OUT OF YOUR REVIEW IN THE NY TIMES. You can’t see me, but I’m totally giving them the finger.

Okay, so I talked to Garth for most of the time we were having cocktails. And he’s cute, yeah, but I’m very happily married. So I sat back and watched how the women interacted with him, and it’s nothing short of fawning. And lest you think I misconstrued their behavior, let me remind you I got 18 out of 20 on the fake smiles test. I’m good at reading people.

ANYway, we ended up going to dinner with Garth Stein, Carol Fitzgerald (co-founder and president of The Book Report Network (she runs Reading Group Guides and Bookreporter.com, among others)), Esther Bushell (who makes a living as a book group facilitator — how cool is that??), Joshua Henkin, and someone from Harper who I spent a lot of time talking to and forgot her name. Dinner was so much fun, as softdrink and I got to eavesdrop on the shop talk, which is oh so cool.

I met so many great authors, some I knew of before, and some I learned about at the expo. I will be featuring many of those authors and their books here, as you can’t be naive enough to think I didn’t buy anything at the expo.

I got an email from someone associated with the eighth annual National Book Festival. She wanted me to tell you about this book festival, so I will, but I was wondering if any of you have ever been to something like this. But before I get to my questions, let me tell you about this festival.

Here’s the info:

For authors and readers, the event is a great opportunity to meet in-person and interact with some of the nation’s best-selling authors, illustrators and poets. For those not local to the DC area, the festival is providing several online resources to encourage participation across the nation!

This free event, featuring over 70 award-winning authors, attracts over 100,000 book lovers of all ages to the National Mall in Washington, DC to celebrate the joys of reading and lifelong literacy.

Sponsored by the Library of Congress and hosted by First Lady Laura Bush, this year the Festival will take place rain or shine Saturday, September 27th 2008 from 10:00 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. on The National Mall (Between 3rd and 7thstreets) in Washington, DC. Additional details on the festival are housed here: http://www.loc.gov/bookfest.

Authors, illustrators and poets will interact with festival-goers at seven themed pavilions such as the Fiction & Mystery pavilion and the Poetry pavilion.  The pavilions will feature several participating authors who will sign books and give readings from his works.

In addition to the DC festivities, the Library is offering a variety of ways for people around the country to participate in the event online:

• Podcasts, also available on iTunes, featuring interviews with some of the award-winning authors participating in the 2008 National Book Festival.
• Online chats hosted by washingtonpost.com featuring a select group of Festival authors. These live text-based discussions will take place throughout September leading up to the Festival at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/liveonline/index.html, where participants can submit questions and comments any time before or during the live chat.
• The National Book Festival Young Readers’ Online Toolkit features information about National Book Festival authors who write for children and teens, podcasts of their readings, teaching tools and activities for kids. This resource shows educators, parents and children how they can host their own book festival.
  For additional details about participating authors, illustrators and poets please visit, www.loc.gov/bookfest.

But the best part about this festival? THE AUTHORS. Here’s some authors I’d love to see: Neil Gaiman, Geraldine Brooks, Sandra Brown, Marisa de los Santos, and Philippa Gregory. How cool would that be??

Here’s the poster for the National Book Festival…it’s so beautiful that if I got to go I would totally grab a poster and hang it in my home as art: nbf08-poster. And if you ARE going, here’s a map of the who thing: 2008-nbf-public-map-final.

Jill’s trying to get me to go to the Book Group Expo in San Jose. I’m debating about it because I really don’t have the money. But I could network! And write it off! (lest you’ve forgotten about TLC Book Tours) The authors at that event that I’d love to see are: Brunonia Barry (author of The Lace Reader), Marisa de los Santos, and Selden Edwards (author of a new book called The Little Book).

Oh, the fun I could have!

But have any of you been to something similar to one of these two events? IS it that cool to listen to authors talk? Did you get to see as many authors as you wanted? Did you feel the authors had time constraints? Was it totally lame?

Oh, and if anyone wants to fly me to the National Book Festival I just told you about, I’m totally free this weekend.

The information you’ve all been waiting for is here! My salon info is as follows:

Saturday, October 25th, 11:15 a.m.

“Managing Your Mother: Or Is She Managing You?”

with

Margaret Cezair-Thompson author of The Pirate’s Daughter

Christina Meldrum author of Madapple

Julie Klam author of Please Excuse My Daughter

Moderator: Maud Carol Markson

For more details and ticket information go to BookGroupExpo.com

Book Group Expo has posted the list of confirmed authors for the wondrous event which will be held on October 25th weekend. Check it out!

I will be at Book Group Expo October 25-26  in San Jose, CA. This is a fantastic event for people who run or are in book clubs or just love books.  I’ll have more information later but in the meantime, just know that October 25th is also my birthday.