It’s that time! I’m kicking off an actual, for-serious book tour promoting MFA Thesis Novel (!), with events both online and in person! This includes the actual novel launch party (!!!!!!) that’s sure to be an amazing time:
- Using Real Life Events in Fiction and Memoir: An Online Panel Discussion through the SMOL Small Press Fair, Thursday, March 24th at 7:00pm Eastern
- Wandering Aengus & Trail to Table Press 2022 Reading Series, Saturday, March 26th at 7:00pm Eastern
- In-Person MFA Thesis Novel Launch Party at Main Street BookEnds, Warner, NH, Saturday, April 23rd at 2:00pm
Interested in coming to see me? Read on for the event descriptions, plus some info at the end about how I got involved with each one….
Using Real Life Events in Fiction and Memoir: An Online Panel Discussion
Next Thursday, March 24th at 7:00pm Eastern time I’ll be hosting a Zoom panel discussion: Using Real Life Events in Fiction and Memoir. This is a joint event with writers Gina Troisi, Anthony D’Aries, and Elaina Battista-Parsons, where we’ll talk about integrating our own experiences into our work. The atmosphere will be casual and fun, with some behind-the-scenes insight into the events that inspired MFA Thesis Novel ;-)
Join via Zoom, March 24th at 7:00pm: https://bit.ly/3Gy7h2u
Wandering Aengus & Trail to Table Press 2022 Reading Series
On Saturday, March 26th at 7:00pm Eastern I’ll be on Zoom joining the Wandering Aengus & Trail to Table Press 2022 Reading Series with writers Heather Durham, Andrew C. Gottlieb, and Tarn Wilson. I’ll be reading a longer excerpt from MFA Thesis Novel with plenty of jokes, so come check it out!
Join via Zoom, March 26th at 7:00pm: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85635622405?pwd=Y2Rjd2d5U0crenJzR2tVcmFja2ovdz09
(I made this!)
In-Person Launch Party at Main Street BookEnds
For folks in the Northeast, on Saturday, April 23rd at 2:00pm I’ll be at Main Street BookEnds in Warner, New Hampshire doing an hourlong book talk, Q&A, and book signing for the novel launch event! I’ll talk about how MFA Thesis Novel came to be from idea to publication, read my personal favorite excerpt from the novel (!!!) and sign copies. This is going to be a super-fun event with plenty of memorable moments, and I’m pulling out all the stops for this one!!!
(Please Note: This is a Masks Required event.)
How I Scheduled a Book Tour
It’s been a busy month, but getting word about the novel and doing kick-ass events where people can see how awesome it is has been a top priority.
I first scheduled the launch event last summer when I was back from Japan, and stopped in at Main Street BookEnds, my hometown bookstore. Katharine Nevins, the owner, was there and happy to see me after so long—the store had recently re-opened after a year of being closed due to COVID. I’d worked with Katharine before in 2018 when doing my Japan talk for my Eikaiwa Bums chapbook, and we were both super-happy when 50+ people showed up and we sold a lot of books.
While I was in town, we set a date (April 23rd, four days after the novel’s release) and agreed to touch base closer to the event.
After I got back to the States I sent Katharine an email to check in, then dropped by the bookstore to tell her more about MFA Thesis Novel, confirm ordering, and set up the specifics of the event. She was excited to move forward, and with COVID cases way down, she felt confident doing a bigger event provided everyone wore masks (which people have to do in the bookstore anyway).
A few days later I made a poster for the BookEnds website and to hang around town, and Katharine immediately put it on the BookEnds website and newsletter. (She also made a pre-order link if you’d like to buy a copy through BookEnds!)
Finally, the “Warner’s own John Grisham!” comment came up when I was planning the event with Katharine—she told me how when John Grisham was a new author he started off doing smaller events in his hometown bookstores down in Mississippi, and then when he got super-insanely famous he continued doing readings at those same bookstores because they’d supported him. I told Katharine that of course I’d do the same if I ever got super famous :-)
Using Real-Life Events in Fiction and Memoir
The Using Real-Life Events in Fiction and Memoir panel came about separately when a few of us in the Vine Leaves Press Facebook group were talking about doing an online event for the SMOL Small Press festival. I’d organized a larger, online group reading last year where eight of us from Vine Leaves Press read a short excerpt from our novels, and while that event was fun, this year I wanted to do something more discussion-based centered around a certain topic.
Around the same time, I’d been corresponding with Gina Troisi, another writer from the Vine Leaves group, about a guest post she did back in January. We got to talking about how people tend to ask us about the real events behind our writing, and in Gina’s case, how the people in her life reacted to her publishing a memoir about them. That’s when we knew we had an idea.
Gina suggested a writer friend of hers, Anthony D’Aries, to join in, while I’d also been talking with writer and memoirist Elaina Battista-Parsons about doing some sort of online event. Four seemed like a good number, and the rest unfolded pretty naturally: we started an email thread, chose a date during the SMOL festival, and started comparing ideas for how real-life makes its way into our writing. The goal was to make this workshop casual, open, interesting, and above all, fun, by talking about a real topic in an informative way.
This should be a cool event for writers, or anyone who enjoys a good story. We’ll do an open discussion with the four of us, and the audience can ask questions in the chat that we’ll answer later. This should be a good one!
Wandering Aengus & Trail to Table Press Reading Series
This one was actually a guest invite: I was talking to my old grad school friend, writer, poet, and editor Jill McCabe Johnson about something unrelated, and she asked if I was doing any readings for my novel. By sheer coincidence, she just happened to be organizing author readings for her small press, Trail to Table Press, and asked if I’d like to join as a special guest. Of course, I said sure, and we worked out the rest from there :-)
I’m looking forward to this because I’ll get to meet three other writers I’ve never worked with before and hopefully make some connections. I’ll also be reading a longer, 10-ish minute excerpt, so I’m looking forward to the chance to make some people laugh.
Final Thoughts
I’ve got a few plans in the works for future events (both online and in person!), so stay tuned for more about those. The launch event in Warner is going to be the big one, though, the one that most of my family and friends will be coming to, and the one I’ll be throwing out all the stops for. Whether you know me in person or you just found this post on Google, you’re more than welcome to join!
I want every event I do to be fun, special, and memorable, because good book events can be super-fun and interesting, and I want to use them to make honest connections with people. Wish me luck, and hope to see you there :-)