Home From An Excellent, Exhausting Book Launch Weekend

[dr_pretentious]

The launch for Tales from Rugosa Coven was great fun, and I gather it was pretty successful in the context of small press. We sold a bunch of copies, people I'd never met asked for my autograph, and everyone enjoyed the party. My fellow Dark Quest Books author, Danielle Ackley-McPhail, was piratical and dramatic while reading her excerpt from Consigned to the Sea. Our partner in party hosting, William Freedman, read a hilarious bit of satire from his new book, Mighty Mighty. Thanks to heroic acts of friendship and child-wrangling on the part of David Sklar and violetmoon25, Dan was even able to get some time off from parent duty to join the festivities.

Oh, and I had the strange and wonderful experience of watching as Margot Adler took notes about something I said at the panel on Paganism and Fantasy Literature. Perhaps tomorrow, when I've had a chance to recover a bit from being ON for three days, bracketed by six-hour drives with young children (the latter of those drives ending with two hours of blinding snow), I'll be able to express what it meant to see her take notes from my comments. Meanwhile, allow me to describe my copy of her book, Drawing Down the Moon. The binding is cracked from the many times I set the book up in a stand so I could type quotations from it into conference talks and seminar papers. It's got at least fifty little tape flags and Post-it Notes ruffling out of the edges. Most pages have at least some small bit of pencilled underlining or marginalia in my scrawly handwriting. Some pages have whole paragraphs of my notions scattered in the margins.

There are so many people to thank for the many things that went so well. I know if I try to thank them all by name right now, I'll miss some. Meanwhile, Thank Everybody!

Comments

[magdalene73.livejournal.com]

SO Proud of you! It always feels good when your work is affirmed by one of the admired experts in your field!!! Happy, happy, happy!

[thunderpigeon.livejournal.com]

I just read the scene where you inserted yourself into the story so that Ria could give you a Tarot reading with toddler in tow. Still eager to get to the Jersey Devil, but alas, I need to gather myself and pull off a half day onsite for a client today, so that a coworker can leave on time.

[onyxtwilight.livejournal.com]

I will never now be able to see anyone other than Gareth when I read that scene. >:-D

[onyxtwilight.livejournal.com]

And have I mentioned? I love love love the Ria point of view. I love all three stories deeply, but I live in Ria's POV. If only I actually had Ria's talent. :-)

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I got to read from Ria for an audience for the first time while I was at Lunacon, and it felt really good to tell her story out loud, if only for 10 minutes. Her voice is like no one else's.

[thunderpigeon.livejournal.com]

The first time I read that scene, I didn't know it was a selfie. In fact, that was in critique group, and I don't recall whether anyone noticed what Sarah was doing until she said it afterwards.

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

I was working on a list of all the different kinds of people who might want their fortunes told, because I didn't want it to be all and only sorority girls. G was being his two-year-old self, so I was having one of those tell-me-it-gets-better moments, so into the list I went.

[onyxtwilight.livejournal.com]

I didn't notice 'til you said it. But now I can't not see it. :-)

[laradionne.livejournal.com]

I just finished reading through my own copy of Rugosa Coven, and I had almost forgotten about the hexed refrigerator! I also needed to be reminded at that particular moment that my wounds are beautiful. Thank you and I'm so glad that your book launch party went well! Many hugs of congratulations!

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

The very most beautiful, my dear friend.

[kistha.livejournal.com]

Congratulations!