I was in Boston for all of six hours last night before flying to London today. Now I am in a very cozy hotel room, unsure of what time it is and unable to blog properly but I have my nice camera with me so there should be proper photos eventually and I will tell you of other travels and adventures as well.
For now, though, I give you what is currently and likely will stay the official theme song of the book tour.
True confession: I sing the spelling of Mississippi to myself every time I type it.
I had never been to Mississippi before and I was fortunate enough to have wonderful weather for my visit, I wish I could conduct all of my phone interviews from porch swings.
Had a splendid, open windowed reading at Square Books, which featured the book tour’s first bookstore kitty:
And then I had a long winding road trip from Oxford to Jackson, with a stop in Greenwood to sign stock at the lovely Turnrow Book Co. Then in Jackson I signed quite a few books at Lemuria Books before my fantastically circusy event. I tweeted the view from the podium and this is from the back of the room:
I tried to convince them to just leave the ceiling like that. And my blurry phone camera photos will not do all their exquisite circus signage justice:
Had a fantastic time and huge thanks to everyone who came out for events and worked so hard to put them together!
In Milwaukee now, clinging to my room service coffee before I get rolling on a day full of interviews and things.
Am running around getting organized before heading to the airport later this afternoon, and look what just arrived, extremely well packed:
Original art from The Night Circus cover by Helen Musselwhite, gift to me from the lovelies at Doubleday. Love, all around.
Hi Internet! I have been away and off and about and becoming far too intimately acquainted with airports.
I have had good intentions of blogging along the way but then my connectivity gets cranky and sleep seems so much more practical than blogging and then a week goes by, not sure how that happens.
A housekeeping note: am in the process of trying to overhaul the site a bit, giving news & reviews their own blogfeed rather than putting them all on this one. Still working on the best way to accomplish that.
I have been all over the place and I am not sure I can do a proper recounting of my adventures, so I will rely on the bits I managed to capture on my phone camera, which as you may know, takes better photos retro-cam style than it does normally.
One of my favorite bits from Odyssey Books in South Hadley, MA, their very own Wishing Tree:
And this has nothing to do with anything (well, directly) but I couldn’t not capture this bit of found Shakespeare in Salem:
Llamas in Baltimore, from the very quick trip I took to the Baltimore Book Festival. (The Peabody Library is astoundingly beautiful, by the way.) I am not sure if they are drama llamas, but they probably are. I suspect most llamas have drama.
This week I spent several days in Toronto on the first of my international stops, got to break in my brand new passport. Everyone at Random House Canada was wonderful and I ate so much good food that I forgive them for putting me on tv. A lot. They had a lovely cocktail reception with cotton candy and tarot reading and magic, I signed books in bookstores and tried to wrap my head around being the kind of person who gets talked to on tv shows and failed, it was all very strange. I get to go back next month for the International Festival of Authors so I am very much looking forward to the return visit, I’ve been promised I will have more time for city exploring.
Geese in Toronto:
View from my hotel room in Toronto:
Home now for just over a day before the busiest leg of the tour begins. Next time I’ll be back in Boston it’ll be for a matter of hours before leaving for London. So far have spent my day off doing laundry and shopping for new dresses to add to the tour wardrobe rotation.
Also, in between Baltimore and Toronto I briefly stopped in NYC to hug all my Doubleday lovelies, and they gave me the stunning original paper art from the cover! It has been shipped to me, proper photos once I actually have it but it is truly lovely and it was such a sweet & thoughtful present. I am a very lucky girl to have found myself such a wonderful publishing family. They’re all cute, too, I’m just sayin’.
There were also beautiful cookies and cupcakes and I got edible roses that I can’t bear to eat:
Also, I cannot quite believe that tomorrow is October already.
Massachusetts has welcomed me back with hair-frizzing humidity & pouring rain. I think it might be mad at me.
But other than the weather it is a lovely (if short) respite from living out of my suitcase. I had a fabulous event at Odyssey Books near my old Western MA collegiate stomping grounds on Thursday night, and last night was the kickoff of the Salem Literary Festival which was splendid, and I left with a new friend:
He is delightful and huggable and his informative tag says he enjoys long walks on the beach, cozy nights by the fire, and lengthy discussion about Chaucer. I love him. He needs a name, but I’m still pondering something properly dashing. He was made by the lovely & talented Hilary Emerson Lay, who also has fantastic hair.
Back in Salem tonight and then off for a very brief stop in Baltimore tomorrow. I’m actually doing laundry right now and I am far too excited about that.
Seattle is another city that I had never been to before and now that I’m gone again I very much want to return with proper time to revel in it properly. Wonderful bookstores, wonderful people, low humidity and cake. Many thanks to everyone who came to readings at The Elliott Bay Book Company & Third Place Books, both fabulous stores with fabulous people and oh so many books.
And the wonderful Queen Anne Books had a cake for me! With black frosting! Not enough cakes have black frosting. It was a delight.
In DC now, very briefly, to be on NPR tomorrow and then back to familiar Massachusetts territory.