Book Clubs & Literary Festivals: How Sweet it is!

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I LOVE book clubs!

Book clubs have the coolest members, the yummiest food, the neatest meeting spots--be it in someone's cozy home or at the "lake house" at Straus Park in Brevard, NC, where I went yesterday--and their readers ask the most interesting questions. Book club folks love books, and are eager for story. And I love that.

 

At yesterday's meeting with the Straus Park Book Club in my adopted hometown of

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Brevard, NC, we dug into my historical novel, Keowee Valley. Like its feminine, nuanced cover--'cause what woman isn't nuanced?--the book is weightier, more multi-faceted than you'd think. And these readers were interested in all of it: the history, the adventure, the romance, the publishing process, my writing process, and more. Most of all, it was such a joy to be in my town, to meet fellow Brevardians I'll probably get to see again, and to reacquaint myself with others I'd met before.

Talking with book clubs folks--with any reader of my novel, really--is like a kick in the pants to get writing. A boost of inspiration and gratitude always follows. Now, of course, it's up to me to figure out just how to do that in my crazy, busy, small-child-filled life.

* * *

2013 Carolina Mountains Literary Festival ~ "Take Me There" ~ September 12 - 14

At the end of this week I'll head up into the higher mountains to Burnsville, NC, to participate in the Carolina Mountains Literary Festival. This year's theme is "Take Me There," and the festival showcases "authors and works that transport us."

This is a fabulous gathering for writers, READERS, history and mountain lovers, artists and more. And it's in a gorgeous spot: Burnsville sits right at the entrance to Mt. Mitchell, the tallest mountain in the Appalachians and in the eastern U.S.  The festival will feature (along with little ol' me) a host of authors, including Elizabeth Kostova, Katherine Soniat, Susan Woodring, Fred Bahnson, Keith Flynn, Abigail DeWitt, and so many more.

There'll be "sessions" (basically a mix of lecture, Q & A, readings, etc), informal gatherings, readings and more all around town at different locations, in cafes, bookstores, art galleries, antique shops and more. I've never been to Burnsville before, but I can't wait to get there.

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Actually, I'm leaving my babies, husband and dog behind to have some grown up girls' time with one of my best friends. (Did you hear that? It's me, woohoo-ing like a Nascar fan at the Indy 500.)

I'm giving two sessions at a bookstore called Off the Beaten Path. Details:

Friday, Sept. 13

2-2:45 Off The Beaten Path KATHERINE SCOTT CRAWFORD Informal Lecture, Reading and Q & A - The Slanted Truth: When Fiction Meets History  The rich history of a place makes great fodder for fiction. But are there ethics to follow when it comes to writing historical fiction?
 

Saturday, Sept. 14
 

2-2:45 Off The Beaten Path KATHERINE SCOTT CRAWFORD Brief Lecture, Reading and Q & A – Walking the Story  A writer’s adventure through the Southern Appalachian back country, and the historical novel it inspired. How a novel was birthed by a lifetime outdoors.
 

For more information about the festival, including other sessions and events, click here.

Last Day of Amazon - Apple Promotion

Friday was a great day for Keowee Valley! Thanks so much to everyone who checked out the blog tour, visited with me on Goodreads, and bought the novel. The blog posts are still up, of course, so if you’d like to read them, check out Friday’s post here.

FYI: Today is the last day Keowee Valley will be available at the Amazon Kindle Store and Apple for the special promotion price of $1.99. I hope you’ll pass the word.

This week, I’m Skype-ing with two different book clubs–something I love doing. Here’s to a week of great reading for all of us! Stay warm out there.

What a Weekend!

Just wanted to share a photo of the incredible Cherokee (or pre-Cherokee) arrowhead presented to me by a reader at a book event over the weekend. The picture doesn't do it justice--it is truly cool.

 

On a side note, I tend to wear this maternity turtleneck quite a bit, don't I? And I look tired. It's time to wear makeup.

 

For a full recap of the weekend's book events (two held on the very land where Keowee Valley is set), and news about future book travel, click here. 

Going Home

Oh, I had the loveliest time yesterday down in Greenville, S.C. (I say “down” because I drive down through the Blue Ridge Mountains of N.C. and S.C. to get there from my house) at the Aldersgate United Methodist Church’s Adult Group.

I got to share so many memories of growing up at Aldersgate UMC, and then talked about Keowee Valley and my research and writing process. There were lots of great questions at the end; and, after, a delicious lunch! I’m so thankful to Director of Children & Leisure Ministries, Ruth Hughes, for putting it all together and inviting me to come.


This was a particularly special book event because I grew up at Aldersgate: I was a member there from the time I was two years old until just last year, when we finally transferred our membership to the church we’d been attending in the mountains. I played on the basketball team, was involved in youth fellowships, went to vacation bible school, acted and sang in church plays–all the good stuff. So it was just like going home.

Last week, I was the guest author at a book club in the neighborhood where I grew up, which was another special treat. I got to sit at a gorgeously appointed table with a fabulous group of women readers, eat delicious dessert and talk all about Keowee Valley, Quinn, Jack, Ridge Runner, and the rest. Such fun!

Tomorrow, I’m headed to another book club–one of which my own mother and one our dearest family friends are members. I know it’ll be a blast.

After this, I’m slowing down quite a bit in my book travels. Being 31 weeks pregnant takes a toll on a girl. But I plan to pick back up in late summer, after my baby is born and my whole family is settled into life in a whole new world.

Book Club Photos

Signing books

Some photos from the Wonderland Book Club ...

Oh, a good time was most certainly had by all!



Chatting with club members

I had a great trip to Raleigh last Thursday-Friday, and a really lovely event with the Wonderland Book Club at the Center for Excellence. We talked Keowee Valley, history, the publishing industry, the writing life, and more. Thanks to all the wonderful folks who came out, and to the doyenne of book clubs, Alice Osborn, for setting it all up.

Almost forgot: Afterwards, my husband and I got to eat lunch with club members at Mia Francesca in Raleigh. I had a panini that made my very pregnant heart sing.



With poet & club facilitator Alice Osborn

Heading to Raleigh

Getting excited about Friday’s event with the Wonderland Book Club in Raleigh, N.C.! Registration is still open–and FREE–to anyone who wants to come talk books, writing, history, Keowee Valley, and anything else under the sun.

Triangle area folks, especially, I hope you’ll take a Friday morning break and come on out. Register for FREE here.

The club is city-wide, and facilitated by Alice Osborn, writer and fellow member of the North Carolina Writer’s Network. I’ve been a member of the Network since moving permanently to North Carolina in 2005; it’s a fabulous resource and wonderful writing community for creative types in any stage of their writing careers–from “I think I may want to write a novel,” to being widely published.

* On a side note, I’m deep into reading what’s considered to be the very first historical novel: Sir Walter Scott’s Waverly; or, ‘Tis Sixty Years Since. Set in Scotland during the Jacobite Uprising of 1745, it’s the story of an Englishman named Edward Waverly, and his adventures and foibles in the Scottish highlands.

And don’t worry–I’m still writing Novel 2!

Book Clubs Cometh; or, Hurrah for People Who Like to Read!

Yesterday was a good day for me: I booked my first book club discussion of KEOWEE VALLEY, down in Greenville, South Carolina. Hurrah for the Wednesday Afternoon Book Club!

Granted, this meeting-in-which-my-novel-is-discussed-by-awesome-ladies will not occur until early 2013, but I'm still jacked. The fun is beginning.

And if you, dear reader, would like to read KEOWEE VALLEY in your book club, and have me there to talk to on the day you discuss it, just let me know. If I'm close enough, I'll come in person. And if not, let's arrange a Skype date. I truly love to talk books with booky people.

From Coffeee: It's History, Cultivation, and Uses, by Robert Hewitt, 1872

Book clubs are a fabulous invention, and they've been around for a long time. (Or at least "long" in American time. Europeans consider the 1700s the recent past.) Scholars may debate, but I believe much of what we recognize as the modern idea of the book club--meeting to talk of all things literary--began in the European coffee houses of the late 1600s and early 1700s. Folks had always gathered to talk literature and politics and writing--no Kardashian gossip or what-actress-has-the-biggest-baby-bump for these guys (although there was probably a version of this sort of gossip, maybe something like "who is the king beheading today?")--but suddenly these gatherings exploded. This is because three new items appeared on ships from the Far East and other exotic places.

These three things are now a bastion of modern life. They certainly make my life happy. They were:

1. Coffee
2. Tea
3. Chocolate

From Calvin and Hobbes, by Bill Watterson

No one needed much of an excuse to gather to eat and drink these things, and so they did. Or, only the men did, at first, though the women would beginning gathering publicly just a short time after. These coffeehouses were different than taverns: for one thing, they were "men only" gatherings. Sort of latter-day versions of the "No Girls Allowed" sign in the treehouse.

 Any man, of any social class, could enter the coffeehouse. But there were a few rules. According to The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, a penny was usually charged for admission. And, "Some establishments posted rules of behavior stipulating that all customers were deemed equal and prohibiting gambling, swearing, quarrelling, and mourning over lost love."

I love this. Basically, no one could bash their exes or brawl in the coffeehouse. (Or, at least, were encouraged not to. But those wigged men, I'm sure, could throw down.) However, these were places for partaking of all the good things, including books, newspapers, and other assorted treatises. (People wrote treatises back them, tacked them up on trees and buildings around town. Now we blog.)

 

In the 1700s, especially in England, coffeehouses became so popular and important that like-minded folks gathered in specific places: ship captains and assorted seaman in one coffeehouse, politicians in another, businessmen and doctors in yet another. Rank and class seems to have not been much of an issue.

Today, book clubs meet--usually in someone's private home or in a coffee shop around town--and they are grand things. A list of books is drawn up, books are borrowed and bought, and then read and discussed. There're usually good things to eat and drink at these gatherings, including coffee--and soemtimes wine. Sometimes the authors arrive to add an extra element to the discussion. In our blindingly fast-paced world, a world in which many of us spend in artificial light, typing at a keypad or Ipad or Iphone, book clubs are a chance to slow down, to engage the brain and the imagination, to enjoy fellowship with other book lovers and friends.

A while back, I was a member of a book club I adored. Called "The Unconventional Book Club," we were an assortment of ages and backgrounds, we read books of all genres (fiction and nonfiction) and we met monthly in each other's homes. There was good food to be had, and wine and coffee to be drunk. And, more often than not, there was chocolate.

Sadly, busy schedules got the better of us all, and we disbanded. Now, I'm back in grad school, in a MFA program surrounded by other writers and teachers, all readers. At my first residency, there were inpromptu "book clubs" meeting everywhere, at all times: in the dininghall at meals, walking to lectures and readings, during and after workshops, and in the dorms. We shared beloved book titles and authors, talked writing into the wee hours. We are carrying on the traditions of the coffeehouses, only ours aren't segregated by gender.

However, there is still wine, lots of coffee, and chocolate.

   Amen.