VA va voom!

The folks in Charlottesville sure know how to put on a book fest! I was at the VA Festival of the Book for 3 days and it was a whirlwind of meeting wonderful people who were all there to celebrate books! I felt like I had finally found my home planet. Thank you Nancy Damon and everyone associated with the festival! Oh yes...there are pictures!


This is the puddle jumper one takes from DC to the cute little airport in Charlottesville.

Who did I find my first night in town? Judy Merrill Larsen (All the Numbers), Therese Fowler (Souvenir) and Kim Reid (No Place Safe)! The four of us met in the hotel bar for a very serious discussion about books. :) Kim, I already knew. This was my first time talking with Judy and Therese in person, but I'm sure onlookers would have never guessed. It was like getting together with women I've known for ages.

The UVa Women's Center sponsored a reception for women writers. Here's a great group! The author in the hot pink jacket is Jenny Gardiner, author of Sleeping with Ward Cleaver. Thanks Jenny for the rides over to the U!

The Ballantine Babes at the Author's Reception, which closed the festival Saturday night. We also met Mike Farrell (BJ from MASH), but I didn't take his pic. Judy introduced me to Rosemary Harris, author of Pushing Up Daisies. Hello, she's a gardener and a novelist? How did we not know each other?


On Sunday morning the Charlottesville chapter of the Links, Inc. threw a spectacular brunch to celebrate the African American literary tradition. I am so grateful I was able to be there! Thanks to Tamyra Turner, Donna Martin and all the Links members! This photo is of 2 of my new favorite writers: H.G. Carrillo, author of Loosing My Espanish, and Stacy Hawkins Adams, author of Watercolored Pearls.

Stacy and me at brunch. (Another room service flower in my hair)

One of the big highlights for me was meeting Walter Mosley at the brunch. When we were introduced, he recognized the title of my book! I know why he looks suspicious in this picture--I started a line of groupies taking his photo. Why I look suspicious, I don't know.

Other cool writers I met at the fest: Evans Hopkins, author of Life after Life, Adam Bradley, The Collected Manuscripts of Ralph Ellison's Unpublished Second Novel (which isn't out yet), Emilie Richards, author of MORE THAN 60 NOVELS!!!, Jennifer Niesslein, author of Practically Perfect in Every Way, Rachel Bagby, author of Divine Daughters and Peter Melman, author of Landsman: A Novel.

I heart Book Clubs!

Muchas smooches to all the book clubs who are reading Orange Mint and Honey!!! Seriously, authors owe as much to book clubs as we do to booksellers, so you have my deepest gratitude! If you're in Colorado, I can meet with you in person. If you're out of state, email me and I will do a phone in to answer your group's questions.

Send me a jpeg of your group reading my book and I'll send everybody a little orange mint somethin somethin (bathsalts or candies, anyone?).

In the back of the book there are recipes for orange mint tea and cookies. But I also have other recipes good for a book club meeting. For example, orange mint mojitos! Get the recipe over at Tayari Jone's place. As part of a weekly feature for spring called Cocktails with Writers she's posting recipes. Poet Honoree Jeffers' Almond Joy Cocktail sounds delish!!

I'll post other recipes here soon.

Best line in a movie. Ever.

I'm so excited! The Ten Commandments is on (and I can watch KU basketball on the commercials). I've seen this movie every year it's been broadcast (except last year when I was devastated to miss it). What could be better than Yul Brenner in a skirt? (Moses shmoses, Ramses is hot!) Charlton Heston as a Jewish savior? Vincent Price as an Egyptian and Edward G. Robinson has a Hebrew overseer? And Yvonne De Carlo (Mrs. Munster herself!) as an innocent shepherd girl? Nothing! Except this line that Moses delivers to Nefretiri after he finds out he's really a Hebrew and goes to work in the mud pits with the slaves: "If my people reek, it's with the stench of injustice."

The best line ever spoken on film. Disagree? Tell me a better line. And by better, I mean more ridiculously campily wonderfully sublime than that.

Seriously, though this movie is very over the top, it's also a really wonderful epic story. I can never watch it without relating my own faith or lack thereof to the Hebrews. After they're freed from bondage and Moses has even parted the frickin Red Sea, as soon as the going gets a little rough they start to doubt again. It's a great allegory for whatever troubles we're dealing with in life.

Happy Easter (and Rock Chalk Jayhawk) y'all! So let it be written, so let it be done.

My First White Friend

With Obama's speech and the issue of race front and center, I thought I'd recommend a gorgeously written, important book: My First White Friend: Confessions on Race, Love, and Foregiveness by Patricia Raybon. I believe it's out of print, which is too bad, but get it from the library or buy a bargain copy. This book deserves as much acclaim as The Color of Water by James McBride.


From the jacket:


"'God help me. I stopped hating white people on purpose about a year ago.' With that daring confession, African-American journalist Patricia Raybon begins My First White Friend - a piercing account of how she decided, in midlife, to stop hating white America. In a hypnotic narrative that is part journal, part memoir, part social analysis, Raybon discovers that racial forgiveness is a dangerous choice. But the risk isn't in learning to love white people, it's in learning to love herself. 'That is the real matter. And it takes a harsh spotlight.'


Raybon turns that spotlight first on her fifties childhood in eastern Colorado, where she learned 'every race distortion ever performed by dark people: smiling when nothing is nice, laughing when nothing is funny, agreeing when nothing is agreeable.'


In that setting, Raybon mastered that polite 'grin of powerlessness,' urged on by the dogged upward mobility of her Mississippi-born father and the rigid rules of their middle-class life. But while she was soon acceptable to white people, she'd become an angry stranger to herself.


A quarter century later, Raybon realized her perplexed rage wouldn't be remedied by stoking her buried hate for whites, but by forgiving them, especially for the past. That 'audacious idea...a holy lunacy' meant first forgiving herself, but also forgiving her father for his seemingly excessive demands, her country for its caustic racial legacies, and even God for seeming to allow it all.


Along the way, Raybon unearths her family history to uncover the origins of her hate, then traces the significant chapters in her own life-among them her childhood confusion about race, her adolescent awe of 'white' culture, her discovery of sex and its mythology in black life, marriage and motherhood, her rediscovery of her religious faith and a friendship with her first white friend-to travel the hard road from hatred to forgiveness, trust, love, letting go, and moving on.


An honestly direct but deeply hopeful book, My First White Friend is a timely and original declaration of self-love and collective affirmation."


An excerpt:


"A book on racial forgiveness.

God help me. Because as I weigh the implications of it, and the potential of it, I clearly understand that the philosophy is provocative and good-but I know some people will hate me for it. Some will praise me for it. And some will censure me for it, or even rudely ignore me, deeming me desperate or dumb, or both. But I welcome any response even as I am resigned to it, because I am determined now to understand how my hate started, then figure finally how to slay it. Because hate has hurt me good over these long years. It has crippled me and cheated me and mugged me and left me scarred and impotent and dumb.

And if hate has done those things to me, it has done those things to millions like me."

The Hardest Working Woman in Show Business

Author tours. Do they work? Are they worth the time, effort, money? Does anybody even come out for them? We in the biz continue to debate. However, when you've got an audience, it must be worth it. Check out Jodi Picoult's tour schedule. This is the schedule of a woman who earns her spot on the best-seller lists the old-fashioned way! I need a nap from just reading the list of locales she's travelling to.

And I thought I was busy!! I'm off to the Virginia Festival of the Book next week. In April, I go to the Philly area to meet with book clubs. Then in May I'm going back to LA for the Leimert Park Bookfest and BEA. In September I'm doing the Downtown Omaha Bookfest. I'm hoping to get a few more trips in there too.

Below are pictures from the book party to end all book parties. My aunt Anita is one of the world's coolest aunts. Last Sunday she threw a party for about 1,000 of her closest friends and neighbors. We started at 1 p.m. and the last person left at 7! The wonderful Yvonne White put the finishing touches on the spread and made everything beautiful. Unfortunately, pictures don't do the table justice. (FYI, her line of candles are the best-smelling ever!)

She used palm and fern leaves and bunches of kumquats from her own yard. Plus, 100-year old silver trays from Morocco!

This is an antique card table where I signed books. Much prettier than it looks here.

The lovely Yvonne, me, cousins Michelle and Cary.

That's Gina Black...who took the bus over for the party! (I'm wearing an orchid in my hair from my breakfast tray at the Hotel Vitale the day before.)

Our hostess, Auntie Anita.

My aunt Carol, Anita's sister.

More cousins!

This is Anita's boyfriend Mac, a wonderful host!

This is June, who made orange mint cookies from the recipe in my book!

Brian. A friend I met years ago in Denver only to find out that my Aunt Anita was in his mother's wedding!

The San Francisco Treat

The day after I signed at Eso Won, I went to San Francisco. I was lucky: I had that evening and all day before my signing at Marcus to myself. Ballantine put me up at the Hotel Vitale, a tres chic hotel right on The Embarcadero near the waterfront. I spent my 1st night staring at the water in the East Bay and marvelling at the Bay Bridge. (Also had a meal of 2 appetizers and 1 glass of wine that cost $56!)

The next morning I headed out for the character-building "Who the Hell are You?" tour of downtown San Francisco. In theory this is when an author goes into a bookstore and sees stacks of her books on the front table and book-sellers rush up to her to beg her to sign them. In reality (at least for me) it involves praying that they have my book or if they don't, that they'll order it. A great big beautiful Borders didn't have my book in stock. City Lights didn't have it, but will order the next time they order from Random House, for which I thank them! I should note that on the way to LAX, my driver (I rode in style baby!) took me to a Borders in Culver City, which did have 1 copy of my book in stock (which I autographed). Back to San Fran. While I was in Chinatown, I decided to wander. I found myself at a tea bar with the world's greatest tea salesman, who is now my Chinese Uncle Gee. (This is Gee saying he will kick the ass of any bookstore owner who doesn't carry my book. ) They have wonderful teas! In you're in San Francisco, Gee puts on a great show, introducing you to a wide variety of teas and educating you about how to brew them. Just be sure not to share anything embarrassing. A young woman sitting next to me whispered that she was looking for a tea to help her have a bowel movement and Gee announced it to the whole room! However, to show you just how charming Gee is...she didn't go running out the door, but stayed and drank tea. I bought the lichee black tea. Yum! Check them out online.

That night, a driver picked me up and took me over the bridge to Marcus Books, the oldest black bookstore in the country. It's managed by Blanche Richardson--book-seller, writer and editor extraordinaire!

We had a great turnout (due mostly to a large contingency of cousins who came out to support me--thank you cousins!!!), and it was so much fun to be there. I've done many signings and 2 other book tours to other cities, and this is the 1st time that people who've actually read the book are showing up (and I'm talking about people not even related to me!). It is a great feeling to be able to discuss the book with folks who read (and, so far, enjoyed) the book. Dera from APOOO Bookclub was also there. Orange Mint and Honey is an upcoming selection for their bookclub--thank you APOOO! And thank you Marcus Books!!!

Books purchased on the road:

Conception by Kalisha Buckanon

The Darkness by L.A. Banks

The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill by Mark Bittner

Song Yet Sung by James McBride (who also writes and plays music!)

Eso Won

Flying over the Rockies.

Part of a mural outside Eso Won.

Shauna Roberts drove over 2 hours to see me!!! Amazing!

Some fans striking a pose. On the far right is Donna, who drove over an hour!

Thank you James Fugate and the folks at Eso Won!!!! I hope to get back the end of May.

Note from the road

In San Fran and having a bang-up time. Heading for the airport to go back to L.A. but I needed to take this moment to plead with you all (preaching to the choir, I know) to please, please, please support your local indie book store. They are hurting folks. I signed in two of them (including Eso Won, which thought they'd be closed by the end of last year, but the community rallied to keep them afloat...so far) and stopped in the legendary City Lights Book Store. The word every place is the same: hanging on by a thread and hoping to stay open.

I'm broke as the next person. I love Amazon and the chains. And God knows I want my novel to fly off the shelves at Target. But maybe we can all make a practice of buying 3, 5, 10 books at our local indie for every 1 we buy online or at a chain.

Going back to Cali

The stop at Dutton's has been cancelled. Sadly, the store is closing next month.

I'll try to remember to take lots of pics of my stops at Eso Won (L.A.) and Marcus Books (Oakland) and post them when I get back.

In the meantime, please stop by Shauna's place and check out the great interview she did with yours truly!

Podtastic

My Tattered Cover talk is up at Authors on Tour. Check it out!

My Town Monday Mash-Up

Travis Erwin and friends are blogging about their towns on Mondays. For my entry, this week, I want to talk about some of the writers who live in Denver (and the surrounding area...stretching "my town" to include the Front Range).

It's amazing how many published writers live here. I get emails from the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers list serve. I belong to Lighthouse Writers Workshop. I'm a member of the Denver Literary Ladies. And I still don't know (or know of) all the working writers in town. I know this because one of them, J.D. Mason, emailed me after seeing the review in Essence. Here we are both sister-writers in the same city and have never met. (Though we're going to remedy that next month!)

Some of our local writers are quite famous (Diane Mott Davidson, Rick Reilly, Stephen White, Joan Borysenko) so they don't need any extra love from this blog. Following are some of the writers not so famous (though they should be!) who live in (or near) Denver. We got everything from memoirists to literary novelists to genre writers. Something for everyone!

Elizabeth Wrenn, the novel Around the Next Corner
Kim Reid, author of the amazing memoir No Place Safe (see Q&A here)
J.D. Mason, best-selling novels including, This Fire Down in My Soul
Donna Gershten, the novel Kissing the Virgin's Mouth (winner of the Bellwether Prize for Fiction)
Nick Arvin, the highly acclaimed novella Articles of War (see a great Q&A with Nick here)
Robin D. Owens, RITA-award-winning author of novels including Keepers of the Flame
Debra Fine, internationally known conversation expert, author of The Fine Art of the Big Talk
Andrea Cohen, M.D., editor of A Blessing in Disguise: 39 Life Lessons from Today's Greatest Teachers
William Haywood Henderson, literary novels including Augusta Locke
Marisol, The Lady, the Chef, the Courtesan
Karen Degroot Carter, One Sister's Song
Robert Greer, author of the CJ Floyd Mysteries
Mario Acevedo, author of the Felix Gomez vampire stories
Shari Caudron, author of nonfiction including Who Are You People?
Constance Hardesty, Grow Your Own Pizza: Gardening Plans and Recipes for Kids
Marilyn Raff, The Intuitive Gardener: Finding Creative Freedom in the Garden
Eli Gottlieb, novels including the highly acclaimed Now You See Him
Janis Hallowell, novels including The Annunciation of Francesca Dunn and the forthcoming She Was
Karen Palmer, novels including Border Dogs
Sandra Dallas, best-selling novels including Tall Grass and nonfiction about Colorado
Susan Skog, award-winning author of Peace in Our Lifetime and other uplifting books
John Dunning, author of the Cliff Janeway mysteries

I know there are many, many others I'm forgetting. If you know one or if you are one, drop a note in the comments.

And on another note, thinking about best-selling rankings and the Who's Who of local writers made me think about the best books that nobody knows about. When I was a book-seller at the Tattered Cover I used to hand-sell I Asked for Intimacy: Stories of Blessings, Betrayals and Birthings by Renita Weems. I would place the one copy the store stocked on the staff recommends shelf. It would sell and the store would order another and as soon as it came in, I'd put it back out on the staff recommends shelf. I took it as my personal duty to share this slim volume of lovely, moving essays.

What would you recommend as the best book that nobody else has heard of?

#1!

On The Denver Post list of bestselling paperback fiction!!


Local Best Sellers

FICTION
1. The Appeal, by John Grisham, $27.95

2. An Incomplete Revenge, by Jacqueline Winspear, $24

3. Come with Me to Babylon, by Paul M. Levitt, $24.95

4. Now You See Him, by Eli Gottlieb, $22.95

5. Duma Key, by Stephen King, $28

6. The Invention of Everything Else, by Samantha Hunt, $24

7. Remember Me?, by Sophie Kinsella, $25

8. World Without End, by Ken Follett, $35

9. The Outlaw Demon Wails, by Kim Harrison, $24.95

10. Change of Heart, by Jodi Picoult, $26.95

NONFICTION
1. Principled Politician: The Ralph Carr Story, by Adam Shrager, $26.95

2. In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, by Michael Pollan, $21.95

3. Out of Poverty: What Works When Traditional Approaches Fail, by Paul Polak, $27.95

4. The Age of Miracles: Embracing the New Midlife, by Marianne Williamson, $22.95

5. The Third Jesus: The Christ We Cannot Ignore, by Deepak Chopra, $24

6. Lyn Peterson's Real Life Kitchens, by Lyn Peterson, $40

7. The Secret, by Rhonda Byrne, $23.95

8. The 4-Hour Work Week: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich, by Timothy Ferriss, $19.95

9. Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning, by Jonah Goldberg, $27.95

10. The Great Awakening: Reviving Faith and Politics in a PostReligious Right America,
by Jim Wallis, $25.95

FICTION PAPERBACK
1. Orange Mint and Honey, by Carleen Brice, $14

2. What Is the What, by Dave Eggers, $15.95

3. Plainsong, by Kent Haruf, $13.95

4. No Country for Old Men, by Cormac McCarthy, $14

5. The Other Boleyn Girl, by Philippa Gregory, $16

NONFICTION PAPERBACK

1. A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose, by Eckhart Tolle, $14

2. Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia,
by Elizabeth Gilbert, $15

3. Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace One School at a Time,
by Greg Mortenson, $15

4. The Audacity of Hope, by Barack Obama, $14.

5. Rick Steves' Europe Through the Back Door, by Rick Steves, $21.95


Thank you, Denver!!!!!

Q&A at TC

Thanks to Sarah Ockler (again!) I'm on YouTube. Sad to say, I'm on YouTube making the mistake of not repeating the question before I give the answer. D'oh! Lots to learn.

And Julie Layne, I don't sound like a goofball...I sound just like my cousin Karen!

KUVO

Thank you Susan Gatschet Reese for a wonderful interview! The rest of the staff was in a meeting so we couldn't do a photo of the 2 of us together.

One of the posters at KUVO letting me know I was definitely in the right place!

I was especially happy to hear the tune "O Nina" by jazz vocalist Rene Marie! What a great tribute to Nina Simone!

More pictures!

Sarah Ockler (on the left) has posted pics from the Tattered Cover signing on Flicker. Look for fellow Lighthouse Workshopper Sarah's first YA novel Twenty Boy Summer in 2009!

This is a photo of some of the Lighthouse folks who came out to cheer me. Let me say a great big fat thank you to Lighthouse for all the support (and for a case of wine)!!!!

If you're in Denver and you're a writer, check Lighthouse out: our people get published.

On the radio

I'll be on Jazz 89 KUVO (89.3 FM) tomorrow morning about 10:30 a.m. MST talking with Susan Gatschet Reese about Nina Simone and Orange Mint and Honey. If you get a chance, tune in! Click here to listen online.

Health care for all

I'm "one of the lucky ones," which means I have health care coverage. Though I pay more for insurance through COBRA every month than I do for my half of our mortgage, I'm grateful to have it. There are more than 790,000 people in this state (roughly 47 million in the country) who aren't so lucky. I try not to think about what happens when my COBRA runs out (you can have COBRA for 18 months).

Yesterday I went to a rally at the state capitol to encourage the Colorado legislature to act now on universal health care, rather than wait to see who gets in the White House and what they do once they get there.

A woman named Regina spoke. She too is "one of the lucky ones." She has health insurance through COBRA. Except, Regina has stage 4 breast cancer, which means the treatments that are extending her life come at the cost of basic necessities for her and her husband. I believe she said half their monthly income goes toward her health costs. As a woman standing said next to me said, "It's a crime." With the energy and time she has left, Regina works hard advocating for health care reform and universal health care hoping to leave a better system for her son.

I suspect most folks who read this blog agree that health care is in a state of crisis in this country. But just in case you don't, check out this story from 60 Minutes, which talks about a physician's charity organization that has been delivering care to Third World countries and now finds that it's needed in this country. In Tennesee, people slept outside in 20-degree weather the night before the clinic opened, hoping to get a spot in line! (Lack of health care anywhere in the world is a crime and a shame, but in a country that has wealth, it's especially sinful that we can't guarantee this basic human right.)

I am not well-versed on policy enough to argue for or against single-payer care. But I have to say from the way Gov. Ritter so quickly dismissed it yesterday and urged a slower approach (how much slower can it be??), it made me believe single-payer must be the right way to go. Anyway, Health Care for All Colorado was one of the sponsors of the rally, and they have a great website. I intend on learning more and advocating for this issue. As one of the lucky ones, it's my duty.

On a TOTALLY different note, doesn't this young man look Oliver-esque? He was so cute, I had to snap his picture!

Gettin linky wit it

No time for My Town Mondays today, but do head over to Travis' joint and check out who's blogging about their fair cities. Travis features a very interesting (read: kooky) gentleman today!

I'm getting some lovely reviews from blog readers. Here are a few:

Julie Layne even put Ann Patchett aside for me! Wow! Talk about an honor!

Sustenance Scout's sneek peek of the launch also reviews the book.

Miss Sherry has a review at one of her many blogs (when does this woman sleep?)

Have I forgotten anybody? Oh...and I won't be mad at ya if you leave a review on Amazon, either! :-)

More signings

Don't despair! If you missed the big bash at Tattered Cover, you can still join the Orange Mint and Honey party at West Side Books this Saturday (March 8) at 7:30. West Side Books is located in Denver's Highlands neighborhood at 3434 W. 32nd, Denver, CO 80211. There'll be live jazz, free food AND I'm giving a free gift to the 1st 10 people who buy a copy of OMAH there that night!

If you're in California, I hope you will join me at the following events coming up soon!

7 p.m., Wednesday, March 12
Eso Won Books, 4331 Degnan Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90008. Phone number: 323-290-1048

7 p.m., Monday, March 17
Dutton's Brentwood Bookstore, 11975 San Vicente Blvd, Los Angeles, CA. Phone number: 310-476-6263.

7 p.m., Friday, March 14
Marcus Books, 3900 Martin Luther King Jr Way, Oakland, CA 94609. Phone number: 510-652-2344.

(Yes, I'm doing Oakland in between events in L.A.)

And if you're in Virginia, don't miss the VA Book Fest in Charlottesville March 26-30! See Kim Reid, Therese Fowler, Judy Merrill Larson, Jenny Gardiner, me and many, many others!

But here's the big news: Look what I discovered to get my feet CA- and VA-sandal ready: orange mint foot cream! And speaking of feet...I have a confession to make: I have discovered zappos.com, a Godsend for a girl with size 11 feet. Check out one of my pairs of book-signing shoes (which were a bigger hit than me Tuesday night!) So the confession is that now that I Zappos...I kinda get the shoe thing.