This signals a slowdown in the crazy that has been the past few months for me. Plenty of other things have been happening, but I hardly looked up from my stack of reading to pay much notice. Now, with the bulk of the work done (I'll be hashing out the short list with my fellow judges very soon!), I can take a moment to share some nice things.
First of all, I'd like to say thank you to the fine folks that chose ORLEANS as a:
2015 Magnolia Book Awards Nominee (which I might have mentioned already.. the mind, these days, really!)
ORLEANS was written for the people down South, my own mother included. I'm happy to know my love letter has reached them!
I've also learned Flygirl is a 2014 ALA Popular Paperback Selection in the category of Conflicted: Life During Wartime. It's sad to think there's a special category for this, but I am honored to be a part of the literary conversation.
I've also got a few events coming up:
Sun, 10/12/14, 2:00 pm – Teen Read
Week: Meet the Author
Central Library,
630 W. Fifth St., Los Angeles, CA 90071
Celebrate
Teen Read Week by meeting great teen authors, enjoying snacks, and entering to
win free books! Author appearances by Cam
Baity and Benny Zelkowicz (The First Book of Ore: The Foundry's Edge),
Cherry Chevapravatdumrong (Open Mic: Riffs on Life Between Cultures in Ten
Voices), Simmone Howell (Girl
Defective), Jessica Love (Push Girl), Kathryn Rose (Camelot
Burning), and Sherri L Smith (Orleans).
Thurs., 10/23/14, 8:00 pm – Book’d In Burbank
Theatre Banshee,
3435 W. Magnolia, Burbank, CA 91505
Join the
season finale of Book’d in Burbank with a selection of Mystery, YA, Horror,
Romance and Humor readings from by Steph Cha (Beware, Beware), Sherri L. Smith
(Orleans), Devan Sagliani (Zombie Attack: Army of the Dead), Zoe Archer
(Wicked Temptation), Melissa Cutler (Risky Business) and Diane Haithman (Dark
Lady of Hollywood). Tickets available through Eventbrite or at the
door. General admission: $10.
Fri. 10/31 – Sun. 11/2/14 – Comikaze Expo – Details TBA
Wed., 11/18/14 – National Book Awards, NYC
I just read Flygirl. I couldn't find a place to comment about it, so I'm putting it here. I really enjoyed the book. I lived in Sweetwater for five years and worked for their newspaper as a reporter. I was there for the WASP 50th anniversary. I guess it was the 50th anniversary of the founding. Many of the women came, dragging their husbands along. It was great fun. The women were friendly and eager to relive their adventures for anyone who would listen. Janet Reno was the US attorney general at the time and she was the speaker for the Saturday night dinner. Her aunt had been a WASP and she had spoken at other reunions when she was still a state political figure. The old Avenger field is now the location of the Sweetwater campus of Texas State Technical College and the Fifinella statue is there along with a memorial wall that was up just in time for the reunion. At the time they were still planning for a museum but it hadn't been built yet. I went back with my family about three years ago and we pulled into the museum parking lot about five minutes before they closed so we still got to look around. You probably visited all those places while researching the book. It's fun to read a book about places you are familiar with. I'm hoping I can get my 12-year-old daughter to read it, she doesn't always (almost never) take my suggestions.
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