Some Details on Upcoming Events with Nesaule, Allen and Kehoe--Because Every Event Can Always Use an Extra Push

A couple of events this week that I want to call to your attention. In particular, tonight's event went out in the last email newsletter, but it's been almost two weeks. Another hitch? If you look carefully, we describe both Ms. Nesaule and Mr. Allen's new books, we talk about their last books, but we don't exactly mention the titles of their new books. Our yellow events flier? Yes, it's there. But email? A little problem, and I apologize.

Monday, June 15th, 7 PM

(That's tonight if you're reading the post fresh, and many many years ago if this appeared as an internet time capsule).

Agate Nesaule, author of her novel, In Love with Jerzy Kosinski

Nesaule is known for her memoir A Woman in Amber. Her novel, which I believe is her first, is about a Latvian-American woman, who having escaped from political oppression, finds herself under psychological enslavement by her Wisconsin husband. She uses Kosinski as inspiration to find herself, find happiness, and find forgiveness.

Here's an interview with Nesaule on Portal Wisconsin. She's said to be doing a show on Wisconsin Public Radio today. In Milwaukee, that would be WHAD.

Appearing with Ms. Nesaule...

Also at 7 PM, Monday, June 15th

Dwight Allen, author of the novel The Typewriter Satyr.

Author of the acclaimed story collection, The Green Suit, Allen's new novel is a quirky story of two people finding each other in the fictional town of Midvale. Gee, I wonder where that is? Read more in Geeta Sharma Jensen's column about Allen in the Journal Sentinel.

Here's Geeta Jensen's writeup of both authors (plus a few more) in her roundup of new Wisconsin-author fiction. Alas, though Chris at University of Wisconsin Press has done an excellent job of getting press for his authors, in both cases, I booked the event after the pieces ran.

Tuesday, June 16th, 7 PM

Nancy, Kehoe, author of Wrestling with Our Inner Angels.

Kehoe uses her background as a nun and psychologist to look at the role of faith and spirituality in the treatment of mental illness. I first heard about this book from Kehoe's cousin, who chatted with me at the old Schwartz location in Brookfield (yes, I worked everywhere).

Kehoe's also talking at the Milwaukee County Medical Complex in Wauwatosa, as well as at Gesu Church by the Marquette campus. Both these events were privately publicized, so we're taking a chance on whether those events got most of the interested parties to attend.

Look! Kehoe keeps a blog up that just lists upcoming events. And here's a nice interview with Kehoe.

What else should I have done to get the word out? Ads? It just doesn't seem appropriate for these books--I'd pay for views, but the actual audience is more targeted. Contacting the local mental health professionals? I hoped that by having another event at County, they'd spread the word about both events. But now that I've been doing this a bit, I've learned that sometimes, my partners only mention their events. I don't mention theirs, because they are usually closed to the public. But should I change my policy? Sort of the way I'm talking about exchanging bulletin board space?

Work in progress, work in progress. All in all, from what I hear, our events are considered to be going pretty successfully. We had 40 people for our Flavor of Wisconsin event and 30 for our joint kids event, Roawr! and Snickeyfritz. In the best of times at Schwartz, some events worked better than others. And it's possible that both these events will turn out fine.

But my rule of thumb is "Worry about all of them." And that's what I'm doing.