Writing Off site at the Writing Offsite

Another day, another offsite. Actually, we did almost none of these in February, which both gave me a rest, yet also had me more worried about monthly sales. The days when you could just throw open your bookstore doors and do business have been over for years.



This weekend I've been selling books at the UWM Spring writers festival. What I like about this crowd is that they are a bunch conducive to bookselling. Even though they know that they will be doing a lot of their business online, they are aware that a bookstore can also spread the word about their work.

It's two and a half days of lectures, panels, and every other conceivable kind of programming to help a budding writer. The keynote speakers were Agate Nesaule, Anthony Flacco, and Mukoma wa Nugugi. Flacco has some true crime, a mystery, and a writing book, which he cowrote with Sharlene Martin, another attendee. His newest is The Road Out of Hell, which tells the story behind the movie, "The Changeling." I love this description on our website because...

"In dramatizing one of the darkest cases in American crime, Flacco constructs a psychological drama about how one man is able to detoxify himself from the evil he'd encountered, offering the redemptive story of one man's remarkable ability to survive a nightmare and emerge intact."

...I have no idea what the book is about after reading it. (Editor's note--what I mean by this is that it's a really bad description that I have no control of. It doesn't indicate that it is the true story behind Clint Eastwood's movie "The Changeling", or even hint at what the crimes were. And who is "one man"? The killer? A relative? The author? I actually talked to Sharlene Martin, the book's agent, about perhaps fixing the copy on Ingram's database, which is used for all ABA e-commerce websites. For more background on the book, you might do better to look at the Wikipedia site on the Wineville Chicken Coop Murders.)

Ngugi has written Nairobi Heat, a noir mystery about an African man who return to Kenya for some crime solving, but gets caught in the world of violence, greed and prejudice. It's published by Penguin South Africa. The good part of that was that Penguin did import some copies to the U.S. The bad part is that it's a $26 paperback.

This program has been running for eight years, and last night, everybody gave a round of applause to Yolanda, who has been attending since the beginning. Several of my regular customers are in attendance, which is fun, as is Rochelle Melander, who helped with our NaNoWriMo program last November.

I expected to give out a lot of business cards, but...I forgot to bring them. Hey, they know how to get a hold of me.

Thank you to Anne for setting this up. If you are interested in getting on the mailing list for next year's program, contact Anne O'Meara at the School of Continuing Education at UWM.

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.