How Did Christopher Moore's Event Go? It was Really Great and I'm Very Sad That You Missed It. But I Only Direct That at 50 of You, Because After That, We Would Have Reached Capacity and You Would Have Waited Outside on the Signing Line.

And you would have gotten mad at me. And I would have said, "You should have come earlier." Oh, I can't even think about it. So glad that our turnout was not just a manageable 275, but a very fine and polite group of 275, who laughed and clapped in the right places. My hat's off to you, but not my pince nez, as I've misplaced it.

Speaking of lost items, I really do have to either find our store camera or replace it. I thought I took a bunch of photos on my phone, only to check later and have this be the only one in the file. Doesn't this look like seven people showed up at Christopher Moore's event last night, instead of the huge crowd that actually attended? I was positive that I took at least one of Moore and our pal Mary G., who was his author escort for the evening. But no.

Moore had just found out that Sacré Bleu just came in at #3 on The New York Times fiction hardcover bestseller list, his best appearance to date. It's hard to imagine he was at one time hoping just to hit the list, and now he dreams, like all best-selling authors, of #1. So here was his competition--in the brave new world of publishing, 9 of the top 15 titles are debuts.

1. The Lost Years, by Mary Higgins Clark (debut)
2. Guilty Wives, by James Patterson and David Ellis (second week)
3. Sacré Bleu, by Christopher Moore (debut)
4. The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection, by Alexander McCall Smith (debut)
5. The Shoemaker's Wife, by Adriana Trigiani (debut)
6. Betrayal, by Danielle Steel
7. Stay Close, by Harlan Coben
8. The Beginner's Goodbye, by Anne Tyler (debut)
9. Lover Reborn, by J.R. Ward (last week's #1)
10. Beastly Things, by Donna Leon (debut)
11. Gypped, by Carol Higgins Clark (debut)
12. Lone Wolf, by Jodi Picoult
13. A Dance with Dragons, by George R. R.  Martin
14. The Big Cat Nap, by Rita Mae Brown with Sneaky Pie Brown (debut)
15. Dorchester Terrace, by Anne Perry (debut)
16. Kill Shot, by Vince Flynn

Martin is the only book here that really has legs, with 36 weeks on the list, followed far behind by Flynn with 9 and Picoult with 6. There's also a divide between literary and commercial. Most of these authors are not first-timers (if any), but the only one who might have had a front-page New York Times Book Review is Anne Tyler, and honestly, the positioning of the new book with those tea cups sort of screams, "Please don't let me have a front-page review for my new novel."

But as you probably well know, for most authors, they have very little say in jacket for their book. I had a very interesting conversation about the various jacket ideas for the new book last night with Mr. Moore. Mostly I needed to confirm that the jacket for the advance reader's edition (yellow, with pince nez) was actually the treatment for the final novel, and not just a placeholder. The book's about the color blue and the jacket is yellow. I just couldn't get that through my head. (and note to the Dallas Morning News, who has a very nice review from David LaBounty, you're using the wrong jacket.)

But I digress. And whatever I was actually going to write about today will have to wait, as I am off to do some errands and then head to Boswell for tonight's event, the mysterious Trenton Lee Stewart, who is coming for The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict.

Paint it Blue. Christopher Moore's Newest, a Skewered Take on Art History, Particularly the French Impressionists, is On Sale Today (and He's Coming to Boswell on April 11).

As you may have noticed, I'm a little obessesed with color. It's important for me to know what the Pantone color of the year is (tangerine tango) and how many store owners look forward to running out of their store bags so they can obsess over what color they will reprint them in? Three cheers for Arctic blue, by the way.

I knew for a long time that Christopher Moore's new novel, Sacré Bleu was about the French Impressionists. I found out about it the same time many of you did, when he came to Boswell in support of his previous novel, Bite Me. Since I have four (sometimes more) Christopher Moore readers on staff, I thought that I would probably wind up reading one of my underdog book events, one that needed my extra support. But when I found out that the book was about the secret powers of the color blue (specifically ultramarine blue), it turned out that I was about to embark on my own Christopher Moore adventure.

I don't know how much research Moore does on his vampire novels, but his new novel, Sacré Bleu, is totally immersed in the French art world of the second half of the 19th century. Its jumping off point is the mysterious suicide of Vincent Van Gogh. Exactly why would he shoot himself, only to then head to a doctor? What if this wasn't really a suicide? And what if his wild spurts of creativity, punctured by mental distress, was a function of the paint.

And not just any paint, but a special blue supplied to him by The Colorman (first name "The") and enhanced by Bleu, the muse. Something seems amiss to Van Gogh's friend Lucien Lessard, a baker/painter who has not been particularly inspired during his life, despite being surrounded by famous artists. But after Van Gogh's death, his old flame Juliette returns, leading to bouts of sexual and artistic creativity. What's going on here? So he teams up with Henri Toulouse-Lautrec (you'll forgive me for not using his full name) to figure out exactly what is going on.

And it turns out that many other artists have had similar experiences with paint supplied to them by The Colorman, via their muse. And there are all sorts of mysteries to be solved. Why did the stained glass cathedrals of the middle ages, once festooned with beautiful blue glass, later wind up with a duller tone? And why did so many great artists contract syphilis?

Because of the bigger canvas of this book, and more historical detail and background, I've heard that a couple of early readers found that the setup takes longer for Sacré Bleu. I don't want to give too much away, but I can tell you that the second half of the book becomes more of the combination combination chase, conspiracy, and philosophical joyride that Moore books can be.

I love the way that Moore takes forty years of art history (or perhaps if you think about it, 30,000 years) and creates a crazed reality that still follows the reported facts of what happened with all the artists we know. The advance copy I read was punctuated by black and white reproductions of paintings that are touched on in the story. The first edition of Sacré Bleu will have color plates. Just a warning to you folks who putz around before buying a book you know you're going to read anyway.

The story is filled with all sorts of revelations and humorous asides to keep everything moving along. And Lucien is a classic Moore reluctant hero. I haven't read as many Moores as other Boswellians, but my early read quote from Conrad seemed to confer this. But what perhaps kept me thinking long after the book was over was Moore's take on creativity, and what artists sacrifice for true breakthroughs, and the mental turmoil that often accompanies works of genius. In many ways, it does seem to the resemble the passion and longing that accompanies romantic love and lust.

I'm certainly interested enough to order in some copies of the book that Moore recommends as one of the most readable of his research tools, Sue Roe's The Private Lives of the Impressionists. And now I'm off to buy some blue Sharpies. No surprise, but that's what Moore will be using to sign copies of Sacré Bleu when he appears at Boswell on Wednesday, April 11. It's a free event, I'd come early as last time we had well over 200 attendees.

Christopher Moore Inspires Every Bookseller's Urge to Create...a Blue Display.

Ever since I have been in bookselling, there has always been the tug of every display person I've worked with to creat displays based on the colors of books. I don't exempt myself, as we've had more than one post that noted a particular color palette lurking through recent releases.

But I've always spoken against the color display. Sure, it generally looks pretty, but what is it saying? And the merchant in me says, "What is it selling?" So for three years, I've been forcing all my booksellers to bottle up their creativity.

But then Christopher Moore came along with Sacré Bleu (on sale April 3), nothing if not an ode to the color blue. Set in 19th century France, it's the story of Lucien Lessard, a baker who gets a tube of ultramarine blue paint from the mysterious Juliette, as Library Journal puts it, "His painting becomes masterly and his life becomes a mess." To solve the mystery of the paint, Lessard's journey takes him across a canvas that include the masters--Renoir, Gaughin, Seurat, Monet, and Pisarro.

Here's what Boswellian Conrad had to say about Sacré Bleu: "Christopher Moore is our Wodehouse, albeit a twisted one. His novels inhabit a parallel universe oddly like our own but distinctly and humorously other. Sacré Bleu will satisfy your Moore itch and allow you once again to enter that tantalizing and bizarre world. As good as he gets."

And then the rumors started that there are color plates in the first edition. We don't know where it came from, but we certainly became obsessed with making sure we had a big order coming in. Big!  Because Christopher Moore's coming to Boswell, on Wednesday, April 11. And yes, the event is free!

I threatened last time to hit capacity, but we didn't quite make it. This time we want to fill the store. I'm already planning a line for folks outside for people to get their books signed after we get to our store's maximum.

But for now, I just want to have the bluest display ever. We found some totes, some candle votives, journals, and lots and lots of our favorite Polish wood boxes. And then we scoured the store for our very favorite blues novels--The Invisible Bridge, Day for Night, and our current fave (or it will be mine as soon as I read it, but for now I'm trusting Stacie), Glaciers.