Actually, on our honeymoon is 1981, Philip and I visited City Lights in SF, and we bought a limited edition black and white poster of Walt Whitman that we kept on our wall for 20 years, then gave it away to another poet. City Lights in Sylva is an utterly charming and cared-for shop, where everyone smiles and greets you when you come in, willing to help you find whatever you're looking for. Chris, the owner, is affable and knowledgeable about local history.
This was my virgin reading! The book launch in January was utterly successful, with about 100 people, but it was not the kind of reading you do with a circle of chairs at a book shop. So I started out by asking how many writers there were -- about a third of the 15 or so folks who were there. So they were interested in the back story.
Most wanted to know, too, about the story of how I came to forgive the boy (man) who murdered three of my family. So I did read some of that chapter. But we had lots of rich conversation, and I got to know the folks who came by. This is what I was hoping for when we sheduled a few local readings. Nothing will be canned. It will all flow organically, depending on who's there, and what they want to hear about. It worked well.
A couple of days before the reading, I had an idea: I took lines from the book that can lead us toward forgiveness, cut them up, and offered them from a long-stemmed glass as fortune cookie fortunes on forgiveness. Everyone loved that idea! For folks who bought books, I also offered a loving-kindness meditation that is not in the book and that was composed by Thich Nhat Hanh.
I'm really looking forward to our reading in Waynesville in a couple of weeks! And Malaprops in March. See News and Events.
This was my virgin reading! The book launch in January was utterly successful, with about 100 people, but it was not the kind of reading you do with a circle of chairs at a book shop. So I started out by asking how many writers there were -- about a third of the 15 or so folks who were there. So they were interested in the back story.
Most wanted to know, too, about the story of how I came to forgive the boy (man) who murdered three of my family. So I did read some of that chapter. But we had lots of rich conversation, and I got to know the folks who came by. This is what I was hoping for when we sheduled a few local readings. Nothing will be canned. It will all flow organically, depending on who's there, and what they want to hear about. It worked well.
A couple of days before the reading, I had an idea: I took lines from the book that can lead us toward forgiveness, cut them up, and offered them from a long-stemmed glass as fortune cookie fortunes on forgiveness. Everyone loved that idea! For folks who bought books, I also offered a loving-kindness meditation that is not in the book and that was composed by Thich Nhat Hanh.
I'm really looking forward to our reading in Waynesville in a couple of weeks! And Malaprops in March. See News and Events.
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