Virginia Culture Lovers, Please Help!

This just in from the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, which sponsors the highlight of my year, the Virginia Festival of the Book. (Coming next month!)

THE SITUATION
Over the weekend, the Virginia House Appropriations Committee voted to cut state funding for VFH by $290,000, effective July 1, 2010, and to eliminate all state funding for VFH, effective July 1, 2011. The Senate Finance Committee recommended cutting the VFH budget by $290,000 effective July 1, 2010, but recommended no further cuts. Each House will vote on its own budget on February 25, and the difference in the two budgets will be resolved in conference committee.

VFH has already experienced deep cuts, in the last two budget years, adversely affecting every VFH program. Additional cuts will undermine such well-known educational programs as the Virginia Festival of the Book, Encyclopedia Virginia, VFH Grants and Fellowships, With Good Reason Radio programs; African American, Virginia Indian, and Virginia Folklife Programs.

PLEASE ACT IMMEDIATELY
Call, fax, or email your State Delegates and Senators to protest additional cuts to advocate for continued funding. Find your legislators’ contact information here.

• Be personal. Talk about your involvement and commitment to the VFH.
• Forward this request to your boards, membership, and address book.
• Post a comment on your Facebook or other social networking site, asking that other Virginians contact their legislators as well.
• Write a post on your personal blog stating how you feel about these budget cuts.
• Email or call your local news outlets to express your dismay and describe the effect of such cuts.

Talking Points for These Contacts with Legislators and Media Outlets

• VFH funding and programs increase the attractiveness of the state as a tourism destination by assisting museums and cultural sites to provide excellent visitor experiences.
• VFH Grants support organizations and communities important to you and your representatives.
• VFH increases the attractiveness of communities to new businesses.
• VFH builds the educational capacity of Virginia's teachers by providing resources and professional development opportunities.
• VFH provides financial and professional development support to Virginia's museums, building community social capital and pride.
• VFH Leverages state funds with cash and in-kind matches.
• VFH promotes a vigorous exchange of ideas, and is a leader in modeling civil public dialogue. Radio shows like With Good Reason improve our understanding of the issues we face as a Commonwealth and a nation. The Virginia Festival of the Book is a nationally recognized model of public discussion. Now more than ever, our situation requires that we approach public policy with an understanding of the past, a willingness to confront issues of the present, and a commitment to shaping a more promising future.

Click here for additional information on how VFH programs contribute to the economic and educational vitality of the Commonwealth.

Additional Sources of Information on VFH Programs and Advocacy Tips
Effects of Cuts (doc)
Program Accomplishments (doc)
VFH Programs
VFH Website
VFH Mission and Strategic Vision
General VFH Information (doc)
Advocacy Tips (doc)
The Do's and Don'ts of Legislative Letter Writing (pdf)
Advocacy Visit Report Form (doc)
About the Humanities (pdf)

Find Your Virginia General Assembly Representatives
Who's My Legislator?
Contact Information of Senators
Contact Information of Delegates

"The writer has led us back to ourselves."

My friend and Charlottesville VA Literary Lady Janis Jaquith gave a terrific keynote speech in January at the Roanoke Regional Writers Conference. Read it at her website, or listen (if you have QuickTime) here.

Catch Me If You Can

After spending most of Oct-Dec in bed recovering from surgery for a herniated lumbar disc, I'm going to be zooming around again. Here's my events schedule (so far) thru May.

January 24 - Book Promotion 101 Teleseminar
3:00-4:30pm ET (12:00-1:30 PT)
Includes Q&A, Marketing Plan Worksheet & private 15-minute follow-up consultation.

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January 29 & 30 - Space Coast Writers Guild Conference
Cocoa Beach, FL

• "Book Promotion 101"
• "Polish Your Pitch"
• individual 10-minute pitch coaching sessions

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March 19 - Book Promotion 101 Workshop
WriterHouse, Charlottesville, VA
9:00am-12:00pm
Guest speaker: Alison Larkin, author of The English American

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Virginia Festival of the Book, Charlottesville

March 18, 7:00pm - "Candy & Booze: Good for the Jews?" Moderator; with Katharine Weber (True Confections) and Max Watman (Chasing the White Dog: An Amateur Outlaw’s Adventures in Moonshine).

March 19, 4:00pm - "The Business of Book Reviewing: Changes & Challenges"
Host; Ron Charles, Washington Post, and freelancers David Montgomery, Rebecca Skloot and Katharine Weber; moderated by Bethanne Kelly Patrick.

March 20, 10:00am - "Book Promotion for the 21st Century">
Moderator; with nonfiction author Jag Bhalla, novelist Carleen Brice, book publicist Kelly Powers and science writer Rebecca Skloot.

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Backspace Writers Conference, New York

May 27, 6:00pm - "Polish Your Pitch" with Ron Hogan

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Follow the Apple

A couple of years ago I planted a Stayman Winesap apple tree in my backyard. I since found out that it's self-unfruitful, meaning it needs another variety to pollinate it. Yesterday I bought two Cortland apple trees at Home Depot, instead of a Cortland and a Jonagold, (mis)remembering that they were good pollinators for Stayman. I just did some online research and found out that Cortland and Jonagold are the absolute wrong trees to plant with Stayman, as they won't cross-pollinate. Not that the Stayman has produced any flowers to date. But, ever the eternal optimistic (or deluded) gardener, I want to be ready for next year.

Deep into my Google search, I found this tidbit on a website about old apple varieties:
During the American Revolution, captured Hessian soldiers held near Winchester VA planted an orchard with Fameuse (aka Snow) apples.

My curiosity piqued, I did a search for Hessian soldiers Virginia, and found some fascinating--and appalling--stuff.

In a Wikipedia article on Winchester:

Hessian soldiers were known for walking to the high ridge north and west of town and purchasing and eating apple pies from the Quakers. Thus, this ridge west of town became affectionately known as Apple Pie Ridge and the Ridge Road built before 1709 leading north from town was renamed Apple Pie Ridge Road.

In the New York Times there is a March 31, 1912, article with the innocuous headline Virginia Mountains Shelter Colony of Lost Hessians.

And then there's the subhead:

Descendants of Hirelings in Revolutionary War Who After Their Release Took Refuge in Gloomy Hills Near Charlottesville, Live There in Rude Huts, A Law to Themselves and a Forgotten Band.

Those would be the same hills that visitors ooh and aah over when I take them for drives around C'ville.

The article tells how, after the Revolution, Hessian soldiers who had been imprisoned in Charlottesville (which named Barracks Road and Hessian Hills after them) took off and settled in the nearby Ragged Mountains, "a small range of black, gloomy hills." The Times's anonymous reporter then wrote, apparently forgetting that Hessians were, um, Saxons:

As we have recently learned, the Blue Ridge mountaineers are a fearless, lawless folk of the purest Anglo-Saxon blood. They have a native intelligence and furnish the best kind of material for a civilization to be built upon. A good citizen can be made out of a Blue Ridge dweller when put in the right environment....

The Hessians are quite different. They have little if any understanding of modern morality. Marriage is a luxury, which has seldom lingered at their doors.

There is hardly a cabin in these mountains which does not harbor an idiot, the result of atrocious family relations.

Wow! It gets even better:

When neighbourly quarrels arise they usually fight it out with sticks and stones and their big bony fists. Firearms are reserved for the wild turkeys and quail.

The Hessian women do most of the heavy work. The men cut a little wood and train the coon dogs. If the women become unruly they are whipped by their husbands.

The reporter supposedly heard a woman being beaten by her husband. Next day the reporter asked her brother what he was going to do about it. The supposed reply?

"Well, I reckon I can't do much. Fact is, I was a beatin' my own wife last night."

In the Good Old Days at the Newspaper of Record, I guess reporters weren't required to actually report and cite sources if unsubstantiated opinions and vaudeville jokes would do just as well.

P.S. Now I'm on the lookout for Delicious, Lodi, Honeycrisp, Golden Delicious or Fuji apple trees.

Closer than Ever

My friend Stefanie, the artistic, social & culinary doyenne of Schuyler, VA, sends this update on Onslow (at right above) and best pal Snickers (left), who despite all appearances does not officially live at her Gracious Home.

Whether it was the therapy sessions or the sudden realization that there is no "I" in "Dog," our favorite duo has a more harmonious relationship than ever.

Take this Test!

Wild times in Schuyler, VA.

From my friend Stefanie, artistic, social & culinary doyenne of greater Schuyler (pop. 1,286):

One of these large amorphous shapes is a carbon-based life-form. The other is an inanimate object. Can you tell which is which?

Its constant presence notwithstanding, the object on the left (aka "Snickers") officially belongs to Stefanie's neighbors down the road.

It's a Wrap!

Response to Dog Rest Ye Merry, direct from Schuyler, VA:

You know, sometimes during a photo shoot with the boys, nerves get frayed (you can see that in the images, can't you?), words get barked that can't be unbarked, somebody eats a biscuit that was meant for somebody else. It's all part of the wear and tear of the creative process.

Yet seeing our finished work in print on your blog, knowing that our take (or should I say "fetch"?) on the world is reaching millions...well, it makes it all worthwhile.

Thank you thank you thank you,
--Stefanie & troupe

Happy holidays to all!

Dog Rest Ye Merry

Onslow & Snickers get into the Christmas spirit.

I know what you've been thinking:
"Enough about book publicity, and your self-absorbed musings! What's been going on with the dogs in Schuyler, VA?"

Well, my friend Stefanie, social and culinary doyenne of Schuyler, just sent me the above photo. As you can see, Onslow and regular visitor Snickers (aka "the canine Kramer") are working on a holiday-themed synchronized napping routine. I like how Onslow's hind foot is tucked into his armpit. Note the supine penguin at rear (for scale); and in the basket at upper right, part of the banner of Charlottesville's own newspaper, The Daily Progress (aka "the Regress").

For more awwww-some photos, check out GalleyCat and the Rocky Mountain News Holiday Pets Slideshow (my favorites: #4, 13, 19, 43, 57, 58, 60).

Everyone's a Critic

My friend Stefanie, Bennington MFA & artistic/social doyenne of Schuyler, VA, looked at the photo of Max & Jenny in my previous post (En Vacances) and offered this assessment:

Although I give them points for artistry, I’m afraid that the synchronization of their napping form is lacking. Orientation of one’s pose is SO important.

I watched synchronized diving today on the Olympics. (Like plain diving isn’t hard enough? They have to synchronize it?) It was quite interesting, and Onslow thought the divers did a pretty good job, although they didn’t have the effortlessness and sense of absolute stillness that make Onslow’s and Snickers's work such a joy to watch.

For those who don't recall the boys' oeuvre, here's a refresher:

Onslow (left) and perpetual houseguest Snickers practise their synchronized napping routine.

Punked

It's the weekend, which means it's time once again to check in with Jenny's old friend Onslow in fabulous Schuyler, VA. Onslow's keeper Stefanie writes:

It wasn't long before Onslow became disillusioned with the slick, overproduced Disco style of napping. It was time to find raw power and intensity in the nap idiom.

So here is Onslow, Punk Napper. He has exchanged one accessory (Snickers, the hanger-on) for another (handsome green Mohawk). As a reaction against the synthetic beds of his Disco period, he is dispensing with beds completely. It's just the floor, the nap and him.

In case you are wondering about his influences, the most important one is the Ramones. Their "I Wanna Be Sedated" speaks to him, for some reason.

Onslow may feel kinship with the Ramones, but he's not giving credit where it's due: to Richie Stotts, original lead guitarist of The Plasmatics, who popularized the Mohawk back in the 1970s. (I'll never forget the time I saw him get on the subway at 14th Street, 6'7" and rail thin with the indigo Mohawk. Everyone in the car cleared a space for him; the looks he got from the other riders were priceless.)

Richie Stotts of The Plasmatics

They Love the Night Life

Snickers (foreground) and Onslow have a ball in bed.

Breaking news from my friend Stefanie, artistic doyenne of Schuyler, VA:

I am happy to report that Onslow and Snickers have joined forces for at least one more project. Onslow persuaded Snickers that of late their naps were becoming too esoteric and too serious. The joy of the early naps was missing.

The time had come to kick up their paws. The result: "Disco Nap". (The disco soccer ball is a nice touch, don't you think?) It must be said that Snickers is looking a little pensive, perhaps not yet comfortable in his new funky incarnation. He need only look to Onslow and learn.

We hope that this latest nap will introduce a whole new generation to Onslow's and Snickers's oeuvre.

I'm sure everyone is relieved, as I am, that Delilah the bitch didn't succeed in breaking up the boys' collaboration. (Though it may be time for them to get their own blog.)

Artistic Differences

Snickers (front) and Onslow (waaay back).

When last we checked in with my dog Jenny's old pals in Virginia, Onslow and Snickers, they were sharing Onslow's capacious bed. But now, my friend Stefanie (Onslow's keeper and Snickers's ever-gracious hostess) writes:

As you can see from the photo, Snickers and Onslow are going through a period of adjustment and, if truth be told, discord. They just don't have the same vision anymore when it comes to synchronized napping. Really, Delilah the corgi mix (otherwise known as Yoko Ono) has been having a wrenching effect on their collaboration. She keeps yelping that Snickers is the "real artist" of the duo. As if!

Anyway, we're very excited about their next--and possibly final--project. It's a portfolio of nap photographs called "The White Album." Although it features both dogs, it really may be considered two individual albums.

Wish them well during this period of transition.

We can only hope that the boys' separation is due to the springtime warmth, and not that pushy, manipulative bitch.

P.S. from Stefanie:

I know that their many fans would like them to stay together, but ever since Onslow started going to the ashram in Buckingham County, he realizes that there is more to life than money or even a huge bed.

Mr. Jefferson's Academical Village

Has it already been a week since I took these photos on and around The Grounds (NOT "the campus") at UVa? How quickly the time passes--especially when one has been in bed zoning out on Valium (for back spasms) and bittersweet chocolate (just because). Click on images for full-screen viewing.




Left, "The Corner" (actually a fairly straight street) by the University of Virginia.





Below, the Rotunda and statue of its architect, Thomas Jefferson.

Above: Glorious magnolia tree and chapel(?).





Right: Flowering quince spilling over a walled garden, as seen through Pavilion pillars.












Left: Courtyard garden by the Rotunda.





Below: Just like home...in my dreams!





















Left: "The Lawn."











Right: Under a portico along The Lawn. Highly prized rooms (given as honors to students, though they're far from any plumbing) are along the left.





Below: Students studying in a Lawn room. I dearly hope that Mr. Jefferson is writhing in his grave, as in his day "Africans" were only allowed in those rooms to clean up.























The gentlemen scholars' servants (read: slaves) were housed under the Lawn rooms; hence the ventilation grill between the threshold and step in the photo below. History isn't always pretty when you look beneath the surface.

The Grass Is Always Greener...in Virginia

I took these photos on Wednesday, my first full day back in beautiful Charlottesville, my late (lamented) hometown.

Left, community garden behind the English Inn, where I used to walk Jenny.

Darling Husband and I picked up Joshua Henkin (MATRIMONY) at the airport on Wed., as he was on a panel that evening at VaBook. We gave him the Anti-Brooklyn Experience by taking him to the sumptuous and über-goyische Keswick Hall for lunch.

Josh Henkin at Keswick Hall. At his back is the golf course, designed by Arnold Palmer.

God bless America, springtime, and especially Mr. Jefferson's University (that's UVa to you). The statue of TJ, as the locals call him, can be glimpsed on the far right.

Bella on the Move

Sign at Virginia Gateway Shopping Center, Gainesville, VA

Further to Bella's Back, I espied the above while stopping for lunch along the road between Dulles and Charlottesville on Tues. Like mushrooms after a soaking rain, enormous new shopping centers have sprouted up. Now there are entire "villages" of chain stores and motels where fields and woods had been just 2-1/2 years ago. (Though I have to admit that our lunch at Panera Bread was tasty, well-priced and relaxing. And the iced tea was excellent.)

At the Special CO-VA Literary Ladies Luncheon today, the LL to my left happily told me that she had named her new dog Bella. I told her that, to my knowledge, that makes her dog Bella #5 amongst the canine population in Cville.

Me & My Peeps at VaBook Festival - 3/29 & 3/30

Here are programs that I, my current & former clients and buddies are doing. See the Literary Ladies Luncheon blog for listings of programs involving LLLers.

SAT 3/29
10:00am Crime Wave: Scenes of the Crimes
Cara Black (Murder in the Rue de Paradis), Margaret Coel (The Girl with the Braided Hair), Tony Dunbar (Tubby Meets Katrina), and James W. Hall (Hell's Bay).
Moderator: Andy Straka

10:00am Publishing Day: Where Publishing Is Headed
Join Catharine Lynch (Associate Publisher, G.P. Putnam's Sons, Penguin), Ed Barber (Senior Editor, W.W. Norton) and Virginia Barber (Editor-at-Large, Grove Atlantic) for a discussion of the industry's horizons.

12:00pm Publishing Day: Promoting Like a Pro
What it takes to publicize your book, online and elsewhere, and how to present yourself to media. Bella Stander (Book Promotion 101) with book publicists Lauren Cerand and Kelly Powers (Obie Joe Media).

1:30pm Tantric Practices Workshop
Related Event. Mark Michaels and Patricia Johnson will delve into practical techniques for expanding pleasure in intimacy, as well as in everyday life. They will cover two areas: pleasure as spiritual practice, and the chakras and sexuality. $50. To register: email {info at TantraPM.com}.

2:00pm Crime Wave: Historical Mysteries
Clare Langley-Hawthorne (Consequences of Sin), David L. Robbins (The Betrayal Game), Tasha Alexender (A Poisoned Season), and Jacqueline Winspear (An Incomplete Revenge).

2:00pm Nice Jewish Boys Gone Wild!
Fiction and memoir with Marc Estrin (The Lamentations of Julius Marantz), A.J. Jacobs (The Year of Living Biblically), Adam Mansbach (The End of the Jews) and Peter Charles Melman (Landsman).
Moderator: Bella Stander

2:00pm Publishing Day: Managing Expectations
Clinical psychologist Susan O’Doherty (Getting Unstuck Without Coming Unglued) helps examine the goals, motivations, and expectations that come with being an author.
Moderator: Susan Tyler Hitchcock

4:00pm Crime Wave--Life on the Streets with Cops and PIs
James O. Born (Burn Zone), Austin S. Camacho (Blood and Bone), Libby Hellmann (Easy Innocence), Frank Muir (Eye for an Eye) and Andy Straka (Record of Wrongs).

4:00pm Echoes of the Great War
With novelists Nicholas Griffin (Dizzy City), Thomas Mullen (The Last Town on Earth) and Jacqueline Winspear (Maisie Dobbs mystery series).
Moderator: Bella Stander

4:00pm Publishing Day: Agents' Roundtable
A publishing day discussion with agents Simon Lipskar (Writers' House), Rita Rosenkranz (Rita Rosenkranz Literary Agency), and Bill Gladstone (Waterside Productions).

SUN 3/30
There are several excellent programs, but the only one with "my" people is the 11:45am LINKS Celebration Brunch, which Carleen Brice will be attending.

I laid the hard sell about the festival on Walter Mosley after he spoke at the NBCC meeting in NYC last year. Beyond that, I take zero credit for the 4:00pm event, Walter Mosley: A Literary Life.

My Peeps at VaBook Festival - 3/28

Following is a listing of programs that my current & former clients and buddies are doing. See the Literary Ladies Luncheon blog for listings of programs involving LLLers.

FRI 3/28
10:00am African American Revolutionaries
Paul Alkebulan (Survival Pending Revolution: The History of the Black Panther Party), Wesley C. Hogan (Many Minds, One Heart: SNCC's Dream for a New America) and Patrick McGilligan (The Great and Only Oscar Micheaux: The Life of America's First Black Filmmaker).

10:00am Fiction at Work--Novels of the Working Life
Mark Ethridge (Grievances), Saira Rao (Chambermaid) and Malcolm McPherson (Hocus Potus).

2:00pm Families Coming Together: Fiction and Memoir
With novelists Carleen Brice (Orange Mint and Honey) and Emilie Richards (Touching Stars), and memoirist Kim Reid (No Place Safe).
Moderator: Grace Zisk

2:00pm Living on the Edge: Cons and Characters
Michael Sims (Editor of new edition of Arsene Lupin's Gentleman Thief), Nicholas Griffin (Dizzy City) and Dallas Hudgens (Season of Gene) explore clever rogues in tense situations.
Moderator: Jenny Gardiner

2:00pm The Civil War in Fiction
Novels of the Civil War with Nick Taylor (The Disagreement), set in Charlottesville, and Peter Charles Melman (Landsman), set in New Orleans and on the move.

6:00pm Dracula vs. Frankenstein: A Monster Mash of Fact and Fiction
With Paul Bibeau (Sundays with Vlad: From Pennsylvania to Transylvania, One Man's Quest to Live in the World of the Undead) and Susan Tyler Hitchcock (Frankenstein: A Cultural History).

8:00pm Crime Wave: Murder, Murder Everywhere
David Ignatius (Body of Lies), Margaret Coel (The Girl with The Braided Hair), James W. Hall (Hell's Bay) and Jacqueline Winspear (An Incomplete Revenge).

8:00pm Introduction to Tantra
Mark A. Michaels and Patricia Johnson, authors of The Essence of Tantric Sexuality and Tantra for Erotic Empowerment, will discuss key principles of Tantra, an ancient tradition recognizing sexual energy as a source of personal and spiritual enlightenment.

My Peeps at VaBook Festival - 3/26 & 3/27

The Virginia Festival of the Book begins Wednesday, and Tuesday I'm off to beautiful Charlottesville, my late (lamented!) hometown for the festivities. Following is a listing of programs that my current & former clients and buddies are doing. See the Literary Ladies Luncheon blog for listings of programs involving LLLers.

WED 3/26
12:00pm High Gloss: Making the Beautiful Book
With Susan Tyler Hitchcock (Geography of Religion: Where God Lives, Where Pilgrims Walk), Jon Lohman (In Good Keeping: Virginia's Folk Apprenticeships), and Anne B. Barriault and Kay Davidson (Selections from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts).

4:00pm Opening the Vein: Pouring Life into Writing
The Moseley Writers, Jennifer Riesmeyer Elvgren (Josias, Hold the Book), Deborah Prum (Rats, Bulls, and Flying Machines), Fran Cannon Slayton (How to Hop a Moving Train), and Andy Straka (Record of Wrongs), discuss how real life experiences inform fiction and keep writing fresh in a marketing-saturated world.
Moderator: Andy Straka

4:00pm Life As We Know It: Novels of Change and Healing
With Virginia Boyd (One Fell Swoop), Therese Fowler (Souvenir) and Judy Merrill Larsen (All the Numbers).

6:00pm Trying to Get it Right: Fiction About Marriage
Jenny Gardiner (Sleeping with Ward Cleaver), James Collins (Beginner's Greek), and Joshua Henkin (Matrimony) offer fictional perspectives of twenty-first century marriages.
Moderator: Jeanne Siler
* * * * * * * * * * * *

THURS 3/27
12:00pm Race and Place: Memoirs
With Margaret Gibson (The Prodigal Daughter: Reclaiming an Unfinished Childhood), Evans Hopkins (Life After Life: A Story of Rage and Redemption), and Kim Reid (No Place Safe: A Family Memoir).

12:00pm History in These Waters: Pre-Jamestown to the Present
Amy Waters Yarsinske (The Elizabeth River) and Avery Chenoweth (Empires in the Forest: Jamestown and the Beginning of America).

12:00pm Reading Group Choices
Barbara Mead (Reading Group Choices), James Collins (Beginner's Greek), Jill A. Davis (Girl's Poker Night, Ask Again Later), and Therese Fowler (Souvenir).

2:00pm Of Vice and Men: Crime, Money, and Panic in America
Kenneth Ackerman (Young J. Edgar), Steven Harper (Crossing Hoffa: A Teamster's Story), and co-authors Robert F. Bruner and Sean Carr (The Panic of 1907: Lessons Learned from the Market's Perfect Storm).

2:00pm In Good Keeping: Virginia's Living Traditions
Jon Lohman (author) and Morgan Miller (photographer) will discuss the making of their book, In Good Keeping, on the Virginia Folklife Program. Charles McRaven, a folklife master craftsman (The Stone Primer) will discuss his books.

6:00pm Battles of the Civil War
Jack Hurst (Men of Fire: Grant, Forrest, and the Campaign that Decided the Civil War), John Baldwin (Last Flag Down: The Epic Journey of the Last Confederate Warship), and Marc Leepson (Desperate Engagement).

8:00pm Evil and Sin
With authors Barbara Oakley (Evil Genes: Why Rome Fell, Enron Rose, Hitler Failed, and My Sister Stole My Mother's Boyfriend), John Portmann (A History of Sin) and Jennifer Geddes (Evil After Postmodernism).

8:00pm Fiction Favorites
With Adriana Trigiani (The Big Stone Gap series), Homer Hickam (Rocket Boys, Red Helmet), and Jill A. Davis (Ask Again Later, Girl's Poker Night.)

Back in Ol' Virginny II (More on VaBook Fest)

Audience at my "Book Publicity Basics" panel. Some people are serious note-takers!

Continuing with my excellent adventures at the VaBook Festival, last Saturday I woke up early to have breakfast with a friend at the incomparable Albemarle Baking Company. It's as good--or better!--as any bakery in New York, maybe even Paris. I've yet to find one remotely like it in Denver. SIGH....

I'd say I woke up bright and early, only it was heavily overcast and correspondingly humid. My aching head and pounding sinuses reminded me why I was eager to move away from Charlottesville. I love the people and the scenery speaks to me like noplace else, but oh, the pain and puffy-eyed dullness!

A handful of vitamins, a couple cups of serious coffee and a marvelous apricot brioche got me into shape to face the masses (well, about 80 people) at my 10am "Book Publicity Basics" program. The panelists were indie publicists Lauren Cerand, Elizabeth Shreve and Gene Taft; Callie Oettinger cancelled due to a wicked upper respiratory infection (I persuaded her to stay home & keep her germs to herself, for which I was roundly thanked). There was much good discussion, and all three stressed that authors need to be 1) REALISTIC, 2) professional and 3) prepared. The audience (very few of whom walked out, to my great relief) soaked it all up, asked a lot of questions and then stormed the podium afterward for one-on-one with the panelists.

Next I moderated Sam Horn's "Here's the Pitch," which frankly needed very little from me as Sam is a force of nature. She's quiet and softspoken till she picks up a microphone and then...vavoom! Sam told everyone to take notes and they obeyed. Not a single person walked out. After imparting the secrets of crafting and presenting a winning pitch, she had five volunteers from the audience stand up and give theirs.

I've been doing pitch sessions in my Book Promotion 101 workshops for nearly 5 years, but still I never cease to be amazed at how poorly writers speak about their work. (Think of Miles in "Sideways" when he's asked to describe his novel.) One guy wouldn't even say whether his book was fiction or nonfiction. I and more than half the audience thought it was nonfiction (I took a vote). Eventually, I wormed out of him that it was in fact a novel. When I asked him to describe it more, he told me "You'll have to read the book." WARNING: Don't try this at home, or in a TV/radio studio. The last time an author told me that, I killed the magazine piece I was going to write about him and wrote up an interview with another author.

After that, I had lunch with my friend Stefanie at the Omni. The menu stated "Soup of the Moment," which got us laughing. I asked the waiter, "What's the soup this moment?" "Beef vegetable," he answered in a thick Slavic accent (much of the help there seems to be imported from the former Eastern Bloc), "but next moment it's onion." He got a big tip.

At 4pm, I went to the Agents' Roundtable, which as always got a crowd of at least 200. Panelists were Sloane Harris of ICM, Simon Lipskar of Writers House, Deborah Grosvenor of Grosvenor Literary Agency and Jeff Kleinman of Folio Literary Agency. The panelists kept cracking up because Kleinman kept cracking wise; however they were quite serious when it came down to business.

Main message points:
1) Good writing trumps all.
2) Do research & find out which agents represent your type of book.
3) Write a crackling query letter. (See #1.)

Then I went to the festival reception, where I drank much water and shmoozed with old friends and new acquaintances. After that, Mary Sharratt and I had dinner with Sam Horn and her son Tom, who daringly wore a Virginia Tech cap (Charlottesville is home to arch-rival UVa). Tom answered a question that's been bugging me and countless others for many years: Why does Hawaii have an Interstate highway? (Answer: For the military.)

After THAT (yes, I was still standing, though a bit hoarse), I made a quick sweep of the Omni bar, where I chatted with MJ Rose, Katherine Neville and Simon Lipskar, who were at a table together; and then bade a weary goodnight to the even wearier festival assistant director, Kevin McFadden, who was counting down the hours till his 30th birthday.

Sunday morning I was up early for coffee with Mary Sharratt and Louis Bayard, author of THE PALE BLUE EYE, a marvelous historical mystery-thriller starring a youthful Edgar Allan Poe. From there, I went for breakfast with friends at their peaceful spread in Ivy, then took my favorite drive of all--through Free Union and Earlysville--to have lunch with other friends in Forest Lakes, conveniently near the airport.

I printed out my boarding pass at the latter's home, but when I checked in not two hours later, I was told that the Northwest flights I had confirmed were "grossly oversold." Instead of going on a tiny prop plane to Detroit, I was switched to a Delta jet through Atlanta and then to Denver. I'd only bought the less-desirable Northwest fare because it was hundreds of dollars cheaper than on Delta. So I got the route I'd wanted in the first place, PLUS a bulkhead row all to myself from Atlanta to Denver, PLUS a $200 Delta voucher for my "inconvenience," PLUS I chowed down on fried chicken, collards & okra at the Atlanta airport.

And yes, I was exhausted on Monday. But I dug up and moved some plants anyway because, hey, it's spring and my sinuses were happy to be high and dry again.

Chris Greene Lake Park, where I hung out for a happy half-hour when I was bumped for a later flight.

Back in Ol' Virginny I

Last Thursday thru Sunday I was at the Virginia Festival of the Book, held in my most recent (and keenly missed) home town of Charlottesville. From the time I hit the ground in VA at 4pm, almost every waking moment was scheduled.

From the cute little Charlottesville-Albemarle Regional Airport, I went directly to the Cville Barnes & Noble. There, consulting client Lynne Olson, author of TROUBLESOME YOUNG MEN: The Rebels Who Brought Churchill to Power and Helped Save England (just out from FSG), was on a panel about the build-up to World War II. The audience was mostly older and male, some of whom had very definite ideas about history, which they expounded upon at great length during the Q&A session and one-on-one during the booksigning session afterward. I thought the moderator was going to have ask them to take it outside. The only more opinionated and contentious book festival audience I've seen was at a Civil War panel. Those guys know what happened in every single freaking second of the Woe-wuh (as it's pronounced in the South) and are only too eager to share their knowledge.

Thursday evening I went to the synagogue (there's only one in Cville) for "Repeating the Past: Historical Fictions, Present Day Truths" with Katharine Weber (Triangle), Gabriel Brownstein (The Man from Beyond) and Michael Lowenthal (Charity Girl). I felt that we should have said a barucha or two, as the panelists were Jewish and practically everyone in the audience was a temple member. (A conspicuously goyische couple--she was in a flashy panne velvet ensemble--left halfway through.) Weber et al. exemplified how authors should perform: read clearly and with feeling, speak intelligently and SUCCINCTLY, interact with each other, express admiration for each others' writing, crack wise.

Friday morning I had a breakfast meeting, then an appointment with my homeopath, then a fabulous Literary Ladies Luncheon, followed by an impromptu drive out to beautiful Lake Albemarle (SIGH...how I miss it!) with an LLLer. At 5pm, I met Mary Sharratt (The Vanishing Point) and Peter Orner (The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo) for coffee, then we had our "Displaced Persons" panel at 6:00. Their books are wildly different: Mary's is about a 17th century English girl who goes to the wilds of Maryland in search of her older sister; Peter's is about a boys' school in drought-stricken rural Namibia a few years ago. I didn't put the panel together; still, we managed to find common--and fertile--ground between the two authors and their works. When I (uncharacteristically) ran out of questions to ask, the audience supplied some good ones; Mary and Peter had a real conversation too, which doesn't always happen during a "panel discussion." No one walked out and people bought books afterward, so we all left happy.

From there, I went to dinner at Bashir's Taverna with Mary, Ken Foster (The Dogs Who Found Me), Aimee Liu (GAINING: The Truth About Life After Eating Disorders), and agent Deborah Grosvenor and husband Ed. Ken and I got there early, so we staked out seats on the couch along one side of the massive table (everyone else sat on chairs). We had a long, leisurely dinner that was almost like being at home--only better, because I didn't have to serve the food, or worry that everyone was having a good time, or clean up.