The sun is setting earlier and rising later; the 90-degree days are getting fewer and farther between. Technically there are still a couple of weeks left, but summer is all but over. And, man, did it fly by.
This year started off for me like Jaaanuuuaaarrryyy, Feeebruuuaaarrryyy, but once The Purple Menace and the Tobacco Prince was released in March, it’s been like aprilmayjunejulyaugust. But those fast months were full of all kinds of cool stuff. For starters, the book debuted at number 8 in its category on Amazon (number 8!). That would not have happened if not for the dedication and enthusiasm of my publisher Jason Scott Roach at Gold Dust, my stalwart editor Lynn Picknett, and the drop-dead gorgeous cover by designer Susan H. Roddy.
A week after its release, Jason and I were on the air at WTOB, talking to Tim Clodfelter and Ken Hauser about the book and the real-life Jazz Age scandal that inspired it. The very next week I did my first-ever author signing and reading at The Book Ferret (thanks, Charlie!), a wonderful local indie bookshop in Winston-Salem. I had a blast (once the nerves wore off) seeing old friends, making new ones, and talking with a couple of old teachers who were no doubt shocked that the slacker they tried to teach in high school had figured out how to string together two sentences.
I sold a bunch of books, signed some of them, and, the cherry on top: one pearl-clutcher brought her copy back, demanded a refund, and huffily suggested the book belonged in the pornography section, so that felt like an Achievement Unlocked. (I was accused of blasphemy a few years ago in an Amazon review but that lady actually had a point. The Book Ferret was quite unfounded.)
Next stop was an interview with WXII’s Kelly Kendall, in which we wandered around Reynolda on a very crisp morning and talked about millionaire playboys, sultry torch singers, and suspicious deaths.
Soon after that I was in the Brushy Mountains, amongst the hills and stills that provided the moonshine for the wild party in Purple Menace, representing Gold Dust Publishing at Stardust Cellars (thanks, Kimberly!) for their North Carolina Author Book Fair. Next up was Pride Winston-Salem and another nice mix of friends new and old. One new reader (a longtime RJR employee, no less) even asked for a selfie with the author. It took me a second to realize he was talking about me.
In midsummer it was another book signing, this time at Reynolda Village’s charming Bookhouse (thanks, Tara and Meghan!), accompanied by Libby Holman expert and historian Dean Sidden, who brought some killer photos and memorabilia from his amazing collection.
And to bring this all full circle back to Lynn Picknett (and maybe even blasphemy, if I try hard enough) the Shroud of Turin was in the news recently. Lynn and her partner Clive Prince literally wrote the book on the Shroud. In The Turin Shroud, Lynn and Clive postulate that the Shroud was created by Leonardo da Vinci. And I love that idea. It’s just as inspirational for a heathen like me if it’s a hoax, to think that a piece of art is still captivating and perplexing and mystifying us centuries later. Talk about career goals.
So a summer of telling stories draws to a close. To quote the fictionalized version of the very real pirate captain Calico Jack Rackham: “A story is true. A story is untrue. As time extends, it matters less and less. The stories we want to believe, those are the ones that survive, despite upheaval and transition and progress. Those are the stories that shape history. Because what’s it all for if it goes unremembered? It's the art that leaves the mark. But to leave it, it must transcend. It must speak for itself. It must be true.”
Comments