Enjoying a Night with Book Lovers

Last night I trekked from Long Island to Manhattan to attend my first Reese’s Book Club Storyfest. The weather could not be more favorable, the venue inspiring. Yes, inspiring—how could it not be with the stage filled with books of the authors who were to be interviewed by Danielle Robay? Those authors were Alexandra Andrews, (The Fine Art of Lying), Victoria Christopher Murray and Marie Benedict (A Pair of Aces.) When I co-owned a bookstore in Rockville Centre, I had the opportunity to host Marie for The Other Einstein, which I loved and it is thrilling to see how she has flourished as an author since she gave up a career as an attorney; talk about doing what you love and the money will follow! It was a delight to hear all these authors’ stories thanks to Danielle’s questions, but one thing that Danielle did prior to bringing the authors onto the stage was warming the audience up and her first question was, “Are there any writers in the audience?” A smattering of us raised our hands. Let me say, as someone who’s been in the business for as long as I have, including being an author, this could be a tricky question since it could railroad the event by people eager to promote themselves, but Danielle handled it well and soon the authors were brought on stage. But let me back up a bit.

While waiting to get in, two young women with a microphone were going through the line, selecting a few people to interview. They interviewed a young woman in front of me who stood out by the way her outfit was put together, which was quite the opposite of what I was wearing: a pair of chambray jeans and white blouse. Once they finished asking the young woman some questions about why she was at the event, stunningly, as understated as I looked, they stopped at me and asked if I was willing to be interviewed and allow it to be posted on Reese’s website. Yes and yes.

Their first question was along the lines of what book was I most excited about. When opportunity knocks, one opens the door and I immediately said The Liberation of Jane Carter, my novel that will be coming out this fall. I didn’t do a hard sell, but I was carrying my tote bag with the image of my last novel, Before She Was a Finley. (I’ve yet to see the interview posted, and it may not be, so I have no idea if the tote bag was in the video.)

Anyway, once the event started, the sky was blue, the breeze strong enough to occasionally knock down some of the display books on the stage but it didn’t distract the entertaining discussion with Danielle asking intriguing questions. She then opened questions up to the audience and they were also entertaining. Naturally, there were a couple of questions from writers (no, I wasn’t one of them) who wanted to know how to get a literary agent while another mentioned how they didn’t know how to begin, even though they felt they had a lot to offer. What the authors said was so spot on: You can’t keep it in your head. You have to just begin. You cannot demand perfection or as close to perfection right away. I couldn’t have agreed more. Even though I wasn’t one of those authors sitting on the stage, I’ve had some rewarding moments and hope to have more once The Liberation of Jane Carter is published this fall. But one thing I hope those writers should know is that they need to be willing to persevere and, most importantly, hone their craft. I wrote about my perseverance in Writer’s Digest a couple of years ago and writing to get published is not for the faint of heart, but I do thank how Danielle was encouraging, and sometimes that is all it takes to keep going. Who knows, maybe one of those writers will one day be on a stage talking to an audience about their journey because they didn’t give up and encouraged not to do so.

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