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Monday, June 11, 2001
This is my fifth book tour. I did one for each of my first three novels in hard back
and then I did one for THE MAGICIAN'S ASSISTANT in paper back. So this shouldn't be a
surprise and yet it is a surprise. I have been on the road since May 31st and I feel like
I'll be dead by the end of next week. I don't know what this forum is for but I imagine it
has something to do with selling books, which I think means I'm supposed to be talking
about how really great it is to get out there and meet the people who are buying the books
and how beautiful and touching all this human interaction is. I'm sorry. I don't have it
in me. There are wonderful people out there, and I am constantly amazed that anyone reads
anything that I write, but book tour is just a bad idea. 95% of it takes place in an
airport. Dehydration sets in. Your skin breaks out. I feel like setting up a shrine to
Cormac McCarthy and Anne Tyler and every other writer who was smart enough to refuse to
go.
But I digress. I started in Chicago at B.E.A. (Book Expo America). I'll admit that I was
flattered my publisher brought me along, but the feeling of flattery did not sustain me.
It was pouring rain and 55 degrees, and I showed up dressed for Nashville in the summer.
People kept offering to take me coat shopping. I read at Barbara's Books and Bookstall and
gave a reading at the convention. At B.E.A. I did a group reading. I like reading with
other people. I was especially thrilled by Terry Ryan, who read from her book THE
PRIZEWINNER OF DEFIANCE, OHIO. She was wonderful, and her story was wonderful. The
audience cheered for her. I can hardly wait to read the book. Writers should band together
and go on joint book tours. It takes the pressure off. Actually, reading isn't a problem.
I neither enjoy nor mind it. More than anything, I'm grateful that I don't get nervous. I
think that getting nervous would take a tremendous amount of energy.
Everything in Chicago was very fancy and I was treated like Madonna on world tour. But
even this was a little unnerving. The last night my editor took a group of people out for
dinner to a restaurant called Everest, and my risotto came covered in 24 karat gold leaf.
One shouldn't eat 24 karat gold, even if it doesn't hurt you. It's simply wrong. It also
means that I'll be the first person to have my head chopped off if we ever have a
revolution.
To balance out the glamour of B.E.A., I went to Mississippi as soon as I got home. There's
nothing like a few days in Mississippi to get your feet back on the ground. Karl (long
time significant other and Mississippi native) took the week off from work and we drove
down, starting in Meridian and spending the night with his mother Jo. This was really
lovely. Jo has a little cabin on a lake and the whole thing was very relaxing. They have
the best snow cones in Meridian. After that we drove to Jackson in the pouring rain and
checked into a particularly wretched Holiday Inn (was I the one so recently complaining
about gold food?). My publicist called to tell me they had an advance copy of the Sunday New
York Times Review and I shouldn't worry about it because they loved me very much. This
is a bad, bad sign. They faxed me the review. It was condescending and dismissive. I had
had such a great review in the daily Times a few days before. Could this be the
same paper? The rain poured. Five people came to the bookstore. Karl and I drove on to
Oxford in the middle of the night.
Oxford was much better, still raining in a biblical fashion but the Holiday Inn was very
nice. There was a great turn out at the reading. Richard Howorth, the owner of Square
Books and an old friend, was elected mayor on Tuesday, and it was just terrific to see
everyone so excited about his win. Morgan Freeman and his wife Myrna drove up, and we had
a big dinner with Richard and Lisa Howorth. Lest I give an incorrect picture here about me
hanging out with movie stars all the time, Morgan Freeman bought the film rights to my
book, TAFT, many years ago. We'd spoken on the phone before but had never met. Oxford
Mississippi is the perfect place to meet mayors and movie stars because the town is so
low-key. Everything one would suspect about Morgan Freeman is true: he is a very decent
sort, extremely bright, funny. And I especially liked Myrna.
Is this getting tedious? I always told my students that you can't write a boring character
by boring your readers, and yet I feel I am writing about a tedious experience in a
tedious way. Hang on, we're almost finished. We came in from Oxford on Friday afternoon
and Friday evening I read in Nashville. Reading in your home town is a little like
attending your own wedding. You see everyone you love for about a minute and feel touched
and stressed all at the same time. There was a huge turn out at Davis Kidd. The loveliest
part was that my three best girlfriends from junior high school stayed with me through the
whole damn thing, my book tour bridesmaids. It was an act of enormous kindness. The people
who are kind to you on book tour, or at any dark moment of your life, are the ones you are
forever bonded to. Karl, to whom BEL CANTO is dedicated, has stood by me so heroically
that I get weepy just thinking about it. I am also coming to love my publicist, Jane
Beirn, who has shown me enormous kindness.
So it's Saturday and aside from a bridal shower this afternoon I'm home all day. I'm going
to try and set the world record for sleeping. Monday morning I leave again, this time
visiting the tri-cities: New York, Greenwich, and Denver. More later.
Please visit my website at www.annpatchett.com.
--- Ann Patchett
(c)
Copyright 2001, Bookreporter.com. All rights reserved.
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