The First Book

I met Kelly Simmons at a writer’s conference last summer (’07), where we both wound up on the same panel talking about how to market your book. At that point, Kelly was touting her soon-to-be-published first novel, Standing Still, which Atria/Simon & Schuster published in this month (February, 2008). Kelly and I have exchanged a few random chatty e-mails since we met (nice to meet you, good luck with your book, and so forth), and last week I got a copy of her book and started reading.

Blog Talk with Authors About New Books!

As Holden Caulfield famously said, sometimes you like a book so much, you wish you could just pick up the phone and give the author a call:

“What really knocks me out is a book that, when you’re all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it.”
--The Catcher in the Rye

It’s true – when you really connect with a book, the idea of talking to the author is really appealing. You may just want to say “I love your book!” or you may want to get specific, asking questions like: “How come so-and-so does this on page 154?” “What made you think of this idea?” Or you may just want to tell them what you think and how their writing is affecting you.

Recently, in a class I teach at Temple U, we were discussing a great new book, The Monsters Of Templeton, by Lauren Groff. After a lively two-hour discussion about the book, my students still had more questions. They wondered things like: How long did it take her to write the book? Where did she get those photographs she used in the book? Also, some of the content made them wonder if the author has an interest in the supernatural.

After listening to a few of their questions, I had an idea. “Do you want me to ask her these things?” I asked the class. They responded with enthusiasm. So I emailed my questions to the book’s publicist, who forwarded them to Lauren Groff, who took the time to answer me directly in great detail. She told us everything we wanted to know! What a thrill for all of us!

I told the author she made me feel like Holden Caulfield – I called the author, and she answered!

In this day and age, I think old Holden would be perfectly satisfied sending an e-mail in place of a phone call. So that’s what I’m going to do. In tribute to J.D. Salinger’s indelible protagonist from The Catcher in the Rye, I’m going to “ring up” a few authors whose books I’ve been reading, and ask them a few questions. Which I will gladly share with you in this blog. Read on!