PJ Nunn
This is far and away my favorite time of the year and even here the weather is cooperating and we’ve enjoyed temps in the 30s with windchills in the 20s. Fireplace weather. My new office has a fireplace right in front of my desk, which I love, even though my one attempt at a fire nearly smoked us out (and yes, I did open the flu first, but a chimney sweep is apparently in order). The family room is big enough for my ever increasing family (have I mentioned that my youngest daughter’s impending wedding is about to make me step-grandma – Elisi in Cherokee – to two small children?) and probably half the boxes that moved with us have been unpacked so far.
I’m able to work full days again, although a few wayward boxes of office supplies have yet to be unearthed and despite the fact that the heavy equipment arrived the day after I called to have DSL installed, and dug trenches to lay lines from the pole at the street to the house, they still haven’t managed to get that working. I’m looking into satellite. After working on broadband for years, stepping down to dial-up is insufferably slow.
Capturing media for our clients in the weeks prior to and after the elections has seemed harder even than usual this year but it’s finally beginning to pick up again. It helps when it seems luck is on your side. For instance, Karna Small Bodman wrote about a terrorist attack in her first novel, Checkmate. She wrote the book years ago and it was published in 2006, yet it played out in real life this past weekend, same country, terrorist group and all.
A similar thing happened a couple of years ago when we were helping Julia Spencer-Fleming promote A Fountain Filled with Blood. Who could have known that the Episcopal church would make major changes that very summer concerning female priests and homosexual adherents? You just can’t plan or schedule that kind of coincidence, but it can sure be a boost to book sales and promotion.
Don’t be confused, though, and think that luck put either of these authors where they are today. Karna’s schedule changes so fast it’s hard to keep up sometimes, and even between releases when others might beg off promotion, she’s been known to do two or three radio or tv interviews in a day, sandwiched between luncheons and other public speaking engagements. Frankly I wonder sometimes when she has time to write!
And Julia’s personally visited more stores across the country than anyone I know. At one point she was scheduled in 18 cities in around 3 weeks. And lest you think her publisher sent her first class wherever she went, I remember a frantic trip she shared with Denise Hamilton up the west coast (literally) in a rental car, racing not only traffic but the clock as well, to make hotels from one phone interview to the next. Talk about paying your dues.
So forgive me when I frown if I hear authors whine because a radio program isn’t national or a store not big or fancy enough. Like Ringo Starr sang once upon a time, It Don’t Come Easy. There’s a reason why Mary Higgins Clark still shows up to sign books in grocery stores on occasion. In fact, she was at Wal-Mart in NY today. When you get right down to it, it’s all about staying in touch with your readers.
And I love that my job is about helping authors do just that. After the horrors of packing and moving in a hurry (long story I’d just as soon forget), it’s a delight to be back on the phone doing things like finding a TV spot for Donna Andrews to talk about Six Geese a-Slaying on Christmas Eve and putting in an order for bound galleys of Jeff Cohen’s next – A Night at the Operation (yay!).
I love my job.
Till next time,
