Life on the Book Circuit

It’s been a whirlwind week of talking, talking, talking and signing for Towers of Gold.

It’s so strange to be finally doing this – selling my book – after dreaming about it for years.

By far the most fun is going to bookstores and venues to talk about the life of Isaias Hellman. Last night I went to Book Passage in Corte Madera and there were about 50 people in the audience. And I wasn’t even related to most of them!

Julia Flynn Siler, author of The House of Mondavi, and Katherine Ellison, author of The Mommy Brain, members of my writing group, North 24th, hosted a small reception after the talk with delicious cheeses and champagne. I floated through most of the evening, so I didn’t even need bubbly to feel good.

My challenge when presenting is to reduce all the amazing particulars about Isaias Hellman’s life to a few scintillating stories. I could go on and on (and who couldn’t, after researching someone’s life for almost a decade) so I have to remember to leave something for people to learn in the book.

This week I have been at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, the Dunsmuir Hellman Historic Estate, the MCDS Book Fair, the Helen Diller Preschool Book Fair at Books Inc, and Book Passage. Today I will be at Mrs. Dalloway’s in Berkeley and tonight at 1 am I will be on John Rothmann’s talk show on KGO 810. (Did I mention that I was sort of tired)

Towers of Gold has been getting some print and web notice as well.

The East Bay Express wrote a nice article.

I wrote about Hellman for the Wells Fargo bank blog, Guided by History

Susan Kitchens praised the book and pointed out how it explains a lot of landmarks in Los Angeles

Luke Ford, a Los Angeles blogger, wrote a review and did an interview.

California Authors, a website that highlights California literature, poetry and non-fiction, is doing a give-away contest for Towers of Gold.

Michelle Richmond pointed out the timeliness of Towers of Gold

I wrote a blog post about how I got into writing for Meg Waite Clayton’s wonderful blog 1st Book: Stories of How Writers Get Started.

Whew. I am tired now. Back to bed.