1/22/07, 12:01pm
Just got back from the ALA 2007 Midwinter Meeting at the Seattle Convention Center. I had a terrific visit with Nancy Pearl, the librarian with the mostest (inventer of “Seattle Reads a Book” for just one thing), who has a new book coming out on May 1st, Book Crush. Her next book will be for armchair travelers, and I immediately recommended McCarthy’s Bar and My Family and Other Animals. 
Then off to the conference, which is only one of their minor meetings, and has only about 10,000 librarians in attendance. Yikes. We gave away a whole bunch of copies of A Deeper Sleep and then ran out an hour before we were supposed to and had to just stand around visiting. Half of the librarians who got copies told me they’d be reading theirs on their planes home this afternoon. Yay! 
Ok, I’m headed for home and my own bed. Great to have visited with you all this past week, and thank all of you so much for turning out for the events. You bring it, guys.
Dana
[blog and photos for the past week follow]
1/17/07, 4:08pm
Okay, this is me, posting from the road. I signed at Seattle Mystery Bookshop at noon today. 
Lot of interesting conversation around the table, with Pat from Seattle, Courtenay from Vermont, Wyatt from Index, John from Wrangell (who didn’t believe me when I told him I’d seen Wrangell in the sunshine), and especially Fritz from Seattle, who has opinions and knows how to use them. Check out the store blog, to which they force writers to contribute.
JB will be posting more photos on the bookstore’s website, and of course they now have beaucoup signed copies of A Deeper Sleep that you can buy right off the site.
Did a driveby at Third Place Books this afternoon. Great store, nice people, and lots of used books mixed in with the new ones, so easy on the wallet as well.
[Got a little shopping in at Pike Place Market in between signings. There is a simply fabulous little store called La Buona Tavola that sells truffle oil and other truffle related products, and they insist you taste test everything. The smell that wafts out to the sidewalk will suck you right in the door. I have no idea how she’ll get it, but Kate’s going to be cooking with truffle oil in the next book.
And I found the cutest little handblown glass starfish at Tisbury Art Glass, and I bought two.]
1/17/07, 9:47pm
Great group at Elliott Bay this evening, who got me talking about the difference between popular fiction and literature. 
I don’t ever want to write literature or great art. People who write literature wind up dead of cirrhosis of the liver in hotel rooms surrounded by dog shit. Or they kill themselves. I’m the guy telling stories around the fire, hoping for a few coins in my bowl before everyone rolls in for the night. My father told great stories. I write ‘em down.
See what the Elliott Bay gang started? I’m still thinking about my answer. Off to Portland tomorrow.
1/18/07
Dropped by Murder by the Book in Portland on the way in from the airport this morning. Great little indie store that the owner tells me has been in business for 24 years. I find that both miraculous and heartening.
Great bunch of people at Powell’s this evening, who didn’t want me to read, only talk. Well. I’m good at that, so I did, about Kate, and, yes, Jack’s death, and how a thriller is all plotplotplot and how writing Blindfold Game exercised the plot muscle between my ears, which is why A Deeper Sleep ends on such a deeply disturbing note. I hope. There was at least one Danamaniac present but she escaped before I could get her name. A guy who hunts elk told me (after I went on for far too long about how I don’t go on moose hunts anymore, I wait from other people to shoot them and other people to pack them to the boat and other people to butcher them out and other people to dress them and other people to wrap them. I’m happy to cook and eat them.) that he always makes the hunt last as long as possible because of all the work that he knows is waiting for him on the other end. Comrade!
I got to spend a couple of hours this afternoon walking around downtown Portland, which has an amazingly smalltown feel to it for a city of however many million. During which walk I tripped over a gourmet chocolate store, Moonstruck Fine Chocolates, who I find out later have been on Oprah or something, and they have truffles that just the thought of them makes my mouth water as I type. You’ve been having a bad day? One or, you know, seven of these truffles will make it all better, trust me.
1/19/07
Even though it’s raining here in Phoenix and I’m told that Phoenicians are notoriously wimpy about driving in bad weather, about 70 people showed up to listen to me and Diana Gabaldon trade stories about flying with my dad and her husband and the inundation of moose around my house and the relative dangers of snakes and bears. Spiders were also mentioned. Oh yes, and Diana also talked about the second Lord John mystery, Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade, and I talked about A Deeper Sleep.
Barbara Peters, she of the Poisoned Pen, wanted to know what inspired the plot–was it OJ or what? So I told the story about an Alaskan man who decades ago killed his wife and got away with it. He died a couple of years ago and it brought the whole incident back and led me to wonder, What happens after something like that? What’s the effect on the community and especially on the law enforcement professionals most nearly involved? How do you live with it, especially when you are someone everyone else looks to for leadership and action, the one they trust to do the right thing?
No easy answers, but it was a great discussion. I forgot my camera so no photos, sorry, and the one photo I really regret missing is of the two women who drove all the way from Palm Springs to Phoenix to see me. Ladies, thank you! and I hope you made it home safely through the rain.
Tomorrow I’ll be teaching my “Business of Writing” workshop at Poisoned Pen Central downtown, and then Rob, he of the Poisoned Pen Press, will be making French onion soup. Yes, that would be the very same onion soup that Kate makes in the book. Only he puts the cognac in.
1/21/07, 10:01pm
Writing from Seattle. Just got in from Phoenix. Breakfast tomorrow morning with Nancy Pearl of Book Lust and More Book Lust fame, and then I get to hang out at the American Library Association at their Midwinter Meeting 2007. I’ll post here about it plus photos when I get home tomorrow night, just before I roll into my very own bed.
27 Comments
Thanks for the updates and photos. You look fabulous! Love that sweater, the color is great on you. Deb looks fabulous too!
Next thing to being there, sniff, sniff…since you are not coming down to LA to sign this tour. Oh, okay, I will stop for now.
CathyO
Okay, Dana, are you going to let CathyO get away with that? Now that’s colossal whining.
I should know.
Takes one to know one.
Dana- Would you trade a SPAM photo of you at WhiteKeys for a signature on your latest book? We’ve bought “A Deeper Sleep” for a friend who is a huge fan of your Kate Shugnak novels. Will you be home soon? Mark Butler
I would indeed, and how would you come by such a photo, sir? But no need, Rachel Dorris at Twice Told Tales in Anchorage (across Northern Lights from REI) has signed copies of all my books, including A Deeper Sleep, Write to her at tttales@alaskalife.net or call her at 907 561-3828.
OH my, this makes me SO jealous! Are you going to do a Midwest tour again sometime soon? I missed you the last time you were in Madison WI, and was SO mad at myself for not being able to make it. I’d happily buy drinks all evening in exchange for your storytelling!
As always, up to my pubisher, Kathy, and I won’t have a new book out to tour with until next year. But thanks!
Dana,
I truly enjoy your books - eager to get my hands on each new title - and I always recommend them to our customers who like suspense stories.
Although this really is a fan letter, I think you might want to make a fuss about your copy editor: she(or he) has a hard time with commas, and a word on page 248 bothers me. On the third line from the bottom, did you really mean “medal” and not “meddle”? Maybe it could be changed before the next edition.
Thanks for the happy times I’ve had with your stories.
P.S. I plan to use “A deeper Sleep” as my reading choice for our store newsletter this month.
Delighted to hear it, May, and thanks so much for the recommendation!
And I am hugely relieved to report that it really is “medal,” as in win a medal in if it were a contest. I was scared the spell checker struck again. Whew.
Dana — I just finished reading “A Deeper Sleep” and loved it! I think it was your best Kate Shugak novel yet. Have you ever been approached to make a television series or mini-series with the Kate Shugak character? I think it would be wonderful. So many rich characters! Anyway, I’m a big fan of your writing and can hardly wait for the next one! Keep up the good work! Thank you!
Thanks, Sue! I was pretty happy with it, too.
Lots of interest in screenrights for Kate but no one’s written me a check yet. I’ll post it here first when it happens.
I live an hour south of seattle, and I’m sooo depressed I missed you!! I use to live in Fairbanks and when I miss it too terribly, I either watch Northern Exposure or read your books.
Sorry to have missed you, Bri. Next time!
I really look forward to all your books and reserve them at my library as soon as I hear about a new one.
On pages 15 and 183 of A Deeper Sleep you have the phrase “I heart global warming” . I am assuming that means hate or hear? Also since I read your books, not listen, the words on pg 177 “all the custom she was generating” jumped out at me.
I enjoy them all, thank you.
Nope, it actually means “heart”, a takeoff on “I heart New York” phrase you see on so many t-shirts about New York and now many other people, places and things. Some wit replaced “love” with the picture of a heart, and then some other wag started saying “I heart New York” instead of “I love New York.”
And I guess I don’t understand the question about the line on p.177. Laurel is bring customers into the bar. She is generating custom.
And delighted to hear you’re enoying the books! Actually? Me, too.
Kinda new to your books, I have 5, and I LOVE them! Going to search Title Wave for more, since I am almost finished with ‘A grave denied’. I have to agree…a t.v. series on Kate would be awesome. Blow Northern Exposure away, and I kinda liked that show! Want all your books in order, so I can start over from the beginning! Am in the process of writing a novel myself, but have doubts on the publishing aspect. I love your work…Thank-You!!!
Thanks, Garnet!
I’ve read your whole list except for the scifi which I can’t find so far. I’m afraid I like character above plot so the thriller was alow point for me. Still very readable. You need to kick Kate’s butt in a new direction to regain that sense of wonder readers get from finding a new creation. I thought Janet Muller did it with her discovery of indian parents,but she backslid. Just don’t stop writing
Yessir.
If you really want to find the science fiction novels, try bookfinder.com, alibris.com, or even amazon.com. I’m told that ebay has them sometimes, too, but that can get expensive.
I have been thoroughly enjoying the Kate Shugak and Liam Campbell series. I especially enjoyed the cultural and geographical references. When I got to the end of Play With Fire I knew I was done reading your books. It was very uncomfortable for me to read page after page of you grinding your ax against Christians. I tried to get through it, but your venom finally out did me after the 8th chapter. Also, I am, a native of Toledo, Ohio and I like it here. I wonder if you got your information about the streets rolling up at 10pm from the same place you got your information about Christians.
Too bad you didn’t make it to Killing Grounds, where the payoff to the Play with Fire story comes home to Kate’s roost, but oh well.
The line about Toledo rolling up the sidewalks precisely at ten is from a John Denver song.
Dana,
I love your books and have read them all except Deeper Sleep which I will get soon. I agree with your fans about putting Kate in a movie. Would be great. Do you plan on writing any more Liam Campbell books? I thought they were great too. Thanks for such good stories.
Kay
I have an outline for a fifth Liam Campbell book. Now all I need is time to write it…and thanks, Kay.
I know you’ve been keeping Kate busy, and it’s great you have a new love with the Coasties….but please give Liam a little love and find time to flesh out that outline!
I like the idea of t. v. for Kate et. al. but would like to see it on pbs. Maybe the BBC could find a little love for a colonial . Must be a native american or asian martial artist out there who would be a fit .
I agree, Ed, but as I have said before, I’m not selling the screenrights to the Kate Shugak series unless and until the buyer promises to shoot the series in Alaska. I could have sold them half a dozen times over if I would back down on that. Nope.
See your point . I thought the Hillerman Series was alright but I didn’t think it captured his characters as well as it could have . If I’m disappointed that something is a little off a writer must want to chew nails .
Post a Comment