Maiden Lane Press launches today with Moonrise

 

A literary agent who used to be on the publishing side jumps the fence and decides she can do it as well if not better than the big guys. That’s the story of Marly Rusoff, who created Maiden Lane Press specifically to release Cassandra King’s latest novel Moonrise.

That novel, a retelling-of-sorts of Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier, launches today!

Rusoff held a design competition to create the imprint’s gas lamp logo. She and her partner Michael Radulescu pored through listings of gods, goddesses and titans to find a name for their press, finally fastening on Maiden Lane, an evocative place name.

Today’s book launch is a hopeful testing ground for Rusoff. If all goes well, she may begin publishing her clients’ backlists or other items of interest, such as a commencement speech given by Arthur Phillips, author of Prague, or Jonathan Odell’s first novel, now out of print.

More than that, though, Moonrise is dedicated to Cassandra King’s sister Nancy, a teacher who died just as the book was finished. Both Daphne DuMaurier and Nancy would be proud of their very different but personal associations with this novel, one readers are saying is King’s best book yet.

Here’s a description of the book from the author’s website:

Helen Honeycutt is just getting her life back on track after a bitter divorce when she meets Emmet Justice, an attractive widower still grieving for his late wife, Rosalyn. Their sudden marriage sets off a maelstrom of resentment and ill-will among Rosalyn’s family and friends. Hoping to mend fences, the newlyweds plan a summer at Moonrise, Rosalyn’s historic estate in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Moonrise is known far and wide for its unique nocturnal gardens, which have fallen into ruin since the death of its mistress.

Like the heroine of Daphne DuMaurier’s classic romance, Rebecca, Helen becomes obsessed by her predecessor, who lives on in her house and gardens and the hearts of those who loved her. Not only does Helen fail to measure up to the beautiful and accomplished Rosalyn, she doesn’t fit into her world, either, an elite enclave of well-to-do summer people. Even the gardens exclude her, since their secrets, passed down by generations of gardeners, died out with Rosalyn. When it becomes clear that someone in Rosalyn’s close-knit circle of friends is determined to drive her away, Helen wonders if she can trust anyone, even her husband. As the sweltering summer draws to an end, Helen must uncover the secrets of the past in order to establish her own identity apart from the woman she replaced.

The book is available in hardcover or Audible format.

King is the wife of author Pat Conroy. A few prepub blurbs:

“A suspenseful Gothic that gives a nod to its predecessors while still being fresh”--Publisher’s Weekly

“Moonrise is a fantastic, not-to-be-missed novel."-- Anne River Siddons, author of The House Next Door

"I read Moonrise in a single greedy gulp.” -- Meg Waite Clayton, author of The Wednesday Sisters

Congratulations to Cassandra, Marly and Maiden Lane Press!

Claws of the Cat launch!

My friend Susan Spann held her debut novel's book launch last night at Face in a Book in El Dorado Hills, California. It was a fantastic evening and I'm so glad the world now gets a chance to read her incredible book, Claws of the Cat. It's the first in a series featuring a medieval ninja crime-solver, Hiro Hattori, and his Portugeuse priest sidekick, Father Matteo. Here's a taste of the evening, rendered in photographs!
 

At Chantara Thai beforehand.

A group of us ate beforehand, steps away from the bookstore, at Chantara Thai. It was lovely to get a chance to meet Susan's parents who had flown up from Southern California for the event, as well as other friends of Susan's I hadn't met before. What a nice group of people. And thank you Paula and Spencer for dinner!

Just before the reading. Look what a nice display the bookstore made behind her!

Face In A Book is a really great bookstore, and I'm so happy Susan had her launch there. It's a wonderful independent bookstore that supports its local authors.

The author with scads of her books; the piles were depleted ere the night was over!

Susan read from Chapter Four of her book and then answered questions from the audience. I asked a question I already knew the answer to, because it's so impressive. I asked, "How far out have you plotted this series?" THIRTEEN BOOKS INTO THE FUTURE, PEOPLE! I can't even conceive of that kind of planning. Frankly, I don't know what I'll be doing 13 days from now, let alone 13 books from now. Susan's  contract with Minotaur is for a trilogy but I have no doubt whatsoever they will be signing her on for the rest soon.

Adjourned for coffee afterwards with friends

Afterwards some of us walked a block away to Starbucks (I love Town Center). I made everyone display their books on the table...and poor Susan had to sit on the floor. Not pictured are two other sweethearts who came: Diana and Heidi.

Postscript 1:
My husband read the first chapter the next morning, standing in the kitchen as he oversaw French toast production. He said, "Her prose is like Hemingway." I kid you not!

Postscript 2:
Someone else in the household thought the title was "Laws of the Cat" (which is funny because Susan is an attorney), and proceeded to list what those might be:

• Do not scratch a human
• Always brush your fur straight
• Always put the right catfood in your catbowl
• Always do what the police cat says

On that note, good night! Congratulations, Susan. I couldn't be prouder or happier for you.

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Historical Novels Society conference 2013: The Vinoy

The Vinoy at night, from the waterfront

I previously posted about the panel I served on, along with Kathleen Kent, Mary Sharratt and Suzy Witten, three fabulous and fascinating novelists who write about witchcraft. Now I'd like to talk about the Vinoy Hotel, where the conference was held....because it really was an amazing hotel.

I kept expecting to see Danny on his Big Wheel coming down the hallway

It was very Floridian, with pink shell color on its Art Deco facade, but it also gave me Overlook overtones. It was a hotel of the same era, where people would come for the entire season and attend those balls with live orchestras.

Chihuly glasswork in the lobby case

In the lobby (besides an incredible Chihuly display), a collection of photos showcased the hotel's history and its astounding multimillion-dollar renovation. It had spent 18 years empty; there's something so evocative to me about formerly grand places in decay (viz., the Titanic).

The Chihuly Museum is here in town (the town being St. Petersburg, Florida). I really wanted to go. I love Chihuly, who I first encountered upon entering the San Jose Museum of Art, where he has two enormous hanging glass pieces in the front lobby...which made me think in an earthquake, I'd know exactly where not to stand. And then in the Bellagio in Las Vegas, I marveled at the magnificent Fiori di Como ceiling near the registration desks. Finally, Dale Chihuly gets sort of bandied about in a novel I'd just read called Where'd You Go Bernadette, which I loved beyond speaking, so I was really excited to see the evidence of his handiwork here and there in the hotel. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to swing visiting the museum although I walked right past it. Nor was I able to see the Dali Museum, whose architecture is said to be one of the top 10 buildings you have to see before you die. Well....now I don't have to die, right?

The Chihuly chandelier in the Vinoy ballroom...I was not the only one to see a Medusa in it

Lovely architectural details abound in the bar. Because that's what matters in a bar.

The hotel's bar was really lovely and I'm happy to say I spent a fair amount of time here chatting with friend and fellow novelist Vanitha Sankaran and then later....dancing to the DJ with a bunch of other booty-bumping HNSers. I didn't know until the next day that it was a wedding party. Without the veils and bouquets, who can tell?

Darn, it's out of focus. This is the muy cool lobby.

Angry at myself for not getting a better shot of the lobby, the heart of the hotel after all. This is the room where you try to rally after a redeye flight, when it's 6 a.m. their time, 3 a.m. your time, and your room won't be ready for another couple hours. Luckily, there's a veranda with a great view of the boats in the marina so you can slump and contemplate dry heat versus humid heat until your room is ready.

But the room is worth waiting for!

My view as I walked in....why, are those chairs for reading? How lovely of you, Vinoy!

View from other side of the room. Love the lime walls with magenta chairs.

The room was gorgeous and I contemplated sleeping on each bed on alternate nights. Instead, I stuck with the one by the door so I'd be aware and ready when Jack Torrance came with the ax. Actually, the Vinoy is reputed to be haunted. When I made my reservation, I specifically asked for a room that was not haunted. The woman laughed and said, But we need fresh souls from California.

She didn't really say that. I would have loved it if she had.

A room with a view: Helena Bonham Carter, eat your heart out!

I had two windows with lovely views that really underscored I was in Florida. Palm trees! It's hard to tell, but the aqua square is a lovely fountain, and the white chairs are all set up for the wedding whose dance party would be later overtaken by bookish drunks on a tear. I kept looking at this picture, wondering what the odd pale business card looking thing is, with the blue stripe hanging down, towards the left of center. I just figured it out: it's my necklace thing, what's it called? That you wear around your neck so you can get into the conference? And the blue dangler said "Speaker" on it. It had flipped around backward to be immortalized in the window reflection.

I think that's all for the Vinoy. In my next post, I'll share images of some of the sessions I attended.


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Ann Marie Meyers: Up in the Air

I'm going to take a little break from the wrap-up posts about the Historical Novels Conference this last weekend in St. Petersburg to host an old buddy.

Ann Marie is someone I remember fondly from the old days at the San Francisco Writers Workshop. We both attended religiously about six or seven years ago. Now she has a children's book out called Up In the Air. Isn't that a gorgeous cover?

I'm very happy to host her today with a little Q&A about the process of writing this book and her career in general.

1)                What inspires you to write

I get my inspiration from just about anything. Something I read, or overhear; a thought that flashes through my mind, the look on someone’s face; my dreams, especially my dreams. Sometimes I just let my mind go blank and write down the very first thing I think of and then see where that takes me. My very first book was written this way.

2)                What about Up In The Air. Which form of inspiration did that take?

Surprisingly, neither of the above. The idea came to me while I was meditating one day. That was the first and, as of now, the last time such a thing has happened to me.

Ann Marie Meyers

3)                Did you always want to write?

No. Definitely not. I have always enjoyed reading. I devoured hundreds of books when I was young, and I loved writing essays in school and letting my imagination fly. Then, one day, (in my late teens actually) to my utter shock, I started a journal and the very first words I wrote were: “I want to be a writer”. I have no idea where that thought came from, though I didn’t actually start to write until much later, and even then I didn’t embrace the idea at first. I resisted.

Some of the famous authors I studied in school (eg: James Joyce and D. H. Lawrence) were so unhappy I wanted no part of it. I wanted to be happy, unfettered by depression (idealistic but true).  Eventually though, over time, I learned to accept the fact that I wanted, even needed, to write and create stories.

4)                And children’s books? How did you get involved in that?

Quite by chance actually. I remember seeing advertisements appealing to people to write children’s books, but I never paid any attention to them. After my daughter was born, I began having thoughts about what she might like to read but it wasn’t until she was about 3 years old that I actually wrote my first children’s book, Up In The Air.

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HNS 2013: the witchcraft panel

From left: me, Kathleen, Mary, Suzy, before the panel

Just got back from the Historical Novels Society conference (held this year in St. Petersburg, Florida), and just can't stop thinking about how much fun it was. Surrounded by people who get what I'm fascinated by, who are kind and supportive and part of a great community of writers and readers (and editors/agents too!)...people who don't mind shaking a little booty  to the DJ in the bar after hours...ha!

I'll be doing many wrap-up posts, but this one is about the witchcraft panel I participated in with three wonderful, wonderful women: Kathleen Kent, Mary Sharratt and Suzy Witten.

Since we all live in different areas of the country, we decided to meet at the conference to plan our panel the day before the presentation.We'd previously agreed on the tenor of the discussion and even come up with a few questions to talk about, but we wanted to chat and plan further. Kathleen was a champ: her flight had been delayed, so she showed up to our get-together fresh off the hotel shuttle!

Immediately we began to see that this was a lovely meeting of the minds, that we'd have no trouble talking about this topic to fill our allotted time. We then continued on to dinner together and continued discussion there.

From left: Suzy, Mary, me, Kathleen

The next day, our panel went really well. We had some great audience questions and acquitted ourselves well, I think. :)  We raffled off copies of our books, and that's the paper bag you see in front of me on the table (no, it wasn't Thunderbird!)

I've got nothing but warm fuzzies for these ladies. I'm hopeful we'll all meet again at HNS 2015 if not earlier!



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Literary (and in no way despicable) Me

After a long hiatus of experiencing no literary events, I just went through a few weeks of very happy creative activity with other writers. The first was attending Summerwords, a creative writing colloquium at American River College in Sacramento. I was there at the invitation of Michael Spurgeon, organizer and faculty member there, who released his first novel during the conference. Although Michael and I never met before six months ago, we attended the same very small liberal arts college in Maine, Colby College, attended the same MFA program in Tucson, Arizona, and both wound up in the greater Sacramento area. Coincidences too great to be ignored! Facebook brought us together and we had coffee and compared notes on our shared, but not shared, experiences.

Here's a photo of Michael and his friend, fellow author Christian Kiefer, chatting during an audience Q&A following their joint reading at Summerwords. The goody bags had both their novels in it. Score!

Christian, on the left, is the author of The Infinite Tides, which looks like a great read. I'm in the middle of Michael's book Let The Water Hold Me Down now, which is wonderful. Photo courtesy of Bethanie Humphreys.

Next I need to talk about T.C.Boyle, who read a short story and did audience Q&A. Oh, this man. His source of charm must be located and destroyed. He must have kissed the Blarney Stone, located in the parapet of a castle in County Cork, Ireland, which confers wit, charm and eloquence upon the kisser. Although it appears clear he didn't just kiss it, but made out with it. I posit that T.C. Boyle frenched the Blarney Stone.

I was there as a presenter, and did a workshop on how to research and outline a novel. People seemed receptive and afterwards a young woman came up and said something so sweet I had to hug her. Then I went to the main hall and did a reading from The Witch's Trinity and signed books. The energy at Summerwords was honestly so upbeat and happy...I just loved the whole weekend. Bravo to the organizers!

That's me reading from Witch's Trinity, above. One final picture from the weekend...I mentioned above that Michael and I attended Colby College. Well, another person was there from Colby too: literary agent Eleanor Jackson. She represents Christian Kiefer and a slew of other wonderful authors. It's truly a small world! And Colby's English Department rocks. From left: Michael Spurgeon, Eleanor Jackson, and me.

All right, on to my next literary adventure. Last week, my friend Susan Spann (her first novel Claws of the Cat launches next month. Two words: ninja hero. Need I say more?) headed to a reading for Karen Joy Fowler's latest book. She gave a great reading and I'm dying to start her book! Especially since there's apparently a big plot spoiler event early on in the novel. She had us raise our hands to say if we knew already so she could talk about it. She gave a very generous Q&A and signed books.

This was her at the Barnes & Noble in Citrus Heights, CA. Many audience members had been part of her writers group many years ago, so it was neat to hear the familiar back and forth.

My next literary adventure is in a few weeks. I'm off to the Historical Novels Society conference in St. Petersburg, Florida. I'll be on a panel called "The Witchcraft Window: Scrying the Past." I have to admit I shamelessly stole the idea from a previous panel put together by someone else (I'd love to know who! Ann Kent?) at Book Group Expo in San Jose way back in 2008. Here's a "historic" picture of us then:

From left, moderator Michelle Gagnon, me (how I miss those boots), Kathleen Kent, and Brunonia Barry. Photo courtesy of Secret Sushi, Flickr.

From this crowd, only Kathleen and I will be in St. Petersburgh, with added ranks of Mary Sharratt and Suzy Witten. Excited to see all three of these wonderful women again, as well as others I met at HNS 2011 in San Diego.

Writing is such a solitary activity--when we can get together, talk craft, laugh, have a glass of wine and listen to sex scenes...oh wait. I forgot (literally! I was just about to wrap up this post). I'm going to be reading a sex scene from Woman of Ill Fame at HNS too. Moderated by the supreme Diana Gabaldon, this event is a Saturday night standard at the conference.  I'm going to gulp some courage and read a scene. Wish me luck.


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