North and South

The paperback is out!  It is beautiful and came out on September 4th.  It has already been spotted at the Atlanta airport.

A little blurry, but you get the idea.

In the meantime, I've been through the Atlanta airport myself.  I spent Labor Day Weekend at the Decatur Book Festival, one of the truly big, truly great book festivals in the South.

Insane.

And I had a truly great panel discussion with Jonathan Odell, author of The Healing, about race, female narrators, 19th century America, and the myths of Southern history as they are transmitted through culture, particularly fiction (see above photo for an example!).

We were both lucky to have a wonderful moderator, Rebecca Burns, editor of Atlanta Magazine and author of Burial for a King, about Martin Luther King's 1968 funeral in Atlanta.  Sounds like an amazing book.  Add it to the list!

I also made some new friends, including Courtney Miller Santo, whose new book The Roots of the Olive Tree is just out.  The story centers on five generations of women in the Keller family and is set amidst the olive groves of Northern California.  Another one to add to the list!

I also got to see many friends, including the wonderfully talented Marjory Wentworth, poet laureate of South Carolina and co-author with Juan Mendez of an incredible book, Taking a Stand: The Evolution of Human Rights.  I wrote about it previously here.

Brett, Marjory, and me.

And last night, but very far from least, I had the great pleasure to read at the Duxbury Free Library here in New England.  The Duxbury Library has partnered with the wonderful Westwinds Bookshop in Duxbury for the Bookbreeze Literary Festival, a summer-long cycle of readings and events.  I was so thrilled to be a part of it.  Check out this great article in the Boston Globe South Shore edition from yesterday.  Wonderful!

The Duxbury Free Library

There was a great crowd and I made more great friends, including Brooke from Westwinds and Carol, the director of the Duxbury Free Library.  They even dressed to match the cover of The Rebel Wife!

Brooke, me and Carol--a great night with great people!