{"id":9999,"date":"2022-09-19T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-09-19T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=9999"},"modified":"2022-10-27T08:21:58","modified_gmt":"2022-10-27T12:21:58","slug":"book-clubs-are-authors-friends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=9999","title":{"rendered":"Book Clubs are Authors’ Friends"},"content":{"rendered":"
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So far, three library book clubs and one \u201cunaffiliated\u201d club in three states have decided to read my mystery\/thriller, Architect of Courage<\/em>, and give their members a chance to ask me questions about it. The first one of these occurred last week, when my \u201chome\u201d club\u2014the mystery book club at Princeton Public Library\u2014read the book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is one of those activities that Zoom has made much more doable! The group not only includes ten or so members from the Princeton area, but one of us has moved to Maine, one is here now but for some months was based in Richmond, Virginia, and I think one or two of us are Florida snowbirds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Group leader Gayle Stratton and I agreed that, in the interest of candor, the group would have about 45 minutes to discuss the book before I joined the call for the second half of our meeting. That apparently was an unnecessary precaution, because it seems they were unanimous in reporting they enjoyed the book! Their questions covered plot, intent, research strategies, publishing, favorite characters\u2014a whole array of issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In promoting the novel through interviews and book events, I\u2019ve found I most enjoy the q&a. It\u2019s always fun to see how different people interpret the same things. It\u2019s a challenge authors frequently face. They have to walk the fine line between explaining too much and explaining too little. Although I work hard to make the text clear, questions still come up. In general, I\u2019m a big believer in trusting the reader. When I\u2019m reading, I hate the feeling I\u2019m being spoon-fed. If an author tells the character\u2019s dog died, she doesn\u2019t need to tell me the character stayed in bed all day because she is sad. I know<\/em> why she did that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just after Labor Day, I spent two days at the Library of Virginia genealogizing, and saw a big poster for its book group. The club was planning to discuss SA Cosby and Razorblade Tears <\/em>on September 14. I\u2019ve listened to the audiobooks of Razorblade Tears<\/em> and its predecessor, Blacktop Wasteland<\/em>, both of which delve into what Cosby has called<\/a> \u201cthe holy trinity of Southern fiction\u2014race, class, and sex.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was an opportunity not to be missed! Another Zoom success, I thought; I could call in from New Jersey. Disappointingly, he wasn\u2019t on the call, so I missed my opportunity to ask whether part of his process is reading his books out loud. His dialog is so spot-on perfect, I figured he must do that. Then his publisher hires the genius narrator Adam Lazarre-White for the audio versions (highly recommended). I\u2019ll just have to wait for another chance to ask Cosby my question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If your book club reads fiction\u2014be in touch!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So far, three library book clubs and one \u201cunaffiliated\u201d club in three states have decided to read my mystery\/thriller, Architect of Courage, and give their members a chance to ask me questions about it. The first one of these occurred … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Writing is usually a fairly private act. Yes there's Starbucks and there are beta-readers, but which aspects of a novel will hit and which will miss is a bit of a guessing game. Book Clubs to the rescue!","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[62,174,63,64],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-authors","category-first-draft-blog","category-marketing","category-promotion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-2Bh","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9999"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9999\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10000,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9999\/revisions\/10000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}