My new novel for children, Firefly Hollow, with its enchanting illustrations by Christopher Denise, has been in the world for one week as of today. Except not really, seeing as it took a good six years to conjure itself. (This book is evidence that someone born fast, impatient and jumpy can, over many years, learn the art of patience. Lord love a duck, this thing took its own sweet time.)
The final version was written with a little wooden cricket, a poem (Spring and Fall, to a Young Child), and the film adaptation of “Where the Wild Things Are” propped next to me on the table. Since I long ago trained myself out of both superstition and muse-invoking rituals, you know it had to be a tough slog.
For the inside scoop on the process, please click here.
I will be touring around this fall, giving readings and doing signings, and I would truly love to meet any of you who can make any of the dates. Here they are so far, and I’ll update as necessary.
Sunday, August 30: The Toadstool Bookstore in Peterborough, NH, signing copies, 10 am-noon
Sat, October 3 – Northshire Bookstore, Manchester, VT, reading and signing, 4:00 PM
Sun, October 4 – Flying Pig Bookstore, Shelburne, VT, time TBA
Mon, October 5 – Flying Pig school events in Shelburne, VT
Sunday, October 11: Copperfield’s Books, Petaluma, CA, reading and signing, 2 PM
Monday, October 12: Books Inc., San Francisco, school events
Tuesday, October 13: Book Passage, San Francisco, reading, 10 AM, and school event, 12:30 pm
Monday, October 19: Anderson’s Bookstore, Chicago, reading and signing, 7:00 PM
Tuesday, October 20: The Bookstall, Chicago, school events, morning and afternoon
Friday, October 23: Whale of a Tale, Los Angeles, school events, morning and afternoon
Saturday, October 24: Southern California Independent Booksellers Association conference, North Hollywood, 6 pm appearance
Sunday, November 1: Westport Public Library, Westport, CT, I’m giving a talk, “The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Writer,” to kick off National Novel Writing Month, 2-3 pm
For anyone interested, here is the link to the public radio interview I did this morning. The thoughtful and talented Kerri Miller and I talked about poetry, my poetry hut (pictured to the left there), teaching, writing, the making of Firefly Hollow, the inner lives of children (and grownups), what it means to be a lifelong adventurer, the freedom that comes when you stop caring what others think of you in favor of resting with your own intentions, how the death of someone you loved when you were young affects you then and forever, how a book can momentarily take the poverty and pain out of a child’s life, a novel I feared and hated as a teenager but never forgot, the enormous usefulness of waiting instead of acting, Galway Kinnell, teaching at my beloved Metropolitan State University, school bus bullies, and a whole bunch of other things.
Alison McGhee 