This past weekend, I was fortunate enough to attend the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville. It was my first time visiting Nashville and my first time away from my daughter (cue the tears). Thankfully, the author goodie bag included some hard liquor.
My session was on Friday afternoon. If any of the people who were there are reading this, THANK YOU for coming. I tend to assume that I will be in a room by myself when I do these types of things, so it’s wonderful to have a little crowd and to talk about what I love so much–writing. I read part of chapter 1 from Cherry Blossoms and then we chatted about all kinds of things–the journey to getting published, views of suicide in Japan, mental health in the US. It was very interesting.
That night, I attended a really nice author dinner and got to hang out with Kathleen Kaufman (check out her latest book, Hag–who doesn’t like Scottish witches?). We are both with Turner Publishing and we LOVE them. My relationship with Turner is what I always thought a writer-publisher relationship should be.
I caught a flight home the next day. I used the plane time to work on edits for book #3 (!). It’s been a while since I’ve flown–is it just me, or are the seats significantly smaller?
The festival made me even more excited about the release of Cherry Blossoms. I can’t wait to talk to more readers. We’re exactly 2 weeks from publication day!