Minnpost's Book Club Blast

Minnpost's Book Club Blast on Sunday March 7th, 2010

I have to say I had an excellent time at Sunday's book club blast held at the Loft Literary Center in downtown Minneapolis, MN. I was one of the last people to sign up and am fortunate my friend Mary got me out of bed to do it.

We started the event with snacks and a meet and mingle event. This is when authors walk around talking to people about the books they have just published. It was fun to meet a variety of authors with books I hadn't heard of yet. I met Elissa Elliott, who wrote Eve, Catherine Watson, a travel writer, Candace Simar whose new book is called Abercrombie Trail (It looks really enticing) and Marisha Chamberlain whose new book is titled The Rose Variations(the cover is really beautiful) and Gayla Marty who wrote a memoir titled Memory of Trees. While I was talking to Gayla Marty two women walked by and touched my shoulder, telling me how much they loved my books. I laughed and said thanks, and then two more women came over and made the same comment, then when I said it was a case of mistaken identity, they asked if I was "Her" daughter. The author they are referring to is Lorna Landvik, the afternoon's keynote speaker. I have been frequently mistaken for Lorna Landvik as our names are very similar. Her daughter even attended the high school where I teach in Minneapolis. So mistaken compliments fell on me all day and I appreciate the praise that I hope to receive someday when my own books are on the shelves next to Landviks.

Next we attended author speed chats, kind of like speed dating. We had about 15 minutes with each author. I went to listen to Julie Kramer first, mainly to get a book signed for my mother since that was one of my Christmas gifts to her. Julie Kramer was delightful and fun to listen to, although I am not sure if I will read her books because mysteries that take place near where I live scare me! My mom can look forward to future book gifts from this author though.

The next author I visited was Alison McGhee. She was a soft spoken women who tale of getting published was quite interesting. Another connection was made when I learned that she used to teach Chinese at the high school I currently teach at. She said how much she misses the school and students. Hmmm, maybe we should trade places.

The last author speed chat I attended was Jim Heynen. The atmosphere was cozy and personal as the author read a poem and then asked us what we were into as readers and writers. I got to plug my blog which was great. Heynen said he had been to this blog and read it but I convinced him that he hadn't since no one was publicly following me at the time.

The last event of the day was Lorna Landvik's talk on Book Clubs and Me. She is a hilarious speaker. Go see her if you ever get the chance. So as I rushed home to watch the Oscars, I thought of how much fun this was and I can't wait to do it again. Minnpost please have another Book Club Blast and invite me, plleeaaasseee!