Recently, I did a book release with three other British Columbian writers. We met up to delegate who would do what, then fretted about whether or not we’d be reading to ourselves!
It was a miserable wet Sunday afternoon and soon every chair we had placed in the Port Moody Arts Centre was filled. I was first, and although I had read weekly to my Port Moody critique group and read a few times at the local library during Writers in our Midst sessions, I was still nervous as many of the audience was unknown to me. But I soon overcame the jitters and finished the first chapter of my historical fiction, “You can’t clap with one hand,” set in Uganda. You can read about my experiences in Uganda on my travel blog: https://malleestanley.wordpress.com
Suzanne Grant read from her “Wildflowers grow in broken places,” an historical fiction set in Canada, followed by Ming Louie Stein who read the last chapter from her debut auto-fiction novel, “Kintsugi” set in China and Vancouver. Finally, Krista Wallace read from her fantasy Gatekeepers’ series, “Gatekeepers Prequel.”
We had a question time at the end before book signing. My concern was, would I make enough sales to cover the outlay for my share of the cost of the room rental and refreshments? I needn’t have worried.
My only regret was that three weeks later, “Slow Poison” was published, the second historical fiction set in East African (Tanzania this time) also about a South Asian family.
Read and Write 