Author Visits to Book Clubs

Today I'm blogging at Inkspot, the blog for Midnight Ink authors, about author visits to book clubs. I give tips for arranging for an author to visit your book club either in-person or via speakerphone or Skype. I hope you'll read the post, and if you are in a book club, I hope the post will motivate you to ask an author to visit!

Book Club Ideas?

Next Tuesday I am hosting the annual book selection meeting of my book club, where we select the books that we will read and discuss during the next year. My book club is general, and we read a variety of novels and even some nonfiction. Each member will submit three books for consideration to the group, then we'll vote on which ones we'll read throughout 2013. So, what book have you read recently that you think would make for a great book club discussion? Please let me know in the comments. I'm looking for ideas!

An Evening in Salida, Colorado

Salida, Colorado is the setting for Deadly Currents, the first book in my Rocky Mountain Outdoor Adventures mystery series. Yesterday, I spent a lovely evening there. It began with a 4:30 - 5:30 PM book signing at The Book Haven downtown, a wonderful independent bookstore with a very friendly owner and staff.

The next two photos are from that event. The first shows two local outdoorsmen on the left and Stew Pappenfort, the Senior Ranger for the Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area, on the right. Stew is my go-to expert for the series. Note his ranger uniform and the radio mike slung over his shoulder. The second photo is of a woman who was traveling in Colorado and whose Kindle broke on the air flight. So, she was in the bookstore looking for something to read and picked up a copy of Deadly Currents. She and her husband were going on to Colorado Springs, so I gave them some advice about touring the Garden of the Gods Park there.



After the signing was a lively exchange with the store's bookclub, from 5:30 - 7:00 PM. They had picked Deadly Currents for their monthly discussion and had lots of interesting questions for me. The next two photos are of most of the members of the group. Note the yummy treats!



Finally at 7:00, five of us headed over to The Fritz tapas bar to share some delicious small plates and conversation about Salida and books before I jumped in my car and headed up to Breckenridge, Colorado. I'm joining my husband and son in celebrating the last weekend of the ski resort being open for the phenomenal 2010-2011 season, with over 500 inches of snow total.

An Interview and A Visit with the Barnes and Noble Mystery Book Club

Today from noon - 12:30 MST (11:00 - 11:30 PST) on my virtual book tour, I will be interviewed by Sylvia Dickey Smith on her Writing Strong Women blogtalkradio show. Listen in to see what questions she has for me! If you can't listen to the interview live, you can always listen to it later once it's archived. I hope you'll leave a comment or question of your own for me there. Every comment will be an entry into my virtual book tour contest for a free copy of Deadly Currents.

Also, today will start my one week visit with the Barnes and Noble Booksellers Mystery Book Club on-line. I will answer questions from members, AND I'll be providing reports about my experiences at the Left Coast Crime conference in Santa Fe, NM, that starts on Thursday. It should be a fun week there, and I hope you'll join me.

These will be the last two stops on my virtual book tour, but you can still read all of the posts if you're joining the tour late. You can find the complete tour schedule HERE. I hope you'll read each day's post and leave a comment on each one. And I hope you'll spread the word about my book and my VBT to your mystery-reading friends. Good luck in the contest!

Book clubs, book clubs, book clubs!

My schedule has been blooming with with book clubs lately. Last Thursday, I met with the book club at the Pikes Peak Towers, a seniors high rise complex in Colorado Springs. Members were in their 60s, 70s and 80s and were all very alert and astute. And it was a good-looking bunch, too, as you can see from the photo! They fired questions at me faster than I could answer them, and we had a lively discussion about my books and the writing life.

I had so much fun with the group that I recommended they contact a couple of author friends of mine who live nearby to ask them to meet with them, too. Since the group checked copies of my books out of the local library to read before I came, and most are on a limited, fixed income, I didn't expect any sales. I was pleasantly surprised, however, when some members bought personalized autographed copies from me.

Then last Friday, I met with a small book club in Colorado Springs, whose organizer is a friend of the owner of a local independent bookstore that hosted me for signings of A Real Basket Case and To Hell in a Handbasket. It's great how word-of-mouth about my books is spreading in my home town, at least! Again the discussion was very lively. One of the members had self-published a book, so it was interesting to compare the processes of traditional and self publishing. I hope I convinced her to join Pikes Peak Writers and that my promotion tips will be useful to her.

Soon, my own book club will be holding its meeting. We read literary, mainstream, and women's fiction books, primarily, with an occasional nonfiction thrown in. Being a member of this book club stretches my reading beyond the mysteries that are my typical fare and gives me a chance to drink wine and gossip with friends from my neighborhood--and discuss some good books, too! This month we will discuss The Faith Club, A Muslim, A Christian, A Jew--Three Women Search for Understanding. This is a pretty meaty book about religion that pulls no punches, so it I'm sure it will make for a very interesting discussion. Of course, that's why we picked it! Next month, we're reading Tallgrass by a Colorado author, Sandra Dallas.