Great Events by Booksellers & Book Lovers

For the paperback release of Amity & Sorrow, I have been thoroughly spoiled – and I’ve loved every minute of it!  Lovely booksellers have gathered their book clubs together for cake feasts in Wallingford, for themed cocktails and canapes in St. Anne’s, and for wine and great chat in Lytham.  The lovely librarians of Lancashire and Canterbury have moved all their shelves around and unfolded their chairs to host reading and discussions for their readers.  This coming Thursday, the wonderful Firestation Arts Centre in Windsor is hosting a Book Swap with me and Tinder author Morgan McCarthy, an evening of book chats, homemade cakes, and the opportunity to swap books you love with other readers.  Again and again, I am delighted and impressed by the creativity and enthusiasm of book people, from the owners of splendid independent shops that are at the very hearts of their communities to libraries, big and small, finding innovative ways to reach readers.  The press is full of doom and gloom about books, but I don’t see it.  I see rooms full of readers, buzzing about books.  I see passion and drive in the people who order books, who sell them and shelve them.  I see great initiatives like “Books Are My Bag” – and they sure are mine.

Books are only hunks of paper if they’re not being read – it’s reading that turns them into stories.    Special thanks to Storytellers Inc., St. Anne’s; The Wallingford Bookshop, Oxfordshire; Plackitt & Booth, Lytham; Harbour Books, Whitstable; Lancashire County Council and the lovely libraries of Kirkham, Thornton, Ansdall, and Canterbury Council and The Beaney House of Art and Knowledge for inviting me in to meet your readers. I am one grateful and happy writer.