What Disappears will be published by Regal House on May 17, in both a paperback and special collector’s edition, available for pre-order now. The in-person launch will be at Book Passage in Corte Madera on Saturday, May 28th, at 4:00. Please come support this fabulous independent bookstore that has continued to serve as a resource for Bay Area readers and writers these many years! How wonderful it will be to see each other again, face to face, rather than on Zoom! The Book Passage in-person event will be a joint birthday party, for me and my novel, which has been over four decades in the making. Cake and wine will be served.
I’m especially thrilled to be able to launch my slowly gestated fourth novel alongside the commemorative Pinot gris from Roden Wines (which snagged three medals—the double- gold, silver, and bronze—for the three wines my talented husband submitted to the 2022 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition). Our regional newspaper, The Press Democrat, published a beautiful, lushly illustrated story in their Towns section on Sunday, April 17th about my books and Wayne’s wines.
Photo by John Burgess for the Press Democrat
Michele Berk, the producer who optioned Vivaldi’s Virgins for a mini-series last year, has snagged a brilliant director, Agnieszka Holland, for the project. I’m brushing up my Italian—and secretly hoping to read for a bit part!
Through the magic of AI, my talented cousin in Norway, Karyn Seroussi, re-made one of my Facebook photos as an 18th century Italian work of art.
After all my long years of writing poetry pretty much in obscurity, my career as a poet got a great big boost last year. The chapbook of poems I wrote in Greece in 2019, The Light on Sifnos, was awarded the 2020 Blue Light Press Poetry Prize. Garrison Keillor recorded five of my poems and featured them on The Writer’s Almanac. And a poem of mine was published as a full-page spread in the May 2022 issue of Scientific American (with many thanks to their curator, the wonderful writer Dava Sobel—and the inspiration of my son).
On May 1st I’ll be one of three poets at a virtual event streamed from Asheville, North Carolina, by Malaprop’s Bookstore. The event is free—but you need to sign up to get the Zoom link.
I’ll be Grace Cavalieri’s guest on her long-running program from the Library of Congress, The Poet and the Poem, on Monday, May 2nd, to talk about the novel and probably all sorts of other things. Grace always asks the most outrageous questions! She knows this novel—as well as my poetry—inside and out. The program will be available in perpetuity as an Apple Podcast.
On May 15th at 3:00, I’ll be part of another trio of poets for the Second Sunday Poetry Series, also streaming as a virtual event. Sign up in advance to get the Zoom link.
Photograph courtesy of novelist and ex-ballerina Judith Lindbergh
And from the New York branch of the Historical Novel Society, a virtual event on my actual pub date, May 17th:
Ballet memoirist Gavin Larsen and ballet podcast host Clara Peterson will lead a discussion of the pain and glory of a life in ballet, and the long research and emotional journey needed to bring the fictional and historical characters of What Disappears so vividly to life for the reader. The panel will answer audience questions at the end.
May 17th at 6 pm EST
Register for zoom link at: HNS-NYC@mail.com
Malaprop’s Bookstore is hosting me a second time next month, in an event for What Disappears on May 24th. I’ll be appearing in conversation with my amazing new friend, Gavin Larson, author of the award-winning memoir, Being a Ballerina: The Power and Perfection of a Life in Dance. The sign-up link for that one will be available on Malaprop’s website (and mine) very shortly!
In case you haven’t already heard me shouting this from the rooftops... my son Julian earned his PhD in Mechanical Engineering last December from the University of Colorado, Boulder. He’s beginning a two-year post-doc this summer in the wind energy department of Danish Technical University.
There are additional live and virtual events that will take place (some of them in May). I’ll post more information as I get the posters and signup links on my News & Media Links page. I’m also planning some give-aways! Sign up here.