Archives - Weekly Update

I was under the weather this week, and I realized that books make a great distraction when one feels like this. So I decided to treat myself to Graydon Carter’s memoir, WHEN THE GOING WAS GOOD: An Editor’s Adventures During the Last Golden Age of Magazines, which captured his time at Vanity Fair, along with other magazines. Longtime readers here know that I spent 17 years at Condé Nast, and some of those years overlapped with Graydon’s time at Vanity Fair. He captured so much of what I remember about creating something monthly, not weekly or (the way that things happen these days) hourly. It’s a terrific behind-the-scenes look at how magazines were nurtured and made, including a description of a wall in his office where the content for each month was juggled --- what makes it in the issue, and what is left behind.

The other morning, I went to drop off some books for contest winners at our local post office. As I pulled up, I saw a flock of geese squawking their way around the place. They were making a lot of noise. This is right up there with the morning that someone had to get the sheep out of the road so I could go to work. I love these moments of small-town Americana. I wonder if I could get the geese to bring the books to the post office for me. Now that would be perfect!

Wow, this has been one great week, with lots of wonderful author experiences.

On Monday night, I had the pleasure of interviewing Marie Benedict about THE QUEENS OF CRIME (an upcoming Bookreporter.com Bets On pick) at the Brielle Public Library. To give those of you who have not attended a book event a look at the excitement behind the scenes, above you can see Marie and me before we headed on stage; me with Peter Albertelli, the owner of BookTowne in Manasquan, NJ, the bookseller for the event; and Marie as she's getting ready to sign books. She loved how they had the books all lined up!

There were a lot fewer cars in the parking lot at the health club the other morning. As I signed in, I quipped that the New Year’s resolutions to work out have slipped by the wayside, along with Dry January. Luckily, we do not ascribe to these trends with reading!

This week, Tom (Editorial Director Tom as opposed to Husband Tom) and I attended a couple of excellent publisher previews. Hearing authors talk about their books brings a new dimension to their work. We left both sessions talking about ideas for sharing them with you.