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5 tips for tackling life challenges I learned from Louise Penny on HER book tour

7/17/2019

15 Comments

 
My wish to see my one of my favorite authors came true this summer.  I was one of the more than 400 people who packed North Carolina State University’s auditorium to see Canadian writer Louise Penny.  The Washington Post lauds her books as being "review-proof," that desired literary category when fans buy books on pre-release and without any reviews.  

I expected insider tidbits and a pitch for her new book,
A Better Man, the 15th of her Inspector Gamache detective series.  But I was wrong.  Penny offered something a million times better.  

Read on for her insights into life and her writing journey that will touch your heart. And for an extra treat, scroll to the end of this post to hear a preview of
A Better Man, read by Robert Bathurst via McMillan Audio on Sound Cloud.
5 Tips for Tackling Life Challenges I Learned from Louise Penny on Book Tour ~ catmichaelswriter.com

​
​Louise Penny does not need book tours. Her top-sellers generate buzz and massive sales months before release.  But she loves touring and meeting people she tells the packed audience waiting for her in the McKimmon Conference Center on a hot summer evening. 
​
5 Tips for Tackling Life Challenges I Learned from Louise Penny on Book Tour ~ catmichaelswriter.comLouise Penny: Raleigh, North Carolina - June 2019
She is taller than I imagined. Mid-length gray hair swinging in a tidy bob above a sleeveless frock.  

The wisdom and warmth in her writing shines through on stage in the relaxed way she speaks to the crowd like old friends  

And she is funny!  Bubbling-over and  effervescent funny like a shaken can of Dr. Pepper. 

​Adoring fans clap wildly.

​“No part of me takes this for granted,” she thanks us with a cordial smile, hand to heart in appreciation.  “It’s been a grind to get here.”

​And then she tells her story.


1. Everybody Has to Start Somewhere
​
Penny dreamed of being a famous author with book tours, private jets, and Oprah as her BFF, but it was a hard road to get there. 
 
After finishing her first Inspector Gamache book in 2005, Still Life, at age 45, she called her publisher to ask about her book tour.  “Who is this?” the publisher first wanted to know.

When Penny explained she was his new author, the publisher said, “No tour for you. Nobody will come [because they don’t know you.]” 

​Cue the bursting bubble!

 
Discouraged but unwilling to quit, she and husband Michael headed to McDonald’s to discuss how they would tour every library and bookstore they could find on their own. 
5 Tips for Tackling Life Challenges I Learned from Louise Penny on Book Tour ~ catmichaelswriter.com
Cat's spot at front of check-in queue

​For the first three years, nobody came to her events. “It was all part of the long-range plan,” Penny quipped.  “Who wants readers anyway!”

​I'm remembering major distress at my first kid lit book event. No child showed until Tyler and his mom walked through the door.  They stayed AND bought my books.  Thank you, Tyler!  Thank you, Mom!

2. Face Your Fears --- Even Spiders!

Penny was afraid of many things as a child: spiders, holes, night and more.  She preferred to be alone in her bedroom with a book.  (Her husband dubbed her a horizontalist.)  
 
The writing bug hit when 8-year-old Penny read Charlotte’s Web and fell in love with the spider, a creature that once terrified her.  Her ah-ha moment came as she realized books had the power to change lives, and Louise Penny wanted to be a storyteller with that kind of power.

But new anxieties took hold as an adult.  Afraid of failing as a novelist, her career took a side route in journalism and writing for the CBC.  After burning out covering Quebec's bitter  separatist debate, her husband suggested she quit work to write novels. ​

Her ah-ha moment came
as she realized that
"books had the power to change lives."

Five years of writer’s block ensued.  Penny experienced “overwhelming paralysis.”  She was “not trying to write because of fear [of failing as a writer].”
 
A cascade of unplanned events finally stopped this cycle.

3. It Takes A Village

First, Penny moved south of Montreal to a small Canadian village that morphed into the inspiration for Three Pines, the quirky village setting of her novels.  “People visit there and know I have no imagination,” she laughed.  

Next, Penny met monthly at the village bistro with Les Girls, a group of creative women who shared their processes and struggles.  

The author discovered that writing was a process.  It was not just sitting down and immediately getting  “everything right and perfect the first time.”  
 
She also saw that her friends' huge successes and failures that did not kill them. What happened, good or bad, did not define them. 
5 Tips for Tackling Life Challenges I Learned from Louise Penny on Book Tour ~ catmichaelswriter.com
Photo from Louise Penny Facebook Page: Fans pose for Louise - Raleigh, NC

4. Write What You Love

The final push to overcome writer's block came as she noticed stacks of crime fiction on her bedside table. Voila! She had her niche.  

Penny never expected to be published, so she wrote her first novel just for herself.  Something she'd love to read and have flat out fun writing.  She filled her tale with people and places she enjoyed.  Modeled her Inspector Gamache protagonist after someone she’d want to marry. 
 
It was just after the 911 terrorist attacks when Penny sketched a map of Three Pines, complete with its bookstore, bistro and bakery her readers adore. The world might feel vulnerable and unsafe after 911 “but in Three Pines, you are not alone,” Penny reminds us.   

5. Be OK with "Soft and Smelly"
​ 
​
Her first book, Still Life, was magic, but the publisher wanted another in a year.  Penny panicked and feared more writing blocks.  She turned to a therapist who told her …. “the wrong person is writing the book.  Your critic is writing the book.  Your creative soul has to be in on first draft.”
 
"There has to be that balance 
between planning and having ideas ...
but not over-planning,
There needs space for it to breathe." ​

​Penny realized she was holding on too tight to her novel.

​She needed to let go: “... there has to be that balance between planning it [the book] and having themes and ideas and a plot, but not over-planning….There needs space for it to breathe.  Space for inspiration. Space for the grace notes to come in, and that’s where the surprises happen.”

​The author sets a daily goal of completing 1,000 words for her first draft and accepts that it won't be great.  Penny allows her first drafts to be “soft and smelly.” Re-writes and a great editorial team will polish it later.

My Ah-Ha Moment

A PING! goes off in my writer's brain at soft and smelly.  I've been holding my breath and holding on too tight to my WIP, a women's fiction about the New South and Old South coming together (or not!) in a growing southern town. No wonder those grace notes and surprises are hiding!

5 Tips for Tackling Life Challenges I Learned from Louise Penny on Book Tour ~ catmichaelswriter.comScreen Shot: Top Cat on Louise Penny Facebook Page
Plus, I feel overwhelmed at the thought of crafting  80,000  meaningful words.  (YIKES! - headache coming on here)

Hmmmm...

​Perhaps I'll pull a Penny and write a tale for myself.  
Add characters and plot I'd enjoy reading.  



​​​Remove the pressures.
​See what shakes out.


I listen as Penny answers questions for another 30 minutes, but I'm stuck on soft and smelly.  It's finally a wrap, and the author is off to western North Carolina for another book talk.  

5 Tips for Tackling Life Challenges I Learned from Louise Penny on Book Tour ~ catmichaelswriter.comCat checks into Three Pines
The buzz continues
as the auditorium empties
with excited chatter,
fans hugging their copies of
Penny's newest paperback release, 
Kingdom of the Blind,
purchased at the event.  

​I queue up in the parking lot
and wait my turn for my car to spill into traffic on Western Boulevard ...
with tons to think about 
on the ride home.




Picture

Catch a delicious audio preview
of Penny's newest book,
A Better Man. 
​

Read by Downton Abbey actor Robert Bathurst
 via McMillan Audio on Sound Cloud
HERE

Available in print and audio
at your favorite bookseller

on 27 August 2019.


Your Turn
What's your experience attending book tours as a writer or reader?  Do you find inspiration? Excitement meeting authors, mingling with other readers?  What do you think of the 'soft and smelly' approach for the first time you try anything new?  Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

Catly Notes:
* Thanks to NC State University Libraries and Quail Ridge Books for co-hosting this event.  
*Direct quotes from Louise Penny captured to the best of my ability tapping notes on my mobile while listening to this amazing author. Raleigh, North Carolina, June 2019.
15 Comments

4 Summer Reads to Have You Smiling at the Beach

7/5/2019

14 Comments

 
Ah, summertime, and my book stack is full of guilty pleasures to devour on audio or tablet.  I don't look for heavy or depressing.  Light and happy, please.  A touch of romance.  Well-written oozing with juicy characters.  And the baddie?  Just base enough for a rousing "Boo-Hiss!" and no flinging death across the universe.

I just finished four such books all published within the 12 months or so. Coincidentally, each is written by a woman.  More coincidence, all are penned in first person point-of-view and alternate chapters  between main characters, like a he/she ping-pong match.
​
Kiss Quotient is quite frisky.  
Something in the Water is dark and twisty,  
The Flatshare is fun quirky.
One Day in December is a feel-good you won’t want to end.  
​
​
​Read on to find the publisher's summary of each
and my spoiler-free reasons 
why this quartet tops
​ my summer reading stack.
​
4 Summer Reads to Have You Smiling at the Beach - catmichaelswriter.com
Photo: Pixabay

Kiss Quotient, by Helen Hoag
352 pages, Berkley
4 Summer Reads to Have You Smiling at the Beach ~ catmichaelswriter.com

​Publisher's Summary 
Stella thinks math is the only thing that unites the universe. She comes up with algorithms to predict customer purchases — a job that has given her more money than she knows what to do with, and way less experience in the dating department than the average thirty-year-old.

 
It doesn't help that Stella has Asperger's and French kissing reminds her of a shark getting its teeth cleaned by pilot fish. Her conclusion: she needs lots of practice — with a professional. Which is why she hires escort Michael Phan. The Vietnamese and Swedish stunner can't afford to turn down Stella's offer, and agrees to help her check off all the boxes on her lesson plan — from foreplay to more-than-missionary position...

​
Why I like it
​

Caveat: I turned up the air conditioning, blushed, and was glad no one overheard the audio  as I listened to this book in the car.  I was okay with the content, but some might think Kiss Quotient is, well, too much kissing and not enough quotient. Beyond-bodice-ripping passages alert!  
  
However, I adore Stella, the MC!  She's portrayed brilliantly as a high-functioning Aspie through the lens of author  Helen Hoang, who is also on the Spectrum.  Stella’s perplexities over social situations ring true to the Aspies I supported as their college writing coach. 
 
Minor characters shine in her orbit with smart dialogue.  Some understand Stella.  Others try. A few disrespect her. Best, the male protagonist, the extremely hot Michael Phan, learns from Stella’s goodness and honesty to grow in his own right.  
 
There are a few #MeToo moments in Stella’s work place that crushed me, and I hoped the MC would’ve handled the situations differently. In retrospect, I believe the scenarios were true to the way an Aspie would react.
 
I give Kiss Quotient a Catly thumps up for its #inourownvoice character portrayal and the stamina the narrator had for performing so many blush-worthy scenes in the audiobook.

​
​One Day in December, by Josie Silver

416 pages, Broadway Books
4 Summer Reads to Have You Smiling at the Beach - catmichaelswriter.com
Publisher's Summary
Laurie is pretty sure love at first sight doesn't exist anywhere but the movies. But then, through a misted-up bus window one snowy December day, she sees a man who she knows instantly is the one. Their eyes meet, there's a moment of pure magic...and then her bus drives away.
 
Certain they're fated to find each other again, Laurie spends a year scanning every bus stop and cafe in London for him. But she doesn't find him, not when it matters anyway. Instead they "reunite" at a Christmas party, when her best friend Sarah giddily introduces her new boyfriend to Laurie. It's Jack, the man from the bus. It would be.
​
Why I like it
​

Don't be fooled by this winter-sounding title. Even at the beach in July, One Day in December is a perfect feel-good summertime tale....especially the audiobook that's alternately narrated by Poldark's Demelza (Eleanor Tomlinson) as Laurie and Charlie Anson performing as Jack.  Yum! Their story spans several years, with detours and obstacles that keep them apart and make you want to scream.
 
I adore the sub-plot highlighting strong bonds between Laurie and her BFF, Sarah, who initially falls hard for Jack before Laurie can find him after glimpsing him afar from a bus. Every woman longs for a friendship like Laurie's and Sarah's that stands the tests of time ... and boyfriends!
 
Light. Breezy. Witty. Well-written. Makes the heart smile.  Even though you won’t want the book to end, you’ll cross your fingers for Jack and Laurie until the very last page.
​

Something in the Water, by Catherine Steadman
352 pages, Ballantine Books
A Reese’s Book Club, Hello Sunshine book pick
​
4 Summer Reads to Have You Smiling at the Beach - catmichaelswriter.com
Publisher's Summary
Erin is a documentary filmmaker on the brink of a professional breakthrough, Mark a handsome investment banker with big plans.

Passionately in love, they embark on a dream honeymoon to the tropical island of Bora Bora, where they enjoy the sun, the sand, and each other.

​Then, while scuba diving in the crystal blue sea, they find something in the water. . . .

 
Could the life of your dreams be the stuff of nightmares?

​
Why I like it

The darkest of my summertime picks, Catherine Steadman's voice literally shines throughout this debut novel, a zinger of a psychological thriller.  
 
Yep.  Wary at first because Steadman also narrates this book, BUT what's not to love about an audiobook read and written by Lady Mable Lane Fox of Downtown Abbey, aka Catherine Steadman? Crackling good writer, actor, and narrator!
 
The book grabs you with its opening chapter. No spoiler here. Readers know up front that Erin, the female protagonist, is frantically burying her husband under cover of night. Yikes! Cue the chill bumps. Erin's anxiety jumps off the page as she tackles her gruesome task, and you'll feel it alongside her, too.
 
Here's the mystery: you don't know WHY or HOW Erin gets to this point. Erin doesn't tell you. Steadman subsequently drops clues like break crumbs with a backward telling of what leads up to this event. 
 
From its claustrophobic ocean dive descending to 20 meters in the South Pacific to an explosive ending, the tale kept my earbuds buzzing. Is that final chapter a complete resolution? It's satisfying, but methinks Steadman is leading to a follow up novel. Or at least I hope so. 

The Flatshare,by Beth O’Leary
400 pages, Quercus
​

4 Summer Reads to Have You Smiling at the Beach - catmichaelswriter.com
Publisher's Summary
​
Tiffy Moore needs a cheap flat, and fast. Leon Twomey works nights and needs cash.

Their friends think they’re crazy, but it’s the perfect solution: Leon occupies the one-bed flat while Tiffy’s at work in the day, and she has the run of the place the rest of the time. 

 
But with obsessive ex-boyfriends, demanding clients at work, wrongly imprisoned brothers and, of course, the fact that they still haven’t met yet...

...they’re about to discover that if you want the perfect home you need to throw the rulebook out the window.

​
​Why I like it

FlatShare hits all my sweet spots. You root for Tiff and Leon because of their quirks and vulnerabilities. Minor characters in their circle sparkle, too, like the eccentric author of Crochet Your Way, who insists on having Tiff as her crochet model.  You'll want Tiff’s awesome BFFs and Leon’s brother on your team, trust me! 
 
Big fan here of plot devices that develop the MCs slow-moving relationship. Tiff and Leon scribble Post-it notes to each other!  Super-cute messages become longer and more personal, eventually covering every surface in their shared space. You’re reading those Post-its as Tiff and Leon reveal themselves, and you’ll root for them on their bumpy road to self-awareness and growth. 

Scripted like a screenplay written in present tense, Leon’s chapters intrigue me.  They're like enhanced stage directions in a stream of consciousness without any “said” dialogue tags, as in this excerpt when Leo phones his mother as his night shift ends to deliver bad news:

Mam: Shall I call Sal? ****
Leon: No, no.  I’m dealing with it.
Long miserable silence.  We wallow in it.
Mam, with effort: Sorry, sweetheart, how are you?
 
Return home afterward to find pleasant surprise: home-baked oat bars on sideboard….I see the note beside the tray.
​

Help yourself!  
Hope you have a good day/night.
​Tiffyxx


An excellent development. Will definitely endure high levels of clutter…and 350 pounds per month AND
 free food.
****Excerpt from The Flatshare, by Beth O'Leary 

While Flatshare is a feel-good tale, it’s also laced with heavier themes. Leon’s nights with his hospice patients both uplift and sadden. No spoilers, but O’Leary sprinkles wrongful imprisonment and emotional abuse into the mix.  She makes you think but never brings you down.  
 
And that’s the essence of my perfect summer read.

Your Turn
Thanks learning about my beach read faves.  Have you read any of my quartet?  Any interest you (it's okay if not!)?  What's on your TBR stack this summer?  Please share in the comment section.  Always looking for the next great book here. 

btw....I'm on Goodreads.  You?  Would love to connect with you there and share more bookishness -:D.  

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    Cat Michaels

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  • Welcome!
  • Cat's Books
    • Sweet T and the Turtle Team >
      • Just Between Sam and Me
    • Finding Fuzzy: A You-Decide Tale of a Lost Friend
    • Sweet T and the North Wind
    • The Magical Aquarium
  • Cat's Corner: Blogging About Books, Writing, and More
  • Meet Cat
  • FREE STUFF in the Kids' Zone
  • Contact Cat