What I’m Writing…
I have 3 essays coming out in the next month and I’ll be sure to post links for them once they’re published. It’s been so lovely spending afternoons writing on topics as diverse as temperature blankets, WWI trench art, and reading to my kids.
What’s really taking up a lot of my time is filling my calendar with book events! One and sometimes two a day in May.
Books tours are always heady times. After years of sitting alone and writing a novel, you get to see it in bookstores across the country, meet people who have read it, talk endlessly about it, and also visit cities you love. Powell’s Books in Portland, OR; Elliott Bay Bookstore in Seattle; Books and Books in Miami. But so many favorites are gone now, like A Clean Well Lighted Place in San Francisco, Cody’s in Berkeley, Dutton’s in LA… Happily, new independent bookstores keep opening too!
What’s your favorite indie bookstore?
Exhausting and exhilarating, a big envelope full of plane tickets and a complicated schedule that included local NPR interviews and morning television shows. People, called escorts, were actually hired to pick writers up at the airport and bring them to all their events.
And I’m about to enter another heady time! This jam packed book tour starts May 4 at the Providence Public Library at 1:00 with Sally Hepworth.
I’ll also be at the Newburyport Literay Festival with Luanne Rice the weekend before. Here’s the whole schedule. If I’m coming to a bookstore or library near you, please come and say hi!
What I’m knitting…
Do you remember last time I posted a picture of some gorgeous Purl Soho Fiddlehead in Spring Onion? That secret project (shhh! It’s a gift!) is coming along nicely. I’m almost finished with the increases and then will start the decreases.
And I’ve finished the hem on my sweater so will be knitting in the round for a long time before the challenge of the intricate yoke begins.
What I’m Thinking About…
Giveaways!
In fact, two great giveaways!
A pivotal character in The Stolen Child is a French female artist in 1917. So the first giveaway is for these gorgeous art supplies and a signed copy of The Stolen Child.
All you have to do to enter is sign up for this newsletter beginning April 14. So if you’re not yet a subscriber, now’s the time!
The second giveaway is thanks to Bookreporter.com. They are giving away 25 copies of THE STOLEN CHILD!
Book reporters says:
This week, we kicked off a new contest for Ann Hood’s upcoming novel, THE STOLEN CHILD. This future Bets On title is about an unlikely duo who ventures through France and Italy to solve the mystery of a child’s fate.
Details are here!
And also…
We returned from our trip to Patzcuaro Mexico to an abundance of tulips!
Not only are tulips my favorite flower, but Michael and I got married in Abingdon Square Park in front of nearly 10000 tulips seven years ago tomorrow! Happy Anniversary to us!
Thank you for reading Three Things for Mid-April! Hope to see you here in a couple weeks.
—Ann
I love them all! But Powells is the best. My son lives in Portland so we visit often. Good luck with your tour.
My favorite independent bookstore in Phoenix is Changing Hands. In Michigan, my favorite independent bookstore is Mclean and Eakin in Petosky. Why aren't you coming to my favorites??? ):